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Shared Responsibility Model

Links: 114 AWS SOA Index


Shared Responsibility Model

  • AWS responsibility - Security of the Cloud
    • Protecting infrastructure (hardware, software, facilities, and networking) that runs all the AWS services.
    • Managed services like S3, DynamoDB, RDS, etc.
  • Customer responsibility - Security in the Cloud
    • For EC2 instance, customer is responsible for management of the guest OS (including security patches and updates), firewall & network configuration, lAM.
    • Encrypting application data
  • Shared controls:
    • Patch Management (for RDS it is AWS, for EC2 its us), Configuration Management, Awareness & Training

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RDS Example

  • AWS responsibility:
    • Manage the underlying EC2 instance, disable SSH access
    • Automated DB patching
    • Automated OS patching
    • Audit the underlying instance and disks & guarantee it functions
  • Your responsibility:
    • Check the ports/IP/security group inbound rules in DB's SG
    • In-database user creation and permissions
    • Creating a database with or without public access
    • Ensure parameter groups or DB is configured to only allow SSL connections.
    • Database encryption setting

S3 Example

  • AWS responsibility:
    • Guarantee you get unlimited storage
    • Guarantee you get encryption
    • Ensure separation of the data between different customers
    • Ensure AWS employees can't access your data
  • Your responsibility:
    • Bucket configuration
    • Bucket policy/public setting
    • IAM user and roles
    • Enabling encryption

Last updated: 2023-03-06