Security Hub Controls CLI

A CLI tool to disable and enable security standards controls in AWS Security Hub. It is designed to work together with AWS Security Hub Cross-Account Controls Disabler.

Purpose

The goal of this tool is to provide a possibility to maintain the status (DISABLED or ENABLED) of standards controls in AWS Security Hub within a file. That way, the status can be configured by using a code repository and a CICD pipeline.

Install

This tool can be install using pip:

git clone https://github.com/aws-samples/aws-security-hub-controls-cli/
pip install ./aws-security-hub-controls-cli

Usage

usage: shc_cli [-h] [-d] [-u UPLOAD] [--json] [--profile PROFILE]
               [--dynamodb DYNAMODB] [--max-retries MAX_RETRIES] [-v]

Disable or Enable security standards controls in AWS Security Hub.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -d, --download        Get current controls configurations from Security Hub.
  -u UPLOAD, --upload UPLOAD
                        Upload Security Hub controls configurations as defined
                        in UPLOAD file.
  --json                Use json as file format (instead of yaml) when
                        downloading current controls configurations from
                        Security Hub. Only effective when used in conjunction
                        with -d/--download
  --profile PROFILE     Use a specific profile from your credential file.
  --dynamodb DYNAMODB   Optional - Specify DynamoDB table name storing exceptions.
  --max-retries MAX_RETRIES
                        Maximal amount of retries in case of a
                        TooManyRequestsException when updating Security Hub
                        controls. (default: infinity)
  -v, --verbosity       Debugging information

Prerequisites

AWS Security Hub and security standards must be enabled.

You need following permissions to use this tool to update controls and security standards in Security Hub:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "securityhub:GetEnabledStandards",
                "securityhub:DescribeStandardsControls",
                "securityhub:UpdateStandardsControl"
            ],
            "Resource": "*"
        }
    ]
}

To use the --dynamodb option for storing exceptions in AWS DynamoDB, you need a DynamoDB table in the same AWS account as the Security Hub instance updated by the tool. A template which generates the needed DynamoDB table can be found here. Additionally to that, the following permissions are needed:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Action": [
                "dynamodb:Scan",
                "dynamodb:PutItem"
            ],
            "Resource": <DynamoDBArn>
        }
    ]
}

Workflow and examples

This section describes some basic use-cases and workflows

Getting current controls and initializing the local file

To get the current control statuses from Security Hub, use the following command:

$ shd_cli -d
cis-aws-foundations-benchmark:
  CIS.1.1:
    Title: Avoid the use of the "root" account
    ControlStatus: ENABLED
    DisabledReason: ''
  CIS.1.2:
    Title: Ensure multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for all IAM users that
      have a console password
    ControlStatus: ENABLED
    DisabledReason: ''
...

If you prefer JSON over yaml, use the --json option:

$ shd_cli -d --json
{
    "cis-aws-foundations-benchmark": {
        "CIS.1.1": {
            "Title": "Avoid the use of the \"root\" account",
            "ControlStatus": "ENABLED",
            "DisabledReason": ""
        },
        "CIS.1.2": {
            "Title": "Ensure multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for all IAM users that have a console password",
            "ControlStatus": "ENABLED",
            "DisabledReason": ""
        },
...

You can write the output into a local file:

$ shd_cli -d > controls.yaml
$ cat controls.yaml
cis-aws-foundations-benchmark:
  CIS.1.1:
    Title: Avoid the use of the "root" account
    ControlStatus: ENABLED
    DisabledReason: ''
  CIS.1.2:
    Title: Ensure multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for all IAM users that
      have a console password
    ControlStatus: ENABLED
    DisabledReason: ''
...

Update Security Hub controls as defined in local file

The local file can be used to edit the ControlStatus of single controls.
If you do not provide a DisabledReason, the default Updated via CLI is used.
Let’s disable controls CIS.1.1 and CIS.1.2. We provide a DisabledReason for CIS.1.1:

$ cat controls.yaml
cis-aws-foundations-benchmark:
  CIS.1.1:
    Title: Avoid the use of the "root" account
    ControlStatus: DISABLED
    DisabledReason: 'Risk accepted by Security Department'
  CIS.1.2:
    Title: Ensure multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for all IAM users that
      have a console password
    ControlStatus: DISABLED
    DisabledReason: ''
...

Now, let’s update the controls in Security Hub:

$ shc_cli -u controls.yaml
Start updating security standard controls...
CIS.1.1 : Update to DISABLED
CIS.1.1 : Done
CIS.1.2 : Update to DISABLED
CIS.1.2 : Done
Security standard controls updated.
Start updating security standard controls...
Security standard controls updated.

These are the new statuses of the security standard controls:

$ shc_cli -d
cis-aws-foundations-benchmark:
  CIS.1.1:
    Title: Avoid the use of the "root" account
    ControlStatus: DISABLED
    DisabledReason: Risk accepted by Security Department
  CIS.1.2:
    Title: Ensure multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for all IAM users that
      have a console password
    ControlStatus: DISABLED
    DisabledReason: Updated via CLI
...

New security standard or control added to Security Hub

In the case of activating a new security standard or AWS adding a new control to an existing standard, this tool will update the local file accordingly.
Let’s simulate this situation by removing the CIS.1.1 control from the local file:

$ cat controls.yaml
cis-aws-foundations-benchmark:
  CIS.1.2:
    Title: Ensure multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for all IAM users that
      have a console password
    ControlStatus: DISABLED
    DisabledReason: Updated via CLI
  CIS.1.3:
    Title: Ensure credentials unused for 90 days or greater are disabled
    ControlStatus: ENABLED
    DisabledReason: ''
...

When the controls are now updated with this tool, you receive an information that a new control was discovered and the local file has been updated:

$ shc_cli -u controls.yaml
Start updating security standard controls...
[WARNING] Control cis-aws-foundations-benchmark:CIS.1.1 does not exist in local file. Local file is being updated ...
Security standard controls updated.
Start updating security standard controls...
Security standard controls updated.

$ cat controls.yaml
cis-aws-foundations-benchmark:
  CIS.1.1:
    Title: Avoid the use of the "root" account
    ControlStatus: DISABLED
    DisabledReason: 'Risk accepted by Security Department'
  CIS.1.2:
    Title: Ensure multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for all IAM users that
      have a console password
    ControlStatus: DISABLED
    DisabledReason: ''
...

Adding an exception for individual accounts

If you specify a DynamoDB table with the --dynamodb option, you can define exceptional disable/enable actions for individual accounts. This will save the information in the DynamoDB table. The needed action of actually processing the information and enabling/disabling the controls for the specified accounts needs to implemented seperatly.
As a prerequisite, an according DynamoDB table must be present in the same AWS account as the Security Hub instance updated by the tool. A template which generates the needed DynamoDB table can be found here.

Exceptions are defined as a list of account IDs in the optional Enabled and Disabled fields per control, as seen in the following example.

$ cat controls.yaml
cis-aws-foundations-benchmark:
  CIS.1.1:
    Title: Avoid the use of the "root" account
    ControlStatus: DISABLED
    DisabledReason: 'Risk accepted by Security Department'
    Enabled:
      - 111111111111
  CIS.1.2:
    Title: Ensure multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for all IAM users that
      have a console password
    ControlStatus: ENABLED
    DisabledReason: ''
    Disabled:
      - 222222222222
...

If no DisabledReason is specified, as for CIS.1.2 above, Exception will be used as a default DisabledReason in the DynamoDB table.
When the controls are now updated with this tool, you receive an information that the exceptions will be created (or updated) in the DynamoDB table.

$ shc_cli -u controls.yaml --dynamodb DYNAMODB_TABLENAME
Start updating security standard controls...
CIS.1.1 : Update to DISABLED
CIS.1.1 : Done
CIS.1.2 : Update to ENABLED
CIS.1.2 : Done
Security standard controls updated.
Start updating exceptions in DynamoDB table...
CIS.1.1: Create exceptions in DynamoDB table.
CIS.1.2: Create exceptions in DynamoDB table.
Exceptions in DynamoDB table updated.

When you now download the control statuses by providing the DynamoDB table name, you will receive the exceptions as well:

$ shc_cli -d --dynamodb DYNAMODB_TABLENAME
cis-aws-foundations-benchmark:
  CIS.1.1:
    Title: Avoid the use of the "root" account
    ControlStatus: DISABLED
    DisabledReason: Risk accepted by Security Department
    Enabled:
    - '111111111111'
  CIS.1.2:
    Title: Ensure multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enabled for all IAM users that
      have a console password
    ControlStatus: ENABLED
    DisabledReason: Exception
    Disabled:
    - '22222222222'
...

GitHub

View Github