Implementation Of AWS Secret Key Manager

In this blog, we are discussing the implementation of AWS secret key manager with cache mechanism. Using .NET. AWS secret key manager enables us to easily create and manage the confidential data that we use in our applications. Instead of embedding our credentials or database connection string to source code we can read or fetch dynamically using this feature. We can automatically and frequently rotate the keys without any deployment. All the secrets are encrypted with AWS KMS.

#aws #dotnet 

What is GEEK

Buddha Community

50+ Useful Kubernetes Tools for 2020 - Part 2

Introduction

Last year, we provided a list of Kubernetes tools that proved so popular we have decided to curate another list of some useful additions for working with the platform—among which are many tools that we personally use here at Caylent. Check out the original tools list here in case you missed it.

According to a recent survey done by Stackrox, the dominance Kubernetes enjoys in the market continues to be reinforced, with 86% of respondents using it for container orchestration.

(State of Kubernetes and Container Security, 2020)

And as you can see below, more and more companies are jumping into containerization for their apps. If you’re among them, here are some tools to aid you going forward as Kubernetes continues its rapid growth.

(State of Kubernetes and Container Security, 2020)

#blog #tools #amazon elastic kubernetes service #application security #aws kms #botkube #caylent #cli #container monitoring #container orchestration tools #container security #containers #continuous delivery #continuous deployment #continuous integration #contour #developers #development #developments #draft #eksctl #firewall #gcp #github #harbor #helm #helm charts #helm-2to3 #helm-aws-secret-plugin #helm-docs #helm-operator-get-started #helm-secrets #iam #json #k-rail #k3s #k3sup #k8s #keel.sh #keycloak #kiali #kiam #klum #knative #krew #ksniff #kube #kube-prod-runtime #kube-ps1 #kube-scan #kube-state-metrics #kube2iam #kubeapps #kubebuilder #kubeconfig #kubectl #kubectl-aws-secrets #kubefwd #kubernetes #kubernetes command line tool #kubernetes configuration #kubernetes deployment #kubernetes in development #kubernetes in production #kubernetes ingress #kubernetes interfaces #kubernetes monitoring #kubernetes networking #kubernetes observability #kubernetes plugins #kubernetes secrets #kubernetes security #kubernetes security best practices #kubernetes security vendors #kubernetes service discovery #kubernetic #kubesec #kubeterminal #kubeval #kudo #kuma #microsoft azure key vault #mozilla sops #octant #octarine #open source #palo alto kubernetes security #permission-manager #pgp #rafay #rakess #rancher #rook #secrets operations #serverless function #service mesh #shell-operator #snyk #snyk container #sonobuoy #strongdm #tcpdump #tenkai #testing #tigera #tilt #vert.x #wireshark #yaml

Storing Encryption Keys in AWS Secrets Manager

“The only secrets are the secrets that keep themselves”- George Bernard Shaw

Leveraging a service like AWS Secrets Manager, to outsource secured storage and life-cycle management of secrets (like passwords, API keys, tokens, encryption keys, etc.) is becoming quite commonplace. Essentially, this practice keeps the application code clean and devoid of any sensitive information that might get leaked otherwise. The idea is to either use DevOps pipeline to fetch secrets and inject them at the time of deployment (primarily as environment variables) or use AWS SDK to retrieve secrets during application runtime and use them.

Normally, creation and retrieval of sensitive values from Secrets Manager is pretty straightforward. AWS has done a really good job in creating multiple ways to do so- AWS console, SDK, CLI & REST APIs. However, when it comes to storing/retrieving encryption keys (symmetric or asymmetric), one has to be a tad careful.

For instance, a very common error (in Node.js applications) resulting due to an incorrectly stored PEM encoded encryption key in AWS Secrets Manager, is shown below. Any character translation corrupts the key and following error is directly thrown from PEM libraries when we attempt to use the incorrectly stored key in a scenario like mutual TLS authentication (mTLS) or otherwise.

{ 
   “library”: “PEM routines”, 
   “function”: “get_name”, 
   “reason”: “no start line”, 
   “code”: “ERR_OSSL_PEM_NO_START_LINE”
}

#secrets #aws-cli #aws-sdk #aws-secrets-manager #binarysecret

How To Unite AWS KMS with Serverless Application Model (SAM)

The Basics

AWS KMS is a Key Management Service that let you create Cryptographic keys that you can use to encrypt and decrypt data and also other keys. You can read more about it here.

Important points about Keys

Please note that the customer master keys(CMK) generated can only be used to encrypt small amount of data like passwords, RSA key. You can use AWS KMS CMKs to generate, encrypt, and decrypt data keys. However, AWS KMS does not store, manage, or track your data keys, or perform cryptographic operations with data keys.

You must use and manage data keys outside of AWS KMS. KMS API uses AWS KMS CMK in the encryption operations and they cannot accept more than 4 KB (4096 bytes) of data. To encrypt application data, use the server-side encryption features of an AWS service, or a client-side encryption library, such as the AWS Encryption SDK or the Amazon S3 encryption client.

Scenario

We want to create signup and login forms for a website.

Passwords should be encrypted and stored in DynamoDB database.

What do we need?

1. KMS key to encrypt and decrypt data
2. DynamoDB table to store password.
3. Lambda functions & APIs to process Login and Sign up forms.
4. Sign up/ Login forms in HTML.

Lets Implement it as Serverless Application Model (SAM)!

Lets first create the Key that we will use to encrypt and decrypt password.

KmsKey:
    Type: AWS::KMS::Key
    Properties: 
      Description: CMK for encrypting and decrypting
      KeyPolicy:
        Version: '2012-10-17'
        Id: key-default-1
        Statement:
        - Sid: Enable IAM User Permissions
          Effect: Allow
          Principal:
            AWS: !Sub arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:root
          Action: kms:*
          Resource: '*'
        - Sid: Allow administration of the key
          Effect: Allow
          Principal:
            AWS: !Sub arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:user/${KeyAdmin}
          Action:
          - kms:Create*
          - kms:Describe*
          - kms:Enable*
          - kms:List*
          - kms:Put*
          - kms:Update*
          - kms:Revoke*
          - kms:Disable*
          - kms:Get*
          - kms:Delete*
          - kms:ScheduleKeyDeletion
          - kms:CancelKeyDeletion
          Resource: '*'
        - Sid: Allow use of the key
          Effect: Allow
          Principal:
            AWS: !Sub arn:aws:iam::${AWS::AccountId}:user/${KeyUser}
          Action:
          - kms:DescribeKey
          - kms:Encrypt
          - kms:Decrypt
          - kms:ReEncrypt*
          - kms:GenerateDataKey
          - kms:GenerateDataKeyWithoutPlaintext
          Resource: '*'

The important thing in above snippet is the KeyPolicy. KMS requires a Key Administrator and Key User. As a best practice your Key Administrator and Key User should be 2 separate user in your Organisation. We are allowing all permissions to the root users.

So if your key Administrator leaves the organisation, the root user will be able to delete this key. As you can see **KeyAdmin **can manage the key but not use it and KeyUser can only use the key. ${KeyAdmin} and **${KeyUser} **are parameters in the SAM template.

You would be asked to provide values for these parameters during SAM Deploy.

#aws #serverless #aws-sam #aws-key-management-service #aws-certification #aws-api-gateway #tutorial-for-beginners #aws-blogs

Managed Entitlements in AWS License Manager

AWS License Manager is a service that helps you easily manage software licenses from vendors such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and IBM across your Amazon Web Services (AWS) and on-premises environments. You can define rules based on your licensing agreements to prevent license violations, such as using more licenses than are available. You can set the rules to help prevent licensing violations or notify you of breaches. AWS License Manager also offers automated discovery of bring your own licenses (BYOL) usage that keeps you informed of all software installations and uninstallations across your environment and alerts you of licensing violations.

License Manager can manage licenses purchased in AWS Marketplace, a curated digital catalog where you can easily find, purchase, deploy, and manage third-party software, data, and services to build solutions and run your business. Marketplace lists thousands of software listings from independent software vendors (ISVs) in popular categories such as security, networking, storage, machine learning, business intelligence, database, and DevOps.

#aws license manager #aws marketplace #aws re:invent #aws

AWS Cost Allocation Tags and Cost Reduction

Bob had just arrived in the office for his first day of work as the newly hired chief technical officer when he was called into a conference room by the president, Martha, who immediately introduced him to the head of accounting, Amanda. They exchanged pleasantries, and then Martha got right down to business:

“Bob, we have several teams here developing software applications on Amazon and our bill is very high. We think it’s unnecessarily high, and we’d like you to look into it and bring it under control.”

Martha placed a screenshot of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) billing report on the table and pointed to it.

“This is a problem for us: We don’t know what we’re spending this money on, and we need to see more detail.”

Amanda chimed in, “Bob, look, we have financial dimensions that we use for reporting purposes, and I can provide you with some guidance regarding some information we’d really like to see such that the reports that are ultimately produced mirror these dimensions — if you can do this, it would really help us internally.”

“Bob, we can’t stress how important this is right now. These projects are becoming very expensive for our business,” Martha reiterated.

“How many projects do we have?” Bob inquired.

“We have four projects in total: two in the aviation division and two in the energy division. If it matters, the aviation division has 75 developers and the energy division has 25 developers,” the CEO responded.

Bob understood the problem and responded, “I’ll see what I can do and have some ideas. I might not be able to give you retrospective insight, but going forward, we should be able to get a better idea of what’s going on and start to bring the cost down.”

The meeting ended with Bob heading to find his desk. Cost allocation tags should help us, he thought to himself as he looked for someone who might know where his office is.

#aws #aws cloud #node js #cost optimization #aws cli #well architected framework #aws cost report #cost control #aws cost #aws tags