Suppose you have to share data with a third party over the internet and the data is stored in AWS. What would be the most secure and easy way to do this?
Since sending mail is not very secure, i thought of the solution of creating a S3 bucket and run a SFTP server (with AWS Family) on it. Is there a better solution in AWS to achieve this?
This depends on how you want to "share data" and where that data resides.
Let's say you have an object in Amazon S3 that you would like to make available. There are several options for sharing access:
You could create an Amazon S3 pre-signed URL, which provides time-limited access to a private object. This is similar to storing something in DropBox and using the "Get Link" command to obtain a special URL that provides access to the object.
If the other people have their own AWS Account, you could share a specific bucket or an object with them. This has the benefit that you could put objects in a bucket and they can retrieve any of them whenever they wish.
You could write a web application that requires users to authenticate and then gives them the ability to access objects in Amazon S3. This would be similar to a photo-sharing website, where people login and can access/share photos. You would be responsible for writing this application and managing the authentication.
Update
Based on the information you provided (S3, few users, automated), the easiest method would probably be to have the other users sign-up to AWS or provide them with IAM access credentials from your own AWS Account (not recommended if you have large numbers of such users).
You can grant permission for them to access your data and they could use the AWS Command-Line Interface (CLI) to access/download the data. This can be automated with the aws s3 cp and aws s3 sync commands.
Related
I am trying to understand access security as it relates to Amazon S3. I want to host some files in an S3 bucket, using CloudFront to access it via my domain. I need to limit access to certain companies/individuals. In addition I need to manage that access individually.
A second access model is project based, where I need to make a library of files available to a particular project team, and I need to be able to add and remove team members in an ad hoc manner, and then close access for the whole project at some point. The bucket in question might be the same for both scenarios.
I assume something like this is possible in AWS, but all I can find (and understand) on the AWS site involves using IAM to control access via the AWS console. I don't see any indication that I could create an IAM user, add them to an IAM group, give the group read only access to the bucket and then provide the name and password via System.Net.WebClient in PowerShell to actually download the available file. Am I missing something, and this IS possible? Or am I not correct in my assumption that this can be done with AWS?
I did find Amazon CloudFront vs. S3 --> restrict access by domain? - Stack Overflow that talks about using CloudFront to limit access by Domain, but that won't work in a WfH scenario, as those home machines won't be on the corporate domain, but the corporate BIM Manager needs to manage access to content libraries for the WfH staff. I REALLY hope I am not running into an example of AWS just not being ready for the current reality.
Content stored in Amazon S3 is private by default. There are several ways that access can be granted:
Use a bucket policy to make the entire bucket (or a directory within it) publicly accessible to everyone. This is good for websites where anyone can read the content.
Assign permission to IAM Users to grant access only to users or applications that need to access to the bucket. This is typically used within your organization. Never create an IAM User for somebody outside your organization.
Create presigned URLs to grant temporary access to private objects. This is typically used by applications to grant web-based access to content stored in Amazon S3.
To provide an example for pre-signed URLs, imagine that you have a photo-sharing website. Photos provided by users are private. The flow would be:
A user logs in. The application confirms their identity against a database or an authentication service (eg Login with Google).
When the user wants to view a photo, the application first checks whether they are entitled to view the photo (eg it is their photo). If they are entitled to view the photo, the application generates a pre-signed URL and returns it as a link, or embeds the link in an HTML page (eg in a <img> tag).
When the user accesses the link, the browser sends the URL request to Amazon S3, which verifies the encrypted signature in the signed URL. If if it is correct and the link has not yet expired, the photo is returned and is displayed in the web browser.
Users can also share photos with other users. When another user accesses a photo, the application checks the database to confirm that it was shared with the user. If so, it provides a pre-signed URL to access the photo.
This architecture has the application perform all of the logic around Access Permissions. It is very flexible since you can write whatever rules you want, and then the user is sent to Amazon S3 to obtain the file. Think of it like buying theater tickets online -- you just show the ticket and the door and you are allowed to sit in the seat. That's what Amazon S3 is doing -- it is checking the ticket (signed URL) and then giving you access to the file.
See: Amazon S3 pre-signed URLs
Mobile apps
Another common architecture is to generate temporary credentials using the AWS Security Token Service (STS). This is typically done with mobile apps. The flow is:
A user logs into a mobile app. The app sends the login details to a back-end application, which verifies the user's identity.
The back-end app then uses AWS STS to generate temporary credentials and assigns permissions to the credentials, such as being permitted to access a certain directory within an Amazon S3 bucket. (The permissions can actually be for anything in AWS, such as launching computers or creating databases.)
The back-end app sends these temporary credentials back to the mobile app.
The mobile app then uses those credentials to make calls directly to Amazon S3 to access files.
Amazon S3 checks the credentials being used and, if they have permission for the files being requests, grants access. This can be done for uploads, downloads, listing files, etc.
This architecture takes advantage of the fact that mobile apps are quite powerful and they can communicate directly with AWS services such as Amazon S3. The permissions granted are based upon the user who logs in. These permissions are determined by the back-end application, which you would code. Think of it like a temporary employee who has been granted a building access pass for the day, but they can only access certain areas.
See: IAM Role Archives - Jayendra's Blog
The above architectures are building blocks for how you wish to develop your applications. Every application is different, just like the two use-cases in your question. You can securely incorporate Amazon S3 in your applications while maintaining full control of how access is granted. Your applications can then concentrate on the business logic of controlling access, without having to actually serve the content (which is left up to Amazon S3). It's like selling the tickets without having to run the theater.
You ask whether Amazon S3 is "ready for the current reality". Many of the popular web sites you use every day run on AWS, and you probably never realize it.
If you are willing to issue IAM User credentials (max 5000 per account), the steps would be:
Create an IAM User for each user and select Programmatic access
This will provide an Access Key and Secret Key that you can provide to each user
Attach permissions to each IAM User, or put the users in an IAM Group and attach permissions to the IAM Group
Each user can run aws configure on their computer (using the AWS Command-Line Interface (CLI) to store their Access Key and Secret Key
They can then use the AWS CLI to upload/download files
If you want the users to be able to access via the Amazon S3 management console, you will need to provide some additional permissions: Grant a User Amazon S3 Console Access to Only a Certain Bucket
Alternatively, users could use a program like CyberDuck for an easy Drag & Drop interface to Amazon S3. Cyberduck will also ask for the Access Key and Secret Key.
What I am trying to achieve is the following:
Create users dynamicly through API(users might grow alot - 50-100k+ eventually)
Give those users access to a specific prefix of an AWS S3 bucket(IAM policy)
Currently my idea is to create AWS IAM Users and generate credentials for those users(The credentials should not be temporary). This works fine, but the problem is that AWS is limited to 5000 IAM users. Is there another way to avoid that limit. One way that I found out is via cognito users -> https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/reference_policies_examples_s3_cognito-bucket.html
However I do not think that there is a way to create long-term access keys(as the IAM user access keys) for those cognito users ?
Is there another way to achieve this ?
Thanks in advance!
You should not use IAM for application users. IAM is for staff within your organisation to operate your AWS infrastructure.
Your application should operate its own authentication method separate from IAM (as suggested in the above comments). An example of using AWS for this task would be to use Amazon Cognito.
Once a user has authenticated, you have a couple of options:
Option 1: Using AWS credentials
If you want to allow the authenticated users to access AWS resources (eg Amazon S3) via AWS API calls, then you can create temporary credentials that have limited permissions (eg can access any object within a given path of a given bucket). These credentials can then be provided to the users. This method is commonly used for mobile applications that are capable of making API calls directly to AWS. It requires that the users have software that can use the AWS credentials.
Option 2: Amazon S3 pre-signed URLS
If you are running a web application and you want users to be able to access private objects in Amazon S3, you can generate pre-signed URLs. For example, let's say you are running a photo-sharing website. The process would be:
Photos are kept in private S3 buckets.
Users authenticate to the application.
The application can then show them their private photos: When the application generates any links to this private content, or embeds content in the page (eg via <img> tags), it generates a pre-signed URL, which provides time-limited access to private content.
The user then accesses the URL, or their browser requests data (eg images) from that URL.
Amazon S3 verifies the signature on the URL and check the validity time. If it is correct, then S3 returns the private object.
The application uses a set of IAM credentials to sign the pre-signed URL. This can be done in a couple of lines of code and does not require an API call to AWS.
The benefit of this method is that the application is responsible for determining which objects the user may access. For example, let's say a user wants to share their photos with another user. This sharing information can be stored in a database and the application can consult the database when sharing photos. If a user is entitled to view another user's photos, the application can generate a pre-signed URL without caring in which directory the photos are stored. This is a much more flexible approach than using storage location to grant access. However, it does require additional logic within the application.
See: Amazon S3 pre-signed URLs
I have 1 s3 bucket per customer. Customers are external entities and they dont share data with anyone else. I write to S3 and customer reads from S3. As per this architecture, I can only scale to 1000 buckets as there is a limit to s3 buckets per account. I was hoping to use APs to create 1 AP per customer and put data in one bucket. The customer can then read the files from the bucket using AP.
Bucket000001/prefix01 . -> customeraccount1
Bucket000001/prefix02 . -> customeraccount2
...
S3 access points require you to set policy for a IAM user in access point as well as the bucket level. If I have 1000s of IAM users, do I need to set policy for each of them in the bucket? This would result in one giant policy. there is a max policy size in the bucket, so I may not be able to do that.
Is this the right use case where access points can help?
The recommended approach would be:
Do NOT assign IAM Users to your customers. These types of AWS credentials should only be used by your internal staff and your own applications.
You should provide a web application (or an API) where customers can authenticate against your own user database (or you could use Amazon Cognito to manage authentication).
Once authenticated, the application should grant access either to a web interface to access Amazon S3, or the application should provide temporary credentials for accessing Amazon S3 (more details below).
Do not use one bucket per customer. This is not scalable. Instead, store all customer data in ONE bucket, with each user having their own folder. There is no limit on the amount of data you can store in Amazon S3. This also makes it easier for you to manage and maintain, since it is easier to perform functions across all content rather than having to go into separate buckets. (An exception might be if you wish to segment buckets by customer location (region) or customer type. But do not use one bucket per customer. There is no reason to do this.)
When granting access to Amazon S3, assign permissions at the folder-level to ensure customers only see their own data.
Option 1: Access via Web Application
If your customers access Amazon S3 via a web application, then you can code that application to enforce security at the folder level. For example, when they request a list of files, only display files within their folder.
This security can be managed totally within your own code.
Option 2: Access via Temporary Credentials
If your customers use programmatic access (eg using the AWS CLI or a custom app running on their systems), then:
The customer should authenticate to your application (how this is done will vary depending upon how you are authenticating users)
Once authenticated, the application should generate temporary credentials using the AWS Security Token Service (STS). While generating the credentials, grant access to Amazon S3 but specify the customer's folder in the ARN (eg arn:aws:s3:::storage-bucket/customer1/*) so that they can only access content within their folder.
Return these temporary credentials to the customer. They can then use these credentials to make API calls directly to Amazon S3 (eg from the AWS Command-Line Interface (CLI) or a custom app). They will be limited to their own folder.
This approach is commonly done with mobile applications. The mobile app authenticates against the backend, receives temporary credentials, then uses those credentials to interact directly against S3. Thus, the back-end app is only used for authentication.
Examples on YouTube:
5 Minutes to Amazon Cognito: Federated Identity and Mobile App Demo
Overview Security Token Service STS
AWS: Use the Session Token Service to Securely Upload Files to S3
We have some way to achieve your goal.
use IAM group to grant access to a folder. Create a group, add a user to a group, and assign a role to the group to access the folder.
Another way is to use bucket policy (${aws:username} in Condition) to grant Access to User-Specific Folders. Refer to this link https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/security/writing-iam-policies-grant-access-to-user-specific-folders-in-an-amazon-s3-bucket/
Is it possible to give different access to different buckets in s3? In detail, I have 10 different buckets in s3 and each of those bucket related to different people. So I want to give them access only to their particular bucket(by sharing a URL or something like that)
Is this possible?
The normal way to assign access is:
Permanent credentials (eg associate with an IAM User) are only provided to internal IT staff who are managing or using the AWS services.
End users of a web application should be authenticated by the application (eg using Amazon Cognito, LDAP, AD, Google). The application will then be responsible for generating Pre-Signed URLs for uploading and downloading files.
For mobile applications, it is quite common to create temporary credentials using the Security Token Service, which allows the mobile app to directly make AWS API calls. The credentials can be given limited permissions, such as only being able to access one S3 bucket.
So, it really comes down to 'how' the users will be accessing the bucket. If they are doing it directly, then provide temporary credentials via STS. If they are doing it via an application, then the application will be responsible for providing individual access to upload/download.
By the way, it's not necessarily a good idea to give a different bucket to every user, because there is a limit on the number of buckets you can create. Instead, you could give access to separate paths within the same bucket. Proper use of permissions will ensure they cannot see/impact other users' data.
For how this works with IAM Users, see: Variables in AWS Access Control Policies | AWS News Blog
Use Case: shutting down on-premise WingFTP Secure Server and moving 50+ folders to AWS S3. Need to provide access to 120 end users outside my organization.
Challenges:
How do I limit end user access to their specific folder(s) in the s3 bucket?
I can't expose one users data to another.
Do not want to spin up a 3rd party application like FileCloud (no offense to
FileCloud), nor do I want to spin-up an EC2 running WingFTP.
Lastly, not intent to set up 120+ IAM end user accounts.
Thanks for any feedback!
Scott
I congratulate you for helping to eliminate FTP from the world!
You should not give the users IAM accounts. IAM should only be used for users and applications within your own organisation.
Instead, you need a way to authenticate the end users and then give them appropriate (temporary) access to Amazon S3.
One way would be to use Amazon Cognito to authenticate users. You can then generate temporary credentials that grant access to 'their folder' within an S3 bucket. They can use these credentials with the AWS Command-Line Interface (CLI), or an application like CyberDuck or simply a web page that allows them to upload a file. If they want to automate the upload, then the CLI is the way to go.
Another way would be to have a simple application that authenticates the users (however you want to do that), then generates Pre-Signed URLs that allows them to upload files via a web page to their specific folder.