Tutorial / Cram Notes
AWS Config rules enable you to automate the evaluation of recorded configurations against desired configurations. You can use predefined AWS managed rules or create your own custom rules to evaluate whether your AWS resources comply with your organization’s policies.
Steps to Create AWS Config Rules for Compliance Monitoring
1. Setting up AWS Config
Before creating AWS Config rules, ensure that AWS Config is enabled and properly configured to record all the necessary resource types in your AWS account.
2. Choosing a Rule Type
Decide whether you can use a managed rule that AWS provides or if you need to create a custom rule. Managed rules are pre-built by AWS and can be customized with input parameters, whereas custom rules are created using AWS Lambda functions for specific use cases.
3. Creating a Managed Rule
To create a managed rule, follow these steps:
- Go to the AWS Config console.
- Select “Rules” in the navigation pane, then click “Add rule”.
- Search for and select an appropriate AWS managed rule.
- Configure the rule with the appropriate trigger types (configuration changes, periodic), input parameters, and scope (resource types, tags).
- Save the rule. AWS Config evaluates your resources against the criteria specified.
4. Creating a Custom Rule
To create a custom rule, perform the following steps:
- Define the Lambda function that contains the evaluation logic for your custom rule.
- In the AWS Config console, select “Rules” and click “Add rule”.
- Choose “Add custom rule” and provide the Amazon Resource Name (ARN) of your Lambda function.
- Configure the trigger type and other necessary parameters, including the rule scope.
5. Monitoring Compliance
Once AWS Config rules are set up, they automatically evaluate the configuration items and present the compliance status as compliant, non-compliant, or not applicable. You can view the compliance status on the AWS Config console.
Examples of Config Rules in Security Context
- s3-bucket-logging-enabled: Checks that logging is enabled for you S3 buckets.
- encrypted-volumes: Checks whether EBS volumes that are in an attached state are encrypted.
- iam-password-policy: Evaluates your AWS account’s password policy against the specified requirements.
- acm-certificate-expiration-check: Checks whether AWS Certificate Manager certificates in your account are within a specified number of days from expiration.
Best Practices for Config Rules
- Prioritize Rules: Focus on key compliance requirements specific to your organization or industry standards.
- Regular Reviews: Periodically review and update Config rules to adapt to new compliance requirements and AWS services.
- Use Tags: Apply tags to your AWS Config rules for better organization and to identify the purpose and ownership of rules.
Conclusion
AWS Config rules serve as a powerful compliance tool. By setting up and managing these rules, you can continuously monitor the configuration of your AWS resources to ensure they adhere to your organization’s security guidelines. This vigilance is critical for maintaining a secure and compliant AWS environment, an essential competency validated by the AWS Certified Security – Specialty (SCS-C02) exam.
AWS services evolve constantly, and it is critical for individuals preparing for the AWS Certified Security – Specialty exam to keep abreast of the latest documentation and best practices related to AWS Config rules. Regular hands-on practice, including setting up and managing AWS Config rules, is recommended.
Practice Test with Explanation
(True/False) AWS Config provides a detailed view of all the resources in your AWS account, including their configuration history, configuration changes, and relationships with other AWS resources.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: AWS Config provides a detailed view of the resources in the user’s AWS account, giving insights into configuration history, changes, and the relationships between AWS resources.
(Single Select) What AWS service is primarily used for evaluating the configuration settings of your AWS resources for compliance against desired configurations?
- AWS CloudTrail
- AWS Config
- AWS Inspector
- AWS Control Tower
Answer: AWS Config
Explanation: AWS Config is the service that evaluates AWS resource configurations and checks for compliance against desired configurations.
(True/False) AWS Config rules can automatically remediate noncompliant resources without any manual intervention.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: AWS Config rules can be set up to trigger automatic remediation actions on noncompliant resources using AWS Systems Manager Automation documents.
(Multiple Select) Which of the following AWS resources can be evaluated by AWS Config rules?
- EC2 Instances
- S3 Buckets
- IAM Users
- DynamoDB Tables
- VPC Peering Connections
Answer: EC2 Instances, S3 Buckets, IAM Users, DynamoDB Tables, VPC Peering Connections
Explanation: AWS Config can evaluate all of these AWS resources and more for compliance with desired configurations.
(True/False) AWS Config rules only support AWS managed rules for compliance evaluation.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: AWS Config supports both AWS managed rules and custom rules that you can create based on specific compliance requirements.
(Single Select) For real-time compliance evaluation, which feature should be enabled in AWS Config?
- Configuration history
- S3 bucket logging
- Configuration stream
- CloudWatch Events
Answer: Configuration stream
Explanation: The configuration stream in AWS Config can deliver configuration changes and compliance events in near real-time.
(True/False) AWS Config rules support only one remediation action per rule.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: AWS Config rules can support multiple remediation actions, making it possible to define several steps for auto-remediation.
(Multiple Select) Which of the following are necessary for the creation of a custom AWS Config rule?
- S3 bucket
- AWS Config role
- AWS Lambda function
- Systems Manager document
Answer: AWS Config role, AWS Lambda function
Explanation: A custom AWS Config rule requires an AWS Lambda function to contain the evaluation logic, and an AWS Config role to give permissions to AWS Config to invoke the Lambda function.
(True/False) Managed AWS Config rules can be set up without writing any code.
- True
- False
Answer: True
Explanation: Managed AWS Config rules are pre-built by AWS and can be deployed without the need for custom code.
(Single Select) AWS recommends which of the following practices for your AWS Config rules?
- Creating one rule to manage all resource types
- Regularly update AWS managed rules to match new AWS features
- Reviewing and adjusting rules as AWS resource configurations evolve
- Disabling rules for infrequently modified resources
Answer: Reviewing and adjusting rules as AWS resource configurations evolve
Explanation: Keeping AWS Config rules up-to-date as resource configurations and compliance requirements evolve is a recommended best practice.
(Multiple Select) What permissions are required by the AWS Config service role?
- Read/write access to all AWS resources
- Permission to invoke AWS Lambda functions
- Permission to publish findings to Amazon SNS
- Full access to Amazon EC2
Answer: Permission to invoke AWS Lambda functions, Permission to publish findings to Amazon SNS
Explanation: The AWS Config service role needs permission to invoke AWS Lambda for custom rule logic execution and to publish findings to Amazon SNS for notifications.
(True/False) AWS Config rules only support the use of AWS Lambda for custom rule logic.
- True
- False
Answer: False
Explanation: While AWS Lambda is commonly used for custom rule logic in AWS Config, you also have the option to integrate other AWS services or even third-party applications via Amazon EventBridge or Amazon SNS.
Interview Questions
What is AWS Config, and how does it help in managing resource compliance?
AWS Config is a service that enables you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your AWS resources. It continuously monitors and records AWS resource configurations and allows you to automate the evaluation of recorded configurations against desired configurations. With AWS Config, you can review changes in configurations and relationships between AWS resources, dive into detailed resource configuration histories, and determine your overall compliance against the configurations specified in your internal guidelines. This helps in identifying noncompliant resources and takes action to bring them back into compliance.
Can you explain what AWS Config rules are and give an example of a rule you might implement?
AWS Config rules are a type of AWS Config resource that represent your desired configuration settings for specific AWS resources or for an entire AWS account. These rules automatically check the configuration of your AWS resources to ensure they comply with your specified policies. An example of a rule might be to check that all Amazon S3 buckets have versioning enabled. This rule ensures data is not lost inadvertently by protecting against accidental overwrites and deletions.
How can you create and manage AWS Config rules?
AWS Config rules can be created and managed through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS SDKs. To create a rule, you define the AWS resources that you want to evaluate and specify the conditions for compliance. You can use predefined, AWS-managed rules or create custom rules using AWS Lambda functions. Once a rule is created, AWS Config runs evaluations and reports on compliance status. These rules can also be edited or deleted as required through the same interfaces.
What are managed AWS Config rules, and when would you use them?
Managed AWS Config rules are predefined, customizable rules that are created and maintained by AWS. They are designed to evaluate whether your AWS resources comply with common best practices and internal policies. You would use managed AWS Config rules because they provide an easy and quick way to get started with compliance checks without having to write your own rules. They cover a broad range of compliance scenarios and can be customized with input parameters to fit specific requirements.
Could you describe custom AWS Config rules and how they differ from managed rules?
Custom AWS Config rules are rules that you define for your own AWS environment using AWS Lambda functions. They differ from managed rules in that they allow for more flexibility and are tailored to specific needs or compliance requirements that are not addressed by the predefined managed rules. Custom rules can be written to evaluate any resource configuration or a combination of configurations across different services, and they can also respond to specific configuration changes that are not included in managed rules.
How does AWS Config track changes to resources over time?
AWS Config continuously monitors and records configuration changes to AWS resources in your account. It maintains a configuration history for each resource so that you can review how resource configurations have changed over time. This includes relationships between resources, allowing you to understand the topology and changes in your AWS environment. The Configuration History file contains details of the configuration changes and is stored in an Amazon S3 bucket for auditing or analysis purposes.
Can you explain the concept of configuration items in AWS Config and why they are important?
Configuration items in AWS Config are point-in-time snapshots of the configurations of AWS resources. They contain important details such as configuration attributes, relationships with other resources, and current configuration state. Configuration items are important because they provide the data necessary for evaluating the compliance of resources against AWS Config rules, and they form the basis for tracking changes and managing resource configurations over time.
What is the role of AWS Config in compliance and auditing within AWS?
AWS Config plays a critical role in compliance and auditing within AWS. It helps organizations track compliance against predefined and custom config rules, streamline auditing efforts by providing a detailed configuration history and changes, and deliver evidence of compliance for regulatory requirements. AWS Config can be integrated with Amazon CloudWatch for notifications and AWS CloudTrail for detailed API auditing, thereby enhancing overall governance and risk management strategies.
How can you remediate noncompliant resources detected by AWS Config?
Noncompliant resources detected by AWS Config can be remediated manually or automatically. For manual remediation, you can take action through the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or APIs based on the noncompliance details reported by AWS Config. Automatic remediation involves setting up AWS Config rules to trigger AWS Systems Manager Automation documents or Lambda functions when a noncompliance is detected. These automated processes can fix the issue without manual intervention, such as attaching missing IAM policies, encrypting unencrypted resources, or configuring security group rules.
Discuss how AWS Config and Amazon CloudWatch work together to ensure resource compliance.
AWS Config and Amazon CloudWatch can work together to enhance resource compliance. AWS Config continuously evaluates the compliance of resources, while Amazon CloudWatch monitors resource performance and system-wide events. By integrating AWS Config rules with CloudWatch Events or Alarms, you can receive notifications or trigger automated actions in response to compliance changes or rule evaluations. This enables you to respond to potential compliance issues promptly, either through alerts or by initiating auto-remediation workflows.
Can AWS Config rules be applied to resources across multiple AWS accounts and regions?
Yes, AWS Config supports multi-account, multi-region data aggregation, allowing you to evaluate your AWS resource compliance centrally. It enables you to aggregate the configuration and compliance data from multiple AWS accounts and regions into a single account so that you can view the compliance status of your resources globally from one place. This is particularly useful for large organizations with a complex AWS footprint, ensuring that governance and compliance requirements are enforced consistently across the entire organization.
Does AWS Config support all AWS resource types for compliance evaluation?
While AWS Config supports many AWS resource types for compliance evaluation, it does not cover every resource type available on AWS. AWS continuously updates the list of supported resource types to expand coverage. When a particular resource type is not supported, you may need to use custom methods, such as scripts or additional monitoring services, to manage compliance for those resources. It is essential to check the AWS Config documentation or the AWS Config console to see the current list of supported resource types.
Great post on AWS Config rules! This is exactly what I needed for my upcoming SCS-C02 exam prep.
Can anyone suggest the best practices for creating custom AWS Config rules?
Very informative. I appreciate the detailed walk-through.
Do I need to use AWS Config rules for all AWS resources?
Thanks for the insights!
Does anyone have experience with AWS Config and IAM policies? I’m finding it a bit challenging to manage.
Outstanding tutorial!
What are some sample use cases for AWS Config rules?