Recommendations for configuring an AWS linked account
Initial account settings
- Login to the Amazon management console: https://<AWS_Account_ID>.signin.aws.amazon.com/console
- Note: Replace AWS Account ID with your actual account ID or DNS name.
- From the upper right pane, click on account name -> choose “My account”:
- Write down the “AWS Account ID” (it will be used in the next sections)
- Make sure the Contact information is up to date
- Under “Alternate Contacts” -> specify contact details for “Billing”, “Operations” and “Security”
- Configure “Security Challenge Questions”
Configuring the IAM policies and IAM administrator account
- Login to the IAM console:
- From the left pane, click on “Account settings” and set the following password policy:
- Minimum password length: 8 characters
- Require at least one uppercase letter (Selected)
- Require at least one lowercase letter (Selected)
- Require at least one number (Selected)
- Allow users to change their own password (Selected)
- Enable password expiration (Selected)
- Password expiration period in days: 90
- Prevent password reuse (Selected)
- Number of passwords to remember: 24
- Click on “Apply password policy”
- From the left pane click on “Users” -> review each and every account member of “admin” / “administrators” group -> click on “Security credentials” tab -> click on the pencil icon near “Assigned MFA device” -> select the MFA device to activate and follow the steps to active the MFA device
- It is strongly recommended that each and every privileged account will be configured with “AWS Management Console access” only – in case privileged account has Access keys, it is strongly recommended to make all keys inactive and create separate accounts for programmatic access
Configure S3 buckets for auditing
- Login to the S3 console:
- Click on “Create bucket” -> specify bucket name <AWS_Account_ID>-auditlogs (Replace AWS Account ID with your actual account ID) -> select a region close to your location -> click Next
- Click on “Server access logging” -> click “Enable” -> click Save
- Click on “Tags” -> specify key: AccountName, Value – specify here the AWS account name or ID -> click Save
- Click on “Default encryption” -> select “AES-256” -> click Save
- Click Next
- Leave the default settings “Do not grant public read access to this bucket” -> click Next -> click “Create bucket”
- Login to the AWS CloudTrail console:
- From the left pane, click on “Dashboard” -> click on “Create trail” -> specify trail name <AWS_Account_ID>-audit-trail (Replace AWS Account ID with your actual account ID)
- “Apply trail to all regions” should be set to “Yes”
- “Read/Write events” should be set to “All”
- Configure “Storage location”:
- Create a new S3 bucket – No
- S3 bucket – specify <AWS_Account_ID>-auditlogs
- Note: Replace AWS Account ID with your actual account ID
- Click on “Create”
- Note: AWS CloudTrail is not free. See the pricing information:
- https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/pricing/
Configure Trusted Advisor
- Login to the Trusted Advisor management console:
- From the left pane, click on “Preferences” -> select all recipients and set email addresses for “Billing contact”, “Operations Contact” and “Security contact” (similar to the addresses you set up under “My Account” settings)
- It is strongly recommended to review from time to time, the AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations in each of the sections (Cost, performance, security, fault tolerance and service limits) in-order to optimize your AWS environment, save money and raise performance, etc.