Root Account Activity Should Be Monitored

More Info:

Checks activity of any root user . Using the root account is strongly discouraged for everyday tasks as it carries a high level of privilege and can be risky. Monitoring this activity can help ensure the root account is only being used for authorized purposes.

Risk Level

Medium

Address

Security

Compliance Standards

CBP

Triage and Remediation

How to Prevent

Using Console

Using CLI

To prevent the misconfiguration of not monitoring root account activity in AWS IAM using the AWS CLI, you can follow these steps:

Enable CloudTrail for Logging: Ensure that AWS CloudTrail is enabled to log all activities, including those performed by the root account.
```
aws cloudtrail create-trail --name my-trail --s3-bucket-name my-trail-bucket
aws cloudtrail start-logging --name my-trail
```

Set Up CloudWatch Alarms for Root Account Usage: Create a CloudWatch alarm to monitor root account activity. First, create a metric filter to capture root account usage from CloudTrail logs.

aws logs create-log-group --log-group-name CloudTrail/DefaultLogGroup
aws logs create-log-stream --log-group-name CloudTrail/DefaultLogGroup --log-stream-name RootAccountUsage
aws logs put-metric-filter --log-group-name CloudTrail/DefaultLogGroup --filter-name RootAccountUsageFilter --filter-pattern '{ $.userIdentity.type = "Root" }' --metric-transformations metricName=RootAccountUsage,metricNamespace=CloudTrailMetrics,metricValue=1

Create CloudWatch Alarm: Create an alarm based on the metric filter to notify you when root account activity is detected.

aws cloudwatch put-metric-alarm --alarm-name RootAccountUsageAlarm --metric-name RootAccountUsage --namespace CloudTrailMetrics --statistic Sum --period 300 --threshold 1 --comparison-operator GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold --evaluation-periods 1 --alarm-actions arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:MySNSTopic

Subscribe to SNS Topic for Notifications: Ensure you have an SNS topic to receive notifications and subscribe to it.

aws sns create-topic --name MySNSTopic
aws sns subscribe --topic-arn arn:aws:sns:us-east-1:123456789012:MySNSTopic --protocol email --notification-endpoint [email protected]

By following these steps, you can effectively monitor root account activity in AWS IAM using the AWS CLI.

Using Python

To prevent root account activity from going unmonitored in AWS IAM using Python scripts, you can follow these steps:

1. Enable CloudTrail for Root Account Activity

CloudTrail is a service that enables governance, compliance, and operational and risk auditing of your AWS account. By enabling CloudTrail, you can log, continuously monitor, and retain account activity related to actions across your AWS infrastructure.

import boto3

def enable_cloudtrail():
    client = boto3.client('cloudtrail')
    response = client.create_trail(
        Name='RootAccountActivityTrail',
        S3BucketName='your-s3-bucket-name',
        IncludeGlobalServiceEvents=True,
        IsMultiRegionTrail=True,
        EnableLogFileValidation=True,
        IsOrganizationTrail=False
    )
    client.start_logging(Name='RootAccountActivityTrail')
    print("CloudTrail enabled and logging started for root account activity.")

enable_cloudtrail()

2. Set Up CloudWatch Alarms for Root Account Activity

CloudWatch can be used to set up alarms that notify you when specific actions are taken by the root account.

import boto3

def create_cloudwatch_alarm():
    client = boto3.client('cloudwatch')
    response = client.put_metric_alarm(
        AlarmName='RootAccountActivityAlarm',
        MetricName='RootAccountUsage',
        Namespace='AWS/CloudTrail',
        Statistic='Sum',
        Period=300,
        EvaluationPeriods=1,
        Threshold=1,
        ComparisonOperator='GreaterThanOrEqualToThreshold',
        AlarmActions=[
            'arn:aws:sns:your-region:your-account-id:your-sns-topic'
        ],
        Dimensions=[
            {
                'Name': 'EventName',
                'Value': 'ConsoleLogin'
            },
            {
                'Name': 'UserIdentity.arn',
                'Value': 'arn:aws:iam::your-account-id:root'
            }
        ]
    )
    print("CloudWatch alarm created for root account activity.")

create_cloudwatch_alarm()

3. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Root Account

Enabling MFA adds an extra layer of security to your root account. This script ensures that MFA is enabled for the root account.

import boto3

def enable_mfa_for_root():
    client = boto3.client('iam')
    response = client.create_virtual_mfa_device(
        VirtualMFADeviceName='root-account-mfa',
        Path='/',
    )
    print("MFA device created for root account. Please manually associate it with the root account.")

enable_mfa_for_root()

4. Restrict Root Account Usage

Create an IAM policy that restricts the usage of the root account and apply it to all users.

import boto3

def create_restrict_root_policy():
    client = boto3.client('iam')
    policy_document = {
        "Version": "2012-10-17",
        "Statement": [
            {
                "Effect": "Deny",
                "Action": "*",
                "Resource": "*",
                "Condition": {
                    "StringEquals": {
                        "aws:username": "root"
                    }
                }
            }
        ]
    }
    response = client.create_policy(
        PolicyName='RestrictRootAccountUsage',
        PolicyDocument=json.dumps(policy_document)
    )
    print("Policy created to restrict root account usage.")

create_restrict_root_policy()

These steps will help you monitor and restrict root account activity, ensuring that any actions taken by the root account are logged, monitored, and controlled.

AWS Introduction

AWS Pricing

AWS Threats

AWS Misconfigurations

Root Account Activity Should Be Monitored

More Info:

Risk Level

Address

Compliance Standards

Triage and Remediation

How to Prevent

1. Enable CloudTrail for Root Account Activity

2. Set Up CloudWatch Alarms for Root Account Activity

3. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Root Account

4. Restrict Root Account Usage

AWS Introduction

AWS Pricing

AWS Threats

AWS Misconfigurations

​More Info:

​Risk Level

​Address

​Compliance Standards

​Triage and Remediation

​How to Prevent

More Info:

Risk Level

Address

Compliance Standards

Triage and Remediation

How to Prevent