Skip to main content

How to Find Public AWS EC2 Instances with Instance Profiles

Exposing an EC2 directly to internet increases the attack surface and therefore the risk of compromise.

info

This security check is part of the CIS Amazon Web Services Benchmarks and is rated severity medium.

Prerequisites​

This guide assumes that you have already installed and configured Fix Inventory to collect your AWS resources.

Directions​

  1. Execute the following search command in Fix Inventory Shell:

    > search is(aws_ec2_instance) and instance_public_ip_address!=null and instance_iam_instance_profile!=null
    ​kind=aws_ec2_instance, ..., region=fixinventory-poweruser
    ​kind=aws_ec2_instance, ..., account=poweruser-team

  2. Pipe the search command into the dump command:

    > search is(aws_ec2_instance) and instance_public_ip_address!=null and instance_iam_instance_profile!=null | dump
    ​reported:
    ​  id: /aws/ec2/123
    ​  name: some-name
    ​  ctime: '2022-12-05T22:53:14Z'
    ​  kind: aws_ec2_instance
    ​  age: 2mo28d

    The command output will list the details of all non-compliant aws_ec2_instance resources.

Remediation​

  • Do not expose EC2 instances with Instance Profiles directly to the internet.
  • Use a firewall or API Gateway.
note

Please refer to the AWS EC2 documentation for details.

Further Reading​