How to Audit AWS Security Groups

You can audit security groups using the AWS Firewall Manager tool. On the Firewall Manager dashboard, you can identify weak rules that allow the most traffic. The next step is to limit these rules. The purpose of auditing is to reduce external attacks.

Finding Existing Rules

The Firewall Manager has content audit security group policies that list all company security group rules. These policies and rules span across all customer-created accounts in a cloud organization.

The tool forms baseline policies that act as references. Baseline policies ensure new apps aren’t too permissive. You can auto-delete rules that don’t meet the baseline criteria.

How Do You Check that A User Is Accessing A Security Group?

If a user isn’t using a security group, it’s either redundant or unused. You can distinguish each by auditing them.

• Audit Unused Security Groups

An unused security group is usually inactive for a specific time. In policies, you can specify a minimum amount of time. This number will determine an unused security group. A common digit is zero. So if a security group falls to zero, Firewall Manager will auto-delete the security group.

• Audit Redundant Security Groups

A redundant security group will have similar policies with an AWS VPC instance. Redundant security groups will have a conflict. Firewall Manager will identify them and declare them unused.

Audit AWS Security Groups with Third-Party Tools

AWS has an infinite number of third-party tools to help you audit security groups. However, each tool has unique functionalities. When you’re just starting, tools can help you automate auditing procedures, save time, and scale faster.

nOps helps AWS users with frequent auditing of their security groups. With the Security and Compliance service, you can identify risks and limit applications that are too permissive. Other benefits of the service are:

• Reducing the risks of an external attack by continually fixing flaws in your system. This keeps your infrastructure safe and secure.
• Auditing helps you stay compliant and meet several industry standards, such as SOC 2 and HIPAA.
• Using machine learning to identify and send alarms in case of a threat. Users can respond early enough and prevent the threat from escalating.
• Presenting an overall health status of your cloud infrastructure. The scan identifies resources that need optimization.
• The dashboard presents all security elements you need from Identity Access Management (IAM), through Multifactor Authentication (MFA), to change management. Every feature helps you restrict rules that are too permissive.

Use Audit Results to Reduce Risk

When it comes to security, small changes affect the overall security status. Each audit will have a list of action items to help fix flaws. Firewall Manager’s configuration sends all audit results to Security Hub. It’s an all-in-one view of security audit results. These could even be from third-party security tools. 

It ranks resources according to the number of findings. This helps users prioritize implementation, with high-risk findings corrected first. To improve your cloud security, implement these audit findings. nOps helps AWS users increase security and compliance by auditing AWS security groups.

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