In consultation with Cornell IT Security Office and Cornell financial administrators, two "standard" configurations of AWS accounts have been defined, one for general uses and one for research. Each configuration follows AWS, Cornell, and security best practices. Not all best practices can be implemented by policy and configuration. Individual AWS users also need to follow best practices see the Cloudification Services Tech Blog and AWS IAM best practices documentation.
For details of specific AWS resources created in Cornell AWS accounts, see Resources Created and Managed in Cornell AWS Accounts.
Area | Configuration | Link/Description | General Configuration | Research Configuration |
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Security/Network |
Cornell standard Virtual Private Network configured | See specifics below. See also the blog article The Cornell “Standard” AWS VPC. | y | as needed |
Security/Network | AWS VPC connected to on-campus network | Private on-campus subnets are connected to AWS VPC subnets using an AWS Direct Connect connection from campus to AWS. |
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/directconnect/latest/UserGuide/Welcome.htmlNetwork traffic egress from AWS using the Direct Connect will be billed at a lower rate than egress over the public internet. That rate is the same rate that AWS charges for AWS region-to-region traffic. See Cornell AWS Direct Connect. | y | as needed |
Security/Network | AWS VPC subnets are assigned to managed, private IP spaces | This ensures that Cornell private subnets (on-campus and in AWS) do not overlap and that private subnets are transparently and securely routed to AWS VPC subnets. | y | as needed |
Security/Network | private AWS VPC subnets are provisioned with a NAT Gateway | This provides a secure route to the public internet so that AWS EC2 instances can retrieve software updates and remain un-exposed to the public internet. |
(http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/vpc-nat-gateway.html) http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/VPC_Internet_Gateway.html(Not application to Shared AWS VPC options.) | y | as needed |
Security/Network | Baseline Network ACL configured for all subnets | The baseline NACL allows full access between 10-space and Cornell public IPs, but limits access from the world to ports above 1024 and to 22, 80,443. | y | as needed |
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Security/Business | AWS account integrated with CloudCheckr and Spot.io | CloudCheckr reports provide suggestions for improving security, reducing costs. It also supports detailed reporting based on AWS labels to e.g., divide account charges to multiple Cornell financial accounts within a single Cornell unit |
. http://support.cloudcheckr.com/reports/best-practice-report/ | | | | Business | AWS Cost Explorer access | Each Cornell AWS account has access to the AWS Cost Explorer service to view history and projected costs for that account. Cost Explorer is generally easier to use than CloudCheckr, but it has less flexibility that CloudCheckr and requires AWS account access (something that Cornell financial staff may not want). | y | y |
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Security | AWS CloudTrail enabled for all activity in all regions | CloudTrail logs all AWS API calls in all regions for auditing purposes. |
(https://aws.amazon.com/documentation/cloudtrail/)Config rules monitor infrastructure and will alarm if, e.g., CloudTrail becomes disabled for an account. (https://aws.amazon.com/documentation/config/) |
| y | y |
Security | AWS root account protected with multifactor authentication | root account should not be used for regular administration and the MFA key should be locked in secure location | y | y |
Security | no access keys associated with root account |
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| y | y |
Security | user access controlled by Cornell AD group membership and integrated with Cornell Shibboleth |
http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/shibboleth/; Shibboleth at Cornell Page Cornell Duo (aka Two-Step Login): http://www.it.cornell.edu/cms/services/twostep/howto/twostep_login.cfm | y | y |
Security | baseline IAM password policy configured | The password policy will enforce complex passwords in the rare instances when an IAM user requires a password. | y | y |
Security |
RO Read Only role for AWS resources | This role allows the Cloudification Team to view Cornell AWS accounts while troubleshooting and offering assistance, while ensuring that account owners maintain account integrity. | y | y |
Security | Management Role for AWS Resources | This role allows scripted management of these standard account configurations by the AWS Organization master account. | y | y |
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