S3 Bucket Security Best Practices

AWS S3 buckets are designed to store any type of data, including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. This flexibility — combined with their relatively low price — makes S3 buckets a common choice for data storage.

However, like all cloud-based data storage solutions, S3 buckets have their security challenges. S3 buckets may be publicly exposed or misconfigured in ways that disable important security protections.

This is especially true for legacy S3 buckets, which were set up before AWS released various features and tools designed to tighten the security of its S3 buckets. While these protections are enabled and available by default for new S3 buckets, they are not automatically applied for legacy buckets.

Customers are responsible for identifying their S3 buckets that need security updates and making the appropriate changes, which creates security challenges if a company lacks full visibility into its S3 bucket deployments.

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The Need for S3 Bucket Security

S3 buckets provide a cost-effective, resilient, and scalable data storage option. Companies can dump large volumes of data in an S3 bucket and retrieve it at need. S3 buckets’ ability to store both structured and unstructured data make it a valuable tool for cloud-based applications. Applications can store any type of data in these buckets without the need to properly format it from a particular database system.

As a result, the benefits and convenience of S3 buckets mean that they commonly are used to store large amounts of sensitive data. As a result, any cyberattack that breaches an S3 bucket and results in data exposure can cause an expensive and damaging data breach.

S3 bucket security can help to reduce the data security risks associated with these buckets. By identifying and closing common security holes and attack vectors, S3 bucket security can make these S3 buckets both a safe and useful cloud-based storage solution.

S3 Bucket Security Best Practices

AWS S3 buckets are a convenient resource; however, they also carry significant security risks. When using S3 buckets to hold corporate data, it’s important to secure these buckets properly.

Some AWS S3 security best practices to keep in mind when configuring these resources include the following:

Block Public Access: AWS S3 buckets can be accessed directly from the public Internet and can be configured to be publicly accessible. Blocking public access is essential to protecting data against unauthorized access and breach.
Implement Least Privilege: Least privilege access control policies grant users and applications the minimum set of permissions required for their role. Implementing least privilege for S3 buckets reduces the risks associated with a compromised account or misuse of legitimate access.
Encrypt Data at Rest: Cloud data breaches are a common occurrence, and companies face the risk that their data may be exposed. Encrypting data stored in S3 buckets reduces the risk that attackers can read the data contained within an exposed S3 bucket.
Automate Configuration Management: AWS S3 buckets have a variety of configuration settings, and misconfigurations can expose data to unauthorized access. Automating configuration monitoring and management enables the organization to rapidly identify and correct dangerous misconfigurations.
Use MFA Where Possible: Multi-factor authentication (MFA) makes it more difficult for an attacker to use stolen credentials to access data or perform other malicious actions. At a minimum, MFA Delete should be used to enforce the use of MFA when deleting buckets or changing their versioning state.
Keep and Monitor Logs: Logfiles and alerts are essential for identifying and responding to security breaches. Using tools like Amazon CloudWatch and CloudTrail to monitor AWS infrastructure can speed threat detection and response.

Keep S3 Buckets Safe and Secure with CloudGuard

Cloud security is indeed challenging. Often, companies operate complex, multi-cloud environments, and the cloud shared responsibility model can make it difficult for companies to fulfill their security responsibilities. Security is especially important and difficult for AWS S3 buckets. These buckets store large amounts of valuable data, but they can be difficult to securely configure, especially in the case of legacy S3 buckets that were not grandfathered into AWS’s new security tightening solutions.

Check Point CloudGuard can help companies to enhance the security of their AWS S3 buckets. CloudGuard can automatically identify an organization’s corporate S3 buckets, improving security visibility. With this inventory in hand, CloudGuard can scan these S3 buckets for security misconfigurations, providing visibility into security gaps. Additionally, CloudGuard offers support for identity and access management (IAM) to support companies efforts to implement least privilege access control across their multi-cloud infrastructure.

The first step in securing your organization’s S3 buckets against attack is identifying the security gaps that place them at risk. To get started, take a free AWS Cloud Security Checkup today to learn about the security risks to your cloud infrastructure and S3 buckets.