Description:

This policy ensures that there are no secrets in EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Configuration. This helps to mitigate the risk of sensitive information being exposed to unauthorized users.

Rationale:

EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Configuration is a set of instructions that AWS uses to create and manage EC2 instances. If you store secrets, such as passwords or API keys, in the Launch Configuration, they could be exposed to unauthorized users.

Impact:

If you store secrets in EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Configuration, unauthorized users could gain access to sensitive information. This could lead to data breaches, intellectual property theft, or other security incidents.

Default Value:

By default, AWS does not recommend storing secrets in EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Configuration.

Pre-requisites:

  • Access to the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI
  • The ability to manage EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Configurations

Remediation Steps:

  1. Open the AWS Management Console or the AWS CLI.
  2. Go to the EC2 Auto Scaling console.
  3. Click on Launch Configurations.
  4. Select the Launch Configuration that you want to check for secrets.
  5. Click on the Configuration tab.
  6. In the User Data section, look for any secrets that may be stored in the configuration.
  7. If you find any secrets, remove them from the configuration.

Test Plan:

  1. Verify that the secrets have been removed from the configuration.
  2. Try to start an EC2 instance from the Launch Configuration.
  3. Verify that the instance is started successfully and that the secrets are not present.

Implementation Plan:

  1. Follow the remediation steps above to implement the policy.
  2. Test the policy to make sure that it is working as expected.

AWS CLI Process:

To remove secrets from an EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Configuration using the AWS CLI, you can use the following command:

aws autoscaling update-launch-configuration --launch-configuration-name <launch-configuration-name> --user-data <user-data-without-secrets>

Using AWS GUI:

To remove secrets from an EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Configuration using the AWS GUI, you can follow these steps:

  1. Go to the AWS Management Console.
  2. Click on the EC2 Auto Scaling tab.
  3. Click on Launch Configurations.
  4. Select the Launch Configuration that you want to check for secrets.
  5. Click on the Configuration tab.
  6. In the User Data section, delete any secrets that may be stored in the configuration.

Backout Plan:

To restore the secrets to the EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Configuration, you can use the following command:

aws autoscaling update-launch-configuration --launch-configuration-name <launch-configuration-name> --user-data <user-data-with-secrets>

Note:

  • This policy only applies to EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Configurations.
  • If you have any questions about this policy, please contact your AWS administrator.

Reference:

  • EC2 Auto Scaling documentation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/autoscaling/ec2/userguide/launch-configurations.html

Section 2:

  • Tags: security, secrets, EC2, Auto Scaling
  • Keywords: secrets, EC2 Auto Scaling, AWS policy