AWS Security Agent and interface VPC endpoints (AWS PrivateLink)

You can use AWS PrivateLink to create a private connection between your VPC and AWS Security Agent. You can access Security Agent as if it were in your VPC, without the use of an internet gateway, NAT device, VPN connection, or Direct Connect connection. Instances in your VPC don’t need public IP addresses to access Security Agent.

You establish this private connection by creating an interface endpoint, powered by AWS PrivateLink. We create an endpoint network interface in each subnet that you enable for the interface endpoint. These are requester-managed network interfaces that serve as the entry point for traffic destined for Security Agent.

For more information, see Access AWS services through AWS PrivateLink in the AWS PrivateLink Guide.

Considerations for Security Agent

Before you set up an interface endpoint for Security Agent, review Considerations in the AWS PrivateLink Guide.

Security Agent supports making calls to all of its API actions from your VPC, including operations for managing agent spaces, penetration tests, and security findings.

You can select IPv4, IPv6, or dualstack when creating an endpoint.

VPC endpoint policies are supported for Security Agent. By default, full access to Security Agent is allowed through the interface endpoint. You can control access by attaching an endpoint policy to the interface endpoint or by associating a security group with the endpoint network interfaces.

All API calls to Security Agent are encrypted using TLS 1.2 or higher, including calls made through VPC endpoints. For more information about data protection, see Data protection in AWS Security Agent. Security Agent API calls are logged in AWS CloudTrail. For more information, see Example: AWS Security Agent log file entries.

Create an interface endpoint for Security Agent

You can create an interface endpoint for Security Agent using either the Amazon VPC console or the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI). For more information, see Create an interface endpoint in the AWS PrivateLink Guide.

Create an interface endpoint for Security Agent using the following service name:

com.amazonaws.<region>.securityagent

To create the interface endpoint using the AWS CLI, run the following command. Replace the Region, VPC ID, subnet IDs, and security group ID with your own values.

aws ec2 create-vpc-endpoint \
    --vpc-id vpc-1a2b3c4d \
    --vpc-endpoint-type Interface \
    --service-name com.amazonaws.<region>.securityagent \
    --subnet-ids subnet-1a2b3c4d subnet-5e6f7a8b \
    --security-group-ids sg-1a2b3c4d \
    --private-dns-enabled

To use private DNS, you must set both the enableDnsSupport and enableDnsHostnames attributes to true for your VPC. For more information, see DNS attributes for your VPC in the Amazon VPC User Guide.

Configure security groups for the interface endpoint

When you create an interface endpoint, you can associate security groups with the endpoint network interfaces to control traffic to Security Agent. Create a security group that allows inbound HTTPS traffic (port 443) from the resources in your VPC that need to communicate with Security Agent.

The security group should include the following inbound rule:

For more information, see Security groups in the AWS PrivateLink Guide.

Create an endpoint policy for your interface endpoint

An endpoint policy is an IAM resource that you can attach to an interface endpoint. The default endpoint policy allows full access to Security Agent through the interface endpoint. To control the access allowed to Security Agent from your VPC, attach a custom endpoint policy to the interface endpoint.

An endpoint policy specifies the following information:

For more information, see Control access to services using endpoint policies in the AWS PrivateLink Guide.

Example: VPC endpoint policy for AWS Security Agent actions

The following is an example of an endpoint policy for AWS Security Agent. When attached to an endpoint, this policy grants access to the listed AWS Security Agent actions for all principals on all resources.

{
   "Statement": [
      {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Principal": "*",
         "Action": [
            "securityagent:CreatePentest",
            "securityagent:ListPentests",
            "securityagent:BatchGetPentests",
            "securityagent:StartPentestExecution",
            "securityagent:StopPentestExecution",
            "securityagent:ListFindings",
            "securityagent:BatchGetFindings"
         ],
         "Resource": "*"
      }
   ]
}

Example: VPC endpoint policy that denies all access from a specified AWS account

The following VPC endpoint policy denies AWS account 123456789012 all access to resources using the endpoint. The policy allows all actions from other accounts.

{
   "Statement": [
      {
         "Effect": "Allow",
         "Principal": "*",
         "Action": "securityagent:*",
         "Resource": "*"
      },
      {
         "Effect": "Deny",
         "Principal": {
            "AWS": "123456789012"
         },
         "Action": "securityagent:*",
         "Resource": "*"
      }
   ]
}

Troubleshooting

Connection times out when calling Security Agent API

DNS resolution fails for securityagent.<region>.api.aws

Access denied errors when calling Security Agent APIs