Should I make my S3 bucket public for static site hosting? - amazon-web-services

I have an s3 bucket that is used to host a static site that is accessed through cloudfront.
I wish to use the s3 <RoutingRules> to redirect any 404 to the root of the request hostname. To do this I need to set the cloudfront origin to use the s3 "website endpoint".
However, it appears that to allow Cloudfront to access the s3 bucket via the "website endpoint" and not the "s3 REST API endpoint", I need to explicitly make the bucket public, namely, with a policy rule like:
{
"Sid": "AllowPublicGetObject",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": {
"AWS": "*"
},
"Action": "s3:GetObject",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::dev.ts3.online-test/*"
},
{
"Sid": "AllowPublicListBucket",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": {
"AWS": "*"
},
"Action": "s3:ListBucket",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::dev.ts3.online-test"
}
That's all well and good. It works. However AWS gives me a nice big shiny warning saying:
This bucket has public access. You have provided public access to this bucket. We highly recommend that you never grant any kind of public access to your S3 bucket.
So I have two questions I suppose:
Surely this warning should be caveated, and is just laziness on AWS' part? Everything in the bucket is static files that can be freely requested. There is no protected or secret content in the bucket. I don't see why giving public read is a security hole at all...
For peace of mind, is there any way to specify a principalId in the bucket policy that will only grant this to cloudfront? (I know if I use the REST endpoint I can set it to the OAI, but I can't use the rest endpoint)

The first thing about the warning.
The list buckets view shows whether your bucket is publicly accessible. Amazon S3 labels the permissions for a bucket as follows:
Public –
Everyone has access to one or more of the following: List objects, Write objects, Read and write permissions.
Objects can be public –::
The bucket is not public, but anyone with the appropriate permissions can grant public access to objects.
Buckets and objects not public –:
- The bucket and objects do not have any public access.
Only authorized users of this account –:
Access is isolated to IAM users and roles in this account and AWS service principals because there is a policy that grants public access.
So the warning due to first one. Recomended policy by AWS for s3 static website is below.
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "PublicReadGetObject",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": "*",
"Action": [
"s3:GetObject"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/*"
]
}
]
}
Add a bucket policy to the website bucket that grants everyone access
to the objects in the bucket. When you configure a bucket as a
website, you must make the objects that you want to serve publicly
readable. To do so, you write a bucket policy that grants everyone
s3:GetObject permission. The following example bucket policy grants
everyone access to the objects in the example-bucket bucket.
BTW public access should be only GET, not anything else, Its totally fine to allow GET request for your static website on S3.
static-website-hosting

Related

Grant access to Amazon S3 bucket only to one IAM User

I wish to have a bucket that only one IAM user could access using the AWS Console, list its content and access object files inside it.
So, I have created the IAM user, the bucket itself, and later:
bucket policy as follow:
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "statement1",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": {
"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::0000000:user/dave"
},
"Action": [
"s3:GetBucketLocation",
"s3:ListBucket"
],
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::testbucket1234"
},
{
"Sid": "statement2",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": {
"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::0000000:user/dave"
},
"Action": "s3:GetObject",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::testbucket1234/*"
}
]
}
And also a inline policy attached to my user's group, as follow:
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "VisualEditor0",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"s3:*Object",
"s3:PutObject"
],
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::testbucket1234/*"
},
{
"Sid": "VisualEditor1",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": "s3:ListAllMyBuckets",
"Resource": "*"
}
]
}
Now: I can list my buckets, access the desired bucket, list its content (so far so good). The problem is when I try to open one file object inside the bucket and I get "access denied" error. If I turn the object public, I can access it, but I can also access it using other IAM accounts, and that is not the intention. I want to access the bucket, list its contents and access objects only by usage of this specific IAM account. What am I doing wrong? How can I reach this goal? Thanks in advance.
By default, no IAM User can access any bucket. It is only by granting permissions to users that they can access resources.
However, many people tend to grant Amazon S3 permissions for all buckets, at least for Administrators. This then makes it difficult to remove permissions so that a bucket can only be accessed by one user. While it can be done with Deny policies, such policies are difficult to craft correctly.
For situations where specific data should only be accessed by one user, or a specific group of users (eg HR staff), I would recommend that you create a separate AWS Account and only grant permission to specific IAM Users or IAM Groups via a Bucket Policy (which works fine cross-account). This way, any generic policies that grant access to "all buckets" will not apply to buckets in this separate account.
Update: Accessing private objects
Expanding on what is mentioned in the comments below, a private object in Amazon S3 can be accessed by an authorized user. However, when accessing the object, it is necessary to identify who is accessing the object and their identity must be proved. This can be done in one of several ways:
In the Amazon S3 management console, use the Open command (in the Actions menu). This will open the object using a pre-signed URL that authorizes the access based upon the user who logged into the console. The same method is used for the Download option.
Using the AWS Command-Line Interface (CLI), you can download objects. The AWS CLI needs to be pre-configured with your IAM security credentials to prove your identity.
Programs using an AWS SDK can access S3 objects using their IAM security credentials. In fact, the AWS CLI is simply a Python program that uses the AWS SDK.
If you want to access the object via a URL, an application can generate an Amazon S3 pre-signed URLs. This URL includes the user's identity and a security signature that grants access to a private object for a limited period (eg 5 minutes). This method is commonly used when web applications want to grant access to a private object, such as a document or photo. The S3 management console actually uses this method when a user selects Actions/Open, so that the user can view a private object in their browser.

File in Amazon S3 bucket denied after making bucket public

I have made my Amazon S3 bucket public, by going to its Permissions tab, and setting public access to everyone:
List objects
Write objects
List bucket permissions
Write bucket permissions
There is now an orange "Public" label on the bucket.
But when I go into the bucket, click on one of the images stored there, and click on the Link it provides, I get Access Denied. The link looks like this:
https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/[bucket-name]/images/36d03456fcfaa06061f.jpg
Why is it still unavailable despite setting the bucket's permissions to public?
You either need to set Object Level Permissions on each object that you want to be available to the internet as Read Object.
or, you can use Bucket Policies to make this more widely permissioned, and not worry about resetting the permissions on each upload:
{
"Version": "2008-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": "*",
"Action": "s3:GetObject",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::www.example.com/*"
}
]
}

Restrict Amazon S3 access to single HTTPS host

I want to proxy an Amazon S3 bucket through our reverse proxy (Nginx).
For higher security, I want to forbid the read access to the bucket to anything except of the HTTPS host at which I ran the proxy.
Is there a way to configure Amazon S3 for this task?
Please provide the configuration.
I considered to add a password in S3 bucket name, but it is not a solution, because we need also signed uploads to the bucket and so the bucket name will be publicly available.
If your reverse proxy has a Public IP address, then you would add this policy to the Amazon S3 bucket:
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Id": "S3PolicyId1",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "IPAllow",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": "*",
"Action": "s3:GetObject",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::examplebucket/*",
"Condition": {
"IpAddress": {"aws:SourceIp": "54.240.143.22/32"}
}
}
]
}
This grants permissions to GetObject if the request is coming from the specific IP address. Amazon S3 is private by default, so this is granting access only in that particular situation. You will also want to grant access to IAM Users/Groups (via IAM, not a Bucket Policy) so that bucket content can be updated.
See: Bucket Policy Examples - Amazon Simple Storage Service

Only allow EC2 instance to access static website on S3

I have a static website hosted on S3, I have set all files to be public.
Also, I have an EC2 instance with nginx that acts as a reverse proxy and can access the static website, so S3 plays the role of the origin.
What I would like to do now is set all files on S3 to be private, so that the website can only be accessed by traffic coming from the nginx (EC2).
So far I have tried the following. I have created and attached a new policy role to the EC2 instance with
Policies Granting Permission: AmazonS3ReadOnlyAccess
And have rebooted the EC2 instance.
I then created a policy in my S3 bucket console > Permissions > Bucket Policy
{
"Version": "xxxxx",
"Id": "xxxxxxx",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "xxxxxxx",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": {
"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::XXXXXXXXXX:role/MyROLE"
},
"Action": "s3:GetObject",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::XXX-bucket/*"
}
]
}
As principal I have set the ARN I got when I created the role for the EC2 instance.
"Principal": {
"AWS": "arn:aws:iam::XXXXXXXXXX:role/MyROLE"
},
However, this does not work, any help is appreciated.
If the Amazon EC2 instance with nginx is merely making generic web requests to Amazon S3, then the question becomes how to identify requests coming from nginx as 'permitted', while rejecting all other requests.
One method is to use a VPC Endpoint for S3, which allows direct communication from a VPC to Amazon S3 (rather than going out an Internet Gateway).
A bucket policy can then restrict access to the bucket such that it can only be accessed via that endpoint.
Here is a bucket policy from Example Bucket Policies for VPC Endpoints for Amazon S3:
The following is an example of an S3 bucket policy that allows access to a specific bucket, examplebucket, only from the VPC endpoint with the ID vpce-1a2b3c4d. The policy uses the aws:sourceVpce condition key to restrict access to the specified VPC endpoint.
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Id": "Policy",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "Access-to-specific-VPCE-only",
"Action": "s3:*",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Resource": ["arn:aws:s3:::examplebucket",
"arn:aws:s3:::examplebucket/*"],
"Condition": {
"StringEquals": {
"aws:sourceVpce": "vpce-1a2b3c4d"
}
},
"Principal": "*"
}
]
}
So, the complete design would be:
Object ACL: Private only (remove any current public permissions)
Bucket Policy: As above
IAM Role: Not needed
Route Table configured for VPC Endpoint
Permissions in Amazon S3 can be granted in several ways:
Directly on an object (known as an Access Control List or ACL)
Via a Bucket Policy (which applies to the whole bucket, or a directory)
To an IAM User/Group/Role
If any of the above grant access, then the object can be accessed publicly.
Your scenario requires the following configuration:
The ACL on each object should not permit public access
There should be no Bucket Policy
You should assign permissions in the Policy attached to the IAM Role
Whenever you have permissions relating to a User/Group/Role, it is better to assign the permission in IAM rather than on the Bucket. Use Bucket Policies for general access to all users.
The policy on the Role would be:
{
"Version": "2012-10-17",
"Statement": [
{
"Sid": "AllowBucketAccess",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Action": [
"s3:GetObject"
],
"Resource": [
"arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*"
]
}
]
}
This policy is directly applied to the IAM Role, so there is no need for a principal field.
Please note that this policy only allows GetObject -- it does not permit listing of buckets, uploading objects, etc.
You also mention that "I have set all files to be public". If you did this by making each individual object publicly readable, then anyone will still be able to access the objects. There are two ways to prevent this -- either remove the permissions from each object, or create a Bucket Policy with a Deny statement that stops access, but still permits the Role to get access.
That's starting to get a bit tricky and hard to maintain, so I'd recommend removing the permissions from each object. This can be done via the management console by editing the permissions on each object, or by using the AWS Command-Line Interface (CLI) with a command like:
aws s3 cp s3://my-bucket s3://my-bucket --recursive --acl private
This copies the files in-place but changes the access settings.
(I'm not 100% sure whether to use --acl private or --acl bucket-owner-full-control, so play around a bit.)

Amazon S3 access control-Who can upload files?

I have a static website created with Amazon S3. The only permissions I have set are through the bucket policy provided in Amazons tutorial:
{
"Version":"2012-10-17",
"Statement": [{
"Sid": "Allow Public Access to All Objects",
"Effect": "Allow",
"Principal": "*",
"Action": "s3:GetObject",
"Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::example.com/*"
}
]
}
Clearly, this policy enables the public to view any file stored on my bucket, which I want. My question is, is this policy alone enough to prevent other people from uploading files and/or hijacking my website? I wish for the public to be able to access any file on the bucket, but I want to be the only one with list, upload, and delete permissions. Is this the current behavior of my bucket, given that my bucket policy only addresses view permissions?
Have a look at this: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/AccessPolicyLanguage_EvaluationLogic.html#policy-eval-basics
From that document:
When a request is made, the AWS service decides whether a given
request should be allowed or denied. The evaluation logic follows
these rules:
By default, all requests are denied. (In general, requests made using
the account credentials for resources in the account are always
allowed.)
An explicit allow overrides this default.
An explicit deny overrides any allows.
So as long as you don't explicitly allow other access you should be fine. I have a static site hosted on S3 and I have the same access policy.