AWS re:Inforce, a highly anticipated cloud security learning event, is set to commence on Monday, June 16, in the vibrant city of Philadelphia. This immersive gathering is dedicated to exploring the latest advancements and best practices in cloud security. Among the prominent participants, HashiCorp is making a significant impact with its presence, featuring a range of breakout sessions, expert talks, and product demonstrations.
At the heart of re:Inforce, HashiCorp is introducing recent launches of its Security Lifecycle Management (SLM) products and features. These innovations are designed to minimize security risks and significantly enhance the user experience on AWS for developers, security operations (SecOps), and platform teams.
Recent Developments in HashiCorp and AWS Security
Several noteworthy advancements have emerged from the collaboration between HashiCorp and AWS. These include:
- HCP Vault Radar: This tool is designed to discover, remediate, and prevent unmanaged secrets.
- Bring Your Own DNS for HCP Vault Dedicated (Beta): A feature allowing for the integration of private DNS.
- Automated Root Credential Rotation with Vault: A mechanism to manage credential rotations.
- Prewritten Sentinel Policies for AWS: Policies aimed at ensuring infrastructure compliance.
- Terraform Ephemeral Resources: Resources designed with security in mind.
- re:Inforce Speaking Session: A session on scaling cloud compliance and governance with Terraform and AWS.
HCP Vault Radar: A Comprehensive Solution for Secret Management
HCP Vault Radar, now generally available, serves as a powerful tool for teams seeking to tackle the challenge of secret sprawl. Secret sprawl refers to the uncontrolled distribution of sensitive data, such as passwords and API keys, across various platforms. HCP Vault Radar addresses this issue by continuously scanning for hard-coded credentials within source code and collaboration platforms like GitHub, Confluence, and Jira.
The tool offers several capabilities, including:
- Discovery: Utilizing pattern matching and entropy analysis to identify secrets.
- Remediation: Providing secure Vault import options and guided best practices to address identified issues.
- Prevention: Integrating with pull-request scans and CI/CD pipelines to prevent new exposures.
These features not only help prevent credential leaks but also ensure compliance and provide security teams with valuable insights into unmanaged risks within the codebase. For a deeper understanding of how HCP Vault Radar can benefit organizations, you can explore AWS’s blog post titled "Prevent Secret Sprawl with HCP Vault Radar."
Bring Your Own DNS for HCP Vault Dedicated (Beta)
The "Bring Your Own DNS" feature, currently in beta, caters to customers who wish to keep their network traffic confined within isolated or private networks. This feature enables users to connect HCP Vault Dedicated to private systems within AWS. By configuring private DNS servers in AWS, teams can ensure that Vault service names are only resolvable within a private network, reducing exposure to the internet and mitigating potential DNS-based attacks.
This functionality allows DNS queries to be centrally logged and monitored, offering teams greater control over name resolution logs. The ability to manage DNS queries and resolve private endpoints enhances security by reducing the risk profile associated with network traffic.
Automated Root Credential Rotation with Vault
In an effort to streamline security practices, Vault now offers an automated mechanism for rotating root credentials. This feature is applicable to AWS authentication methods, secret engines, LDAP, and database plugins. By creating a centralized rotation manager, Vault simplifies the process of adding automated credential rotation to plugins, similar to its lease manager.
Regular credential rotation reduces the risks associated with static secrets and minimizes the need for manual interventions. This, in turn, alleviates the management burden on teams and helps organizations meet compliance and regulatory requirements.
Terraform Adds New Prewritten Sentinel Policies for AWS
Building on the success of prewritten Sentinel policies for Center for Internet Security (CIS) standards, HashiCorp has introduced a new set of policies tailored to AWS Foundational Security Best Practices (FSBP). These policies are the result of a collaborative effort between HashiCorp and AWS and are available for use in the Terraform registry.
The prewritten Sentinel policies offer a turnkey solution to complex governance challenges, enabling organizations to enhance security without compromising speed. This collaboration underscores the value of integrating AWS’s cloud infrastructure with HashiCorp’s automation and security capabilities. A demonstration video is available for those interested in quickly implementing these policies.
Terraform Ephemeral Resources: Secure by Design
Ephemeral resources in Terraform are designed to be temporary, offering a secure way to manage data. These resources read data from sources like AWS Secrets Manager and establish connections. The attributes of ephemeral resources can be referenced elsewhere without being stored in the Terraform plan artifact or state file.
Ephemeral resources require all dependencies to be present as they execute during both the plan and apply stages. Terraform can defer the execution of an ephemeral resource to the apply stage if it references a value that is not yet determined at the plan stage but will be available during apply. This design ensures that security is maintained throughout the process.
Scaling Cloud Compliance & Governance with Terraform & AWS
For those attending AWS re:Inforce, HashiCorp invites you to visit their booth (#1139) to engage with technical experts, witness product demonstrations, and learn how companies are accelerating their cloud journey with HashiCorp and AWS.
On Monday, attendees can enjoy an evening at Harper’s Garden, featuring light bites, drinks, and unique experiences like HashiCorp swag, aura headshots, and trivia with prizes. A brief presentation titled "Shift Left and Scale: Automate AWS Governance and Compliance" will also be part of the event.
On Tuesday, a lightning talk at re:Inforce will cover how policy as code simplifies security policy enforcement and audit processes. The session, titled "Scaling Cloud Compliance & Governance with Terraform & AWS" (Session ID: GRC121-S), will take place at 12:30 p.m. ET.
For those unable to attend re:Inforce, HashiCorp and AWS will host a webinar titled "Strengthen AWS Infrastructure Security with Sentinel in Terraform" on Wednesday, July 23, at 1 p.m. ET. Interested parties can register online.
AWS re:Inforce promises to be an informative and engaging event, offering valuable insights into the latest developments in cloud security. HashiCorp’s contributions highlight the importance of collaboration and innovation in enhancing security practices for organizations leveraging AWS infrastructure.
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