What is AWS Security Hub?

AWS Security Hub is a cloud security posture management service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that helps you centralize and automate security checks across your AWS environment. It aggregates findings from multiple AWS services and third-party products, giving you a comprehensive view of your security posture.

What is AWS Security Hub?

AWS Security Hub provides a single place to aggregate, organize, and prioritize security alerts, or findings, from multiple AWS services and AWS Partner Network (APN) solutions. It continuously monitors your environment using automated security checks based on AWS best practices and industry standards.

Key Features of AWS Security Hub

  1. Centralized View: Aggregates security findings from AWS services and third-party solutions into a single dashboard.
  2. Automated Security Checks: Continuously runs automated security checks using rules aligned with AWS best practices and industry standards such as CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark.
  3. Integration with AWS Services: Integrates with various AWS services like AWS GuardDuty, AWS Inspector, AWS Config, AWS Firewall Manager, and Amazon Macie.
  4. Third-Party Integrations: Supports integrations with third-party security solutions to consolidate findings from different sources.
  5. Custom Insights and Findings: Allows creation of custom insights to filter and prioritize findings based on specific criteria.
  6. Automated Response and Remediation: Supports automation using AWS Lambda and AWS Step Functions to respond to and remediate findings.

How AWS Security Hub Works

AWS Security Hub works by aggregating security findings from integrated AWS services and third-party solutions. It then runs automated checks and provides a unified dashboard for managing and prioritizing these findings.

Example Workflows and Dependent Services

Workflow 1: Setting Up AWS Security Hub

  1. Enable AWS Security Hub:
    • Go to the AWS Security Hub console.
    • Enable Security Hub for your AWS account and choose the regions where you want to enable it.
  2. Integrate AWS Services:
    • Integrate AWS services like AWS GuardDuty, AWS Inspector, AWS Config, and others by enabling them in the Security Hub console.
  3. Integrate Third-Party Solutions:
    • Configure third-party security solutions to send findings to Security Hub. This might involve installing connectors or configuring APIs.

Workflow 2: Monitoring and Responding to Findings

  1. View Findings:
    • Go to the Security Hub dashboard to view aggregated findings from various sources.
    • Use the summary dashboard to get an overview of your security posture.
  2. Automated Security Checks:
    • Review findings from automated security checks. These checks are based on CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark and other standards.
    • Check compliance scorecards to see how your environment stacks up against best practices.
  3. Custom Insights:
    • Create custom insights to filter findings based on specific criteria such as severity, resource type, or compliance status.
    • Use these insights to prioritize which findings to address first.
  4. Automated Remediation:
    • Use AWS Lambda functions to automatically respond to certain findings. For example, you can create a Lambda function to automatically remediate misconfigured security groups.
    • Use AWS Step Functions to orchestrate complex remediation workflows that involve multiple steps and approvals.
  5. Notifications and Alerts:
    • Set up Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service) to receive notifications for specific findings or insights.
    • Integrate with AWS CloudWatch to create alarms based on findings and trigger automated actions.

Dependent Services

AWS Security Hub depends on several AWS services to gather and aggregate findings:

  1. AWS GuardDuty: Provides intelligent threat detection and continuous monitoring of malicious activity and unauthorized behavior.
  2. AWS Inspector: Automates security assessments of applications deployed on AWS, helping to identify vulnerabilities and best practice deviations.
  3. AWS Config: Continuously monitors and records your AWS resource configurations and allows automated compliance checks.
  4. AWS Firewall Manager: Centralizes firewall rule management across your AWS accounts and resources.
  5. Amazon Macie: Uses machine learning to automatically discover, classify, and protect sensitive data in AWS.
  6. AWS Lambda: Executes custom scripts in response to findings for automated remediation.
  7. AWS Step Functions: Coordinates complex workflows for more advanced automated responses.

AWS Security Hub provides a centralized and automated approach to managing your security posture on AWS. By aggregating findings from multiple AWS services and third-party solutions, running continuous security checks, and enabling automated responses, Security Hub helps ensure your AWS environment is secure and compliant with industry standards. Setting up Security Hub involves enabling the service, integrating it with other AWS services and third-party solutions, and configuring automated responses to security findings.

Author: tonyhughes