Lack of protection against deletion - RDS - cloudformation

Lack of protection against deletion - RDS - cloudformation

Need

Implementation of safeguards to prevent accidental or unauthorized deletion of databases in Amazon Web Services RDS.

Context

  • Usage of AWS CloudFormation for Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
  • Usage of AWS SDK for interacting with Amazon Web Services

Description

Non compliant code

        AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Resources:
  MyDBInstance:
    Type: AWS::RDS::DBInstance
    Properties:
      AllocatedStorage: 20
      DBInstanceClass: db.t2.micro
      Engine: mysql
      EngineVersion: 5.7
      MasterUsername: foo
      MasterUserPassword: foobarbaz
      DBName: mydb
      StorageType: gp2
      DBParameterGroupName: default.mysql5.7
      SkipFinalSnapshot: true

This CloudFormation template creates an AWS RDS instance. However, it lacks safeguards against accidental or unauthorized deletion.

Specifically:
- DeletionProtection is not enabled, which means the database can be deleted without any restrictions.
- SkipFinalSnapshot is set to true, which prevents a final snapshot from being created when the DB instance is deleted. This leads to permanent loss of data if deleted.

Steps

  • Enable `DeletionProtection` in the RDS instance configuration.
  • Ensure `SkipFinalSnapshot` is set to `false` to retain a snapshot.
  • Enable backups by setting a `BackupRetentionPeriod`.
  • Apply proper IAM access controls and enable monitoring via CloudTrail.

Compliant code

        AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Resources:
  MyDBInstance:
    Type: AWS::RDS::DBInstance
    Properties:
      AllocatedStorage: 20
      DBInstanceClass: db.t2.micro
      Engine: mysql
      EngineVersion: 5.7
      MasterUsername: foo
      MasterUserPassword: foobarbaz
      DBName: mydb
      StorageType: gp2
      DBParameterGroupName: default.mysql5.7
      SkipFinalSnapshot: false
      DeletionProtection: true
      BackupRetentionPeriod: 7

This improved CloudFormation template addresses the risks by:

1. Setting DeletionProtection to true, preventing unintended deletion. 2. Setting SkipFinalSnapshot to false, ensuring a snapshot is taken before deletion. 3. Defining BackupRetentionPeriod to 7 to allow recovery to a point in time within the last 7 days.

These changes help mitigate accidental or malicious deletion and ensure data recovery options are in place.

References