Serverless deploy fails with strange error

we are using AWS code pipeline + code build to invoke serverless.
We usually install the latest using “npm install -g serverless”.
Today the build failed with this error:

Running command serverless deploy --region ap-southeast-1 --verbose
Serverless: Packaging service…
Serverless: Excluding development dependencies…

 Serverless Error --------------------------------------- 
 
 Access Denied 
 
 Get Support -------------------------------------------- 
  Docs: docs.serverless.com 
  Bugs: github.com/serverless/serverless/issues 
  Issues: forum.serverless.com 
 
 Your Environment Information --------------------------- 
  Operating System: linux 
  Node Version: 12.16.1 
  Framework Version: 1.69.0 
  Plugin Version: 3.6.9 
  SDK Version: 2.3.0 
  Components Version: 2.30.4 

Command did not exit successfully serverless deploy --region ap-southeast-1 --verbose exit status 1

You may need to add an access token for your Serverless account to the deployment environment. There are docs here that describe how: https://www.serverless.com/framework/docs/dashboard/cicd/running-in-your-own-cicd/

Try to downgrade node to 10.19.0