Automate Governance Checks Explained

Key Concepts

• Governance: The framework of policies, processes, and controls that ensure compliance and operational efficiency.
• AWS Config: A service that assesses, audits, and evaluates the configurations of AWS resources.
• AWS Lambda: A serverless compute service that runs code in response to events.
• AWS CloudFormation: A service to model, provision, and manage AWS resources using templates.
• AWS Organizations: A service to manage multiple AWS accounts and apply policies across them.

Detailed Explanation

Governance

Governance refers to the framework of policies, processes, and controls that ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and operational efficiency. In AWS, governance involves setting up automated checks to enforce these policies and controls across your environment.

AWS Config

AWS Config is a service that continuously monitors and records the configuration changes of your AWS resources. It allows you to assess, audit, and evaluate the configurations of your resources against predefined rules. AWS Config helps in ensuring that your resources comply with your governance policies.

AWS Lambda

AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers. You can use Lambda functions to automate governance checks. For example, you can create a Lambda function to scan your S3 buckets for public access and automatically apply necessary security measures.

AWS CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation allows you to model and provision your AWS resources using infrastructure as code. You can use CloudFormation templates to automate the deployment of resources that comply with your governance policies. This ensures that your infrastructure is consistently configured according to your governance requirements.

AWS Organizations

AWS Organizations is a service for managing multiple AWS accounts. It allows you to create groups of accounts and apply policies across them. AWS Organizations helps in centralizing the management of governance policies and ensuring consistency across multiple accounts.

Examples and Analogies

Example: AWS Config Rule

Here is an example of an AWS Config rule to ensure that EC2 instances are tagged with a specific key-value pair:

{
    "ConfigRuleName": "ec2-instance-tag-compliance",
    "Description": "Checks whether EC2 instances are tagged with a specific key-value pair.",
    "Scope": {
        "ComplianceResourceTypes": [
            "AWS::EC2::Instance"
        ]
    },
    "Source": {
        "Owner": "AWS",
        "SourceIdentifier": "REQUIRED_TAGS"
    },
    "InputParameters": {
        "tag1Key": "Environment",
        "tag1Value": "Production"
    }
}
    

Example: AWS Lambda Function

Here is an example of an AWS Lambda function to scan S3 buckets for public access:

import boto3

def lambda_handler(event, context):
    s3 = boto3.client('s3')
    response = s3.list_buckets()
    for bucket in response['Buckets']:
        acl = s3.get_bucket_acl(Bucket=bucket['Name'])
        if 'AllUsers' in acl['Grants']:
            print(f"Public access detected in bucket: {bucket['Name']}")
    

Example: AWS CloudFormation Template

Here is an example of an AWS CloudFormation template to create a secure S3 bucket:

Resources:
  SecureS3Bucket:
    Type: AWS::S3::Bucket
    Properties:
      BucketName: "my-secure-bucket"
      PublicAccessBlockConfiguration:
        BlockPublicAcls: true
        IgnorePublicAcls: true
        BlockPublicPolicy: true
        RestrictPublicBuckets: true
      BucketEncryption:
        ServerSideEncryptionConfiguration:
          - ServerSideEncryptionByDefault:
              SSEAlgorithm: "AES256"
    

Analogy: Governance as Building Codes

Think of governance as building codes that ensure safety and structural integrity in construction. Just as building codes define rules for constructing safe and compliant buildings, governance policies define rules for maintaining secure and compliant systems. AWS Config is like an inspector who checks if the building (AWS resources) meets the codes. AWS Lambda is like the alarm system that triggers when an unauthorized entry is detected. AWS CloudFormation is like the blueprint that ensures all doors and windows are securely installed. AWS Organizations is like a management company that oversees multiple buildings, ensuring they all follow the same codes.