Data Security in the AWS Cloud
Users, Roles, and Rights
In the AWS cloud, the simplest hierarchy level is that of accounts containing users who are assigned authorizations within the account, such as the ability to create and start VMs or databases. The IAM configuration area is used to manage users or admins.
AWS recommends setting up accounts with sub-accounts. This allows the AWS customer to impose company-wide policies so that even an admin with full rights for a sub-account cannot violate the organizational rules.
When generating an account, AWS also creates the superuser's credentials for this account. By clicking on the user list, the admin will find this superuser. The user has full access to all functions offered by AWS (the exception would be a sub-account with an organizational policy). If the admin creates a second user here, the user is only granted explicitly assigned rights. When creating a new user, you are first prompted for the user name and details of how this user will log on, via CLI/API and/or the Web Console.
Next, the admin assigns rights by selecting from existing user groups (for example S3 Admins, Networkadmins, etc.), assigning roles (S3 Admin, Networkadmin), or as individual assignments at policy level. If you really want to make your life complicated, you can also define an arbitrary combination of these rights for the new user.
To avoid selecting overly liberal permissions by mistake, a permissions boundary can be defined within which, say, the security administrator responsible for AWS restricts permissions in a policy. If a conflict then arises between this limitation and the assigned rights, the limitation wins.
Rights to Resources
AWS controls access through policies. A policy consists of a set of statements, each granting one or more rights to a resource (with wild cards) to a role or user. Optional conditions are possible. Listing 1 shows a section of a policy in JSON format [1].
Listing 1
JSON Policy Definition
01 { 02 "Version": "2012-10-17", 03 { 04 "Sid": "s3zugriff", 05 "Effect": "Allow", 06 "Action": [ 07 "s3:List*", 08 "s3:Get*" 09 ], 10 "Resource": [ 11 "arn:aws:s3:::confidential-data", 12 "arn:aws:s3:::confidential-data/*" 13 ], 14 "Condition": {"Bool": {"aws:MultiFactorAuthPresent": "true"}} 15 } 16 ] 17 }
The Sid
field contains a name for the permission, but it is optional. Effect
allows or denies access. The Action
field contains a list of the API access instances at issue. In the example, these are all listing and downloading operations in the S3 API. The Resource
field contains a list of targets for the operations, formulated as Amazon Resource Names (ARNs). The example shows a bucket named confidential-data
and its contents. If you do not include the last field Condition
, then the rule would be universal.
The condition in line 14 ensures multi-factor authentication of the user for this rule to apply. Depending on the logic to be mapped, the admin either writes individual policies in this form and combines them or bundles several statements into a single policy.
The Right to Interact
Policies are not only used for user access controls, but also to govern the interaction between AWS entities. A lambda function wanting to send a Simple Notification Service (SNS) [2], for example, needs a role that contains a policy with the corresponding rights in the SNS area.
Policies determine which operations are allowed on which objects. The admin assigns them to users or functions. In regard to the CIA triad, a policy controls who can access the data within the created AWS objects. This does not consider the confidentiality and integrity objectives in relation to the AWS administrators.
« Previous 1 2 3 4 Next »
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
![Learn More](https://www.linux-magazine.com/var/linux_magazin/storage/images/media/linux-magazine-eng-us/images/misc/learn-more/834592-1-eng-US/Learn-More_medium.png)
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.