Pre-provision access

Pre-provisioning access for incident responders ensures that they can act quickly and efficiently during a security incident, reducing the time required for investigation, containment, and recovery. Pre-provisioning the appropriate permissions and access to critical resources helps eliminate delays associated with requesting and approving access during an incident. Proper planning and role-based access controls are essential to enabling effective incident response.

1. Define roles and permissions for incident response: Establish specific roles for incident response within AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), such as Incident Commander, Security Analyst, and Forensic Investigator. Assign each role the appropriate permissions needed to investigate incidents, contain threats, and recover systems. These roles should have the least privilege required to perform their tasks while ensuring they have adequate access during an emergency.
2. Create an Incident Response IAM role: Create an IAM role specifically for incident response, with permissions to access critical AWS services like Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, Amazon VPC Flow Logs, AWS Systems Manager, and AWS Config. This role should have permissions to gather logs, analyze configurations, contain instances, and modify security settings as needed to respond effectively to incidents.
3. Use temporary access for elevated permissions: For roles requiring elevated privileges, use temporary access through AWS Security Token Service (STS) or AWS IAM Access Keys to provide time-limited access for incident response. Temporary credentials ensure that access to sensitive resources is granted only during the incident and automatically expires after a predefined duration.
4. Set up break-glass access policies: Prepare a “break-glass” mechanism to allow elevated access during critical incidents. Break-glass access can be granted using IAM roles with privileged permissions that are disabled by default and activated only in emergencies. Establish clear guidelines for approving and activating break-glass access, ensuring that access is logged and monitored to maintain accountability.
5. Provision cross-account access for centralized response: If your organization uses multiple AWS accounts, pre-provision cross-account access for incident responders to facilitate centralized incident response. Use AWS IAM roles and AWS Organizations to grant cross-account permissions, allowing responders to access resources across different accounts during an incident without the need for manual approval.
6. Enable AWS Systems Manager for instance access: Use AWS Systems Manager Session Manager to provide secure access to Amazon EC2 instances without the need for SSH keys or bastion hosts. Pre-configure Systems Manager to ensure that incident responders have access to instances for investigation and remediation. This approach ensures secure, auditable access while reducing the risk of exposing sensitive credentials.
7. Automate access provisioning for incidents: Use AWS Identity Center (AWS Single Sign-On) to automate the provisioning of access for incident responders. During an incident, roles and permissions can be assigned automatically based on predefined conditions, ensuring responders have the correct access quickly. Automating access provisioning reduces administrative overhead and minimizes response time.
8. Regularly review and test incident response access: Conduct periodic reviews of the permissions assigned to incident responders to ensure that they align with the requirements of current incident response processes. Test incident response access during tabletop exercises or game days to ensure that responders can access the necessary resources without delay during an actual incident.

Supporting Questions:

• How do you ensure that incident responders have appropriate access to resources during a security incident?
• What mechanisms are in place to provide temporary or emergency access during critical incidents?
• How do you maintain and test pre-provisioned access for incident responders?

Roles and Responsibilities:

Incident Commander:

• Responsibilities:
  • Ensure that all incident responders have the necessary access to resources to perform their roles effectively during an incident.
  • Oversee the activation of break-glass access if elevated privileges are needed.

Security Analyst:

• Responsibilities:
  • Use pre-provisioned access to investigate incidents, gather logs, and analyze data during security events.
  • Ensure that all activities during incident response are logged and documented for auditing purposes.

Cloud Administrator:

• Responsibilities:
  • Set up and maintain IAM roles, permissions, and cross-account access to support incident response activities.
  • Use AWS Systems Manager to ensure secure, auditable access to EC2 instances during incidents.

Artefacts:

• Incident Response Access Policy Documentation: Documentation detailing the roles, permissions, and access requirements for incident responders, including break-glass access procedures.
• Break-Glass Access Log: Logs documenting when break-glass access is activated, who approved it, and what actions were taken during its use.
• Access Review Reports: Reports from periodic reviews of incident response access, including any adjustments made to align with current response needs.

Relevant AWS Services:

AWS Access Management Tools:

• AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): Manages roles, permissions, and cross-account access for incident responders, ensuring that they have the correct level of access during an incident.
• AWS Security Token Service (STS): Provides temporary credentials for elevated access, ensuring that elevated permissions are granted only when needed and for a limited duration.
• AWS Identity Center (AWS Single Sign-On): Automates the provisioning of roles and permissions for incident responders, reducing response times during an incident.

Access and Monitoring Tools:

• AWS Systems Manager Session Manager: Provides secure, auditable access to EC2 instances, enabling incident responders to investigate and remediate issues without exposing SSH keys.
• AWS CloudTrail: Logs all activities performed by incident responders, including the activation of break-glass access and changes made to AWS resources.
• AWS Organizations: Manages cross-account permissions for incident responders, ensuring they can access resources across multiple AWS accounts during incidents without manual intervention.