Check your EC2 security groups for outbound rules that allow unrestricted access (i.e. 0.0.0.0/0 or ::/0) to any TCP/UDP ports and restrict access to only those IP addresses that require it in order to implement the principle of least privilege and reduce the possibility of a breach.
This rule can help you with the following compliance standards:
- Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS)
- Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
- APRA
- MAS
- NIST 800-53 (Rev. 4)
This rule can help you work with the AWS Well-Architected Framework
This rule resolution is part of the Cloud Conformity Security & Compliance tool for AWS
Allowing unrestricted (0.0.0.0/0 or ::/0) outbound/egress access can increase opportunities for malicious activity such as such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
Audit
To determine if your EC2 security groups allow unrestricted outbound access, perform the following:
Remediation / Resolution
To update your EC2 security groups outbound configuration in order to restrict access to specific destinations (IP addresses, IP ranges, etc), perform the following:
References
- AWS Documentation
- Amazon EC2 Security Groups for Linux Instances
- Security Groups for Your VPC
- AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) Documentation
- ec2
- describe-security-groups
- revoke-security-group-egress
- authorize-security-group-egress
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You are auditing:
Unrestricted Outbound Access on All Ports
Risk level: Medium