Only allow CloudFormation to delete resources created by CloudFormation - amazon-web-services

I want to create permissions for AWS CloudFormation.
I have to provide delete permission. How can I restrict in a way so that it can only delete resources which were created by CloudFormation?

AWS CloudFormation will only delete resources that it originally created.
When deploying a stack, CloudFormation will create resources using the permissions associated with the credentials that created the stack. Or, if an IAM Role is specified when the stack is created, it will use those credentials to create resources.
When deleting resources, it will use the same credentials.
It is not possible to create permissions that say "only delete resources that were created by CloudFormation" because the permissions are defined outside of CloudFormation.
I know that CloudFormation adds tags to most (all?) of the resources it creates, so you might be able to do some fancy stuff with tags, but it generally shouldn't be necessary because CloudFormation will only delete resources it originally created.

Related

why cant iamrole be directly updated in updatestack section in cloudformation aws

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in aws cloudformation why do we have to edit iam roles in template only then why is the option given in console,when trying to update iam role it says nothing to update
The role in question is used to grant the Cloudformation the permissions to deploy specific resources as part of the stack. By default if you don't specify what role the stack should use, it will use the permissions assigned to a user that's creating the CFN stack. So for example in case you don't have permissions to deploy an IAM resources and you try to deploy a CFN stack containing an IAM Role it will fail due to lack of permissions. This is where the Cloudformation IAM Roles come in handy. You can have a Cloudformation role deployed that has more permissions that the role you're using to deploy the stack itself and by assigning it to the CFN stack you're now able to privision those resources.
To update the IAM Role that the stack uses without making any changes to the stack resources you can got to Update -> Use current template -> Change IAM role (in Permissions) pick the role you want the stack to use and click Update stack. Once completed you can check the Stack info and in Overview the new IAM Role arn should be listed.
When deploying the resources from the pipeline or aws cli you can also specify the role you want your stack to use to provision the resources.
aws cloudformation deploy \
--template-file package.yaml \
--stack-name YOUR-STACK-NAME \
--role-arn arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/YOUR-IAM-ROLE
Your screenshot shows AWS CloudFormation (CFN) service role. This is totally different role from those in your templates. Namely, CFN will use that role to create/update your stack. By default CFN uses your own IAM user permissions, but you can tell CFN to use the given CFN service role instead.

Allow AWS resources deletion only by delete CloudFormation stack

Please help with this case:
There is a CF stack that creates some AWS resources (created by admin account).
There is a AWS user (power user) that allowed to delete CF stack.
My goal:
Allow the user to delete CF stack and all created resources via CF stack deletion.
Deny the user to delete (and modify) resources from the resource console.
The problem:
If the user has permission cloudformation:DeleteStack only, he can only initiate deletion, as he have no permissions for resources deletion (for example, lambda:DeleteFunction)
If he has these permissions he can delete resources from the resource console (for example, Lambda console), not only by CF stack deletion.
Any ideas?
CloudFormation can assume a role to do its work: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/using-iam-servicerole.html
So create a role that has all permissions needed to deploy the stack, and make sure that it is only assumable by CloudFormation. Then grant that user the permission to create and delete the stack, as well as list roles and whatever else is needed to do the create/delete (you'll have to experiment a bit, as some of the required permissions are non-obvious).

Delete AWS Cloud formation stack with resources created by it

Based on this page I can do:
aws cloudformation delete-stack \
--stack-name my-stack
It says I can attach the command:
[--retain-resources <value>]
Does that mean that if I don't specify that line, all the resources created by the stack will be removed? I'm trying to delete everything generated by the stack, which is a lot.
How can I achieve this?
Thanks
Yes, those resources will be kept if you specify the [--retain-resources <value>], if you dont Cloudformation will delete all the resources in the stack name (including the nested stacks as well) you are providing given you have permissions to do. If any of the resources inside the cloudformation stack has retain policy set they won't be deleted.
During deletion, AWS CloudFormation deletes the stack but does not delete the retained resources.
From the same page aws cloudformation delete-stack
You might wanna read this too How do I retain some of my resources when I delete an AWS CloudFormation stack?
You can specify the retain policy as well in cloudformation template.

Cloudformation template fails due to S3Bucket resource already exists

I have created an S3 Bucket, with the cloud formation, Lets Say Bucket Name is S3Bucket,
I don't want this bucket getting deleted if I delete stack, so added Deletion Policy to Retain,
Now the problem here is, If run the stack again, it complains S3Bucket name already exists.
If a bucket already exists, it should not complain.
What to do for this.
Please help
I faced this in the past and what i did in order to resolve this is that i created a common AWS cloudformation template/stack which will create all our common resources which are static(Handle it like a bootstrap template).
Usually i am adding in this template the creation of s3 buckets,VPC, networking, databases creation, etc.
Then you can create other AWS cloudformation templates/stacks for your rest resources which are dynamic and changing usually like lambdas,ec2, api gateway etc.
S3 names are globally unique. (e.g if I have s3 bucket in my AWS account s3-test, you cannot have a bucket with the same name).
The only way to use same name is to delete the bucket, or retype your cloud formation template and use new cloud formation feature to import resource:
https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/new-import-existing-resources-into-a-cloudformation-stack/

Can I use existing AWS IAM role to create S3 bucket via Cloudformation template?

I want to create a S3 Bucket via CloudFormation template. I found there is a way to do it for EC2 instance on this link.
Do we have a way to create S3 bucket using existing IAM role via cloudformation?
It looks like what you're looking for is a service role. From AWS:
A service role is an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) role that allows AWS CloudFormation to make calls to resources in a stack on your behalf. You can specify an IAM role that allows AWS CloudFormation to create, update, or delete your stack resources. By default, AWS CloudFormation uses a temporary session that it generates from your user credentials for stack operations. If you specify a service role, AWS CloudFormation uses the role's credentials.
For more information, you might want to take a look at this, specifically the permission part to find out how to use an existing IAM role for creating a Cloudformation stack.
By the way: Unfortunately the link that you've provided doesn't seem to be accessible anymore.
When deploying infrastructure using creating Cloudformation template, you can have 2 ways to do it:
Cloudformation can deploy resources using the permissions of the current user who deploys the CF template. This is the default way
Secondly (Optional), you can choose an existing role that can be attached to the CF template. Cloudformation service will use the permissions of that attached role to deploy all the required services. Given that the attached role has permissions to S3, you can create an S3 bucket as can be seen in the attached screenshot