No Secrets In Launch Template User Data | Vulnerability Database

User data for EC2 instances must not contain sensitive AWS keys

EC2 instance data is used to pass start up information into the EC2 instance. This userdata must not contain access key credentials. Instead use an IAM Instance Profile assigned to the instance to grant access to other AWS Services.

Impact

Recommended Actions

Follow the appropriate remediation steps below to resolve the issue.

Remove sensitive data from the EC2 instance user-data generated by launch templates

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Resources:
  GoodExample:
    Type: AWS::EC2::LaunchTemplate
    Properties:
      LaunchTemplateData:
        DisableApiTermination: true
        IamInstanceProfile:
          Arn:
            - MyIamInstanceProfile
            - Arn
        ImageId: ami-04d5cc9b88example
        InstanceType: t2.micro
        KeyName: MyKeyPair
        MetadataOptions:
          - HttpTokens: required
        SecurityGroupIds:
          - sg-083cd3bfb8example
        UserData: export SSM_PATH=/database/creds
      LaunchTemplateName: MyLaunchTemplate

  InstanceProfile:
    Type: AWS::IAM::InstanceProfile
    Properties:
      InstanceProfileName: MyIamInstanceProfile
      Path: /
      Roles:
        - MyAdminRole

Remove sensitive data from the EC2 instance user-data generated by launch templates

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resource "aws_iam_instance_profile" "good_example" {
  // ...
}

resource "aws_launch_template" "good_example" {
  image_id      = "ami-12345667"
  instance_type = "t2.small"

  iam_instance_profile {
    name = aws_iam_instance_profile.good_profile.arn
  }
  user_data = <<EOF
	 export GREETING=hello
EOF
}

Remediation Links

https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/aws/latest/docs/resources/instance#user_data