Skip to main content

AWS Setup for dfe-fetcher

What a cloud administrator configures so dfe-fetcher can pull security and operational data from AWS.

Overview​

dfe-fetcher polls AWS service APIs on an interval and ships each record to Kafka. It supports these AWS services: CloudTrail (management-event audit trail), GuardDuty (threat-detection findings), SecurityHub (aggregated security findings), Config (resource configuration through SelectResourceConfig), CloudWatch Logs (log events), CloudWatch Metrics (monitoring data, emitted as JSON or OTLP), Inspector (Inspector v2 vulnerability findings), and Health (AWS Health events). All access is read-only - dfe-fetcher never writes, modifies, or deletes resources. Requests are direct AWS REST/JSON API calls signed with SigV4, not the AWS SDK. Authentication is a static access key pair, inline or from a secrets manager.

The source is the shipped aws profile (crates/fetcher/profiles/aws.yaml); the sources.aws block below maps onto an instance of it at load. Every unit is its own AWS service, signed for that service in the configured region (Health is region-locked to us-east-1), and every list pages to the end on the token the API documents. A 429 or 5xx is retried with backoff (honouring Retry-After), a 401 or 403 ends the tick, and a tick that fails does not advance the fetch window. The health check is STS GetCallerIdentity, the one call every key may make.

Prerequisites​

  • An AWS account with the services you intend to fetch already enabled (GuardDuty, SecurityHub, Config recording, and Inspector v2 must be turned on tenant-side or their APIs return empty or refuse).
  • An IAM user (or role) for dfe-fetcher, plus permission to create it.
  • AWS CLI v2 authenticated (SSO or a profile) if using the manual or OpenTofu paths.
  • Cost flags: dfe-fetcher only reads, but some capabilities here may carry a cost depending on your AWS plan. The Health API requires a paid support plan (lesser tiers answer SubscriptionRequiredException), and services such as Inspector v2 may carry their own cost when enabled. See the Cost section.

Required Permissions​

Grant only the actions for the services you configure. None support resource-level ARN scoping for these read operations, so use "Resource": "*". The health check's sts:GetCallerIdentity needs no permission.

ServiceIAM ActionsNotes
CloudTrailcloudtrail:LookupEvents (or managed policy AWSCloudTrail_ReadOnlyAccess)LookupEvents covers the last 90 days of management events
GuardDutyguardduty:ListDetectors, guardduty:ListFindings, guardduty:GetFindingsOne detector per region; fetcher walks all detectors and looks findings up under the detector that listed them
SecurityHubsecurityhub:GetFindingsRequires SecurityHub enabled in the account; fetches every finding whose record changed in the window, in any workflow status, so a finding's resolution arrives as an update. The workflow_status knob narrows it
Configconfig:SelectResourceConfigRequires AWS Config recording in the account; the expression knob replaces the default query
CloudWatch Logslogs:FilterLogEvents, logs:DescribeLogGroups, logs:DescribeLogStreams, logs:GetLogEventsPer-service config must set log_group_name
CloudWatch Metricscloudwatch:ListMetrics, cloudwatch:GetMetricData, cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics, cloudwatch:DescribeAlarmsPer-service config must set namespaces
Inspectorinspector2:ListFindings (or managed policy AmazonInspector2ReadOnlyAccess)Inspector v2; returns empty unless enabled tenant-side
Healthhealth:DescribeEventsRequires Business / Enterprise On-Ramp / Enterprise Support tier

Least-Privilege Policy (All Services)​

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Sid": "CloudTrailRead",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudtrail:LookupEvents",
        "cloudtrail:GetTrailStatus",
        "cloudtrail:DescribeTrails"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "GuardDutyRead",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "guardduty:ListDetectors",
        "guardduty:ListFindings",
        "guardduty:GetFindings"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "SecurityHubRead",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "securityhub:GetFindings"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "ConfigRead",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "config:SelectResourceConfig"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "CloudWatchLogsRead",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "logs:FilterLogEvents",
        "logs:DescribeLogGroups",
        "logs:DescribeLogStreams",
        "logs:GetLogEvents"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "CloudWatchMetricsRead",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "cloudwatch:ListMetrics",
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricData",
        "cloudwatch:GetMetricStatistics",
        "cloudwatch:DescribeAlarms"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "InspectorRead",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "inspector2:ListFindings"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    },
    {
      "Sid": "HealthRead",
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "health:DescribeEvents"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Source-Side Setup​

OpenTofu (Automated)​

The test infrastructure is defined in infra/test/main.tf (AWS section). It provisions an IAM user dfe-fetcher-test, attaches the AWSCloudTrail_ReadOnlyAccess managed policy, adds an inline policy with CloudWatch Logs and Metrics read actions, and creates an access key.

cd infra/test
cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars
# Edit terraform.tfvars - set aws_profile and aws_region
tofu init
tofu apply
tofu output -json | python3 gen-env.py > ../../.env

The module provisions CloudTrail and CloudWatch permissions only. For GuardDuty, SecurityHub, Config, Inspector, or Health, attach additional statements to the inline policy (see the Required Permissions table) or extend the module.

Manual Setup​

If you prefer not to use OpenTofu:

  1. Create the IAM user.

    aws iam create-user --user-name dfe-fetcher

  2. Attach the managed policy for CloudTrail.

    aws iam attach-user-policy \
      --user-name dfe-fetcher \
      --policy-arn arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AWSCloudTrail_ReadOnlyAccess

  3. Create an inline policy for the other services. Save the JSON above (or a subset) to policy.json, removing statements for services you do not need.

    aws iam put-user-policy \
      --user-name dfe-fetcher \
      --policy-name dfe-fetcher-readonly \
      --policy-document file://policy.json

  4. Generate an access key.

    aws iam create-access-key --user-name dfe-fetcher

  5. Configure dfe-fetcher (see below).

Cross-Account Access​

Set assume_role_arn to an IAM role ARN and the fetcher signs with that role instead of the key it is given: it calls STS AssumeRole once per connection (on the regional STS endpoint of the connection's region, session name dfe-fetcher), keeps the session credentials until shortly before they expire, then assumes the role again, and every signed request carries the session token in x-amz-security-token. The key's own principal needs sts:AssumeRole on the role, and the role's trust policy must name that principal; the role then needs the read permissions listed above, not the key. A role in another partition (GovCloud, China) is checked against the connection's region when it is first assumed.

Without assume_role_arn the fetcher signs with the static key pair. A second account can be read either way: a role in that account assumed by this key, or a read-only user and key in that account added as a second entry under connections (below) or as a second sources.rest instance of the aws profile.

dfe-fetcher Configuration​

The AWS source config fields are: enabled, region, access_key_id, secret_access_key, assume_role_arn, credential_secret, interval_secs, services, connections, topic, endpoint_override, filter. Each service entry is { name, config }. Valid name values are cloudtrail, guardduty, securityhub, config, cloudwatch_logs, cloudwatch_metrics, inspector, health. A missing key, an unknown service, cloudwatch_logs without log_group_name, cloudwatch_metrics without namespaces, or a securityhub workflow_status other than NEW, NOTIFIED, RESOLVED or SUPPRESSED is refused at load, naming sources.aws.

Config File​

sources:
  aws:
    enabled: true
    region: "ap-southeast-2"
    access_key_id: "AKIA..."
    secret_access_key: "wJalrXUtnFEMI..."
    # interval_secs: 300            # override scheduler default
    services:
      - name: cloudtrail
      - name: guardduty
      - name: securityhub
        # config:
        #   workflow_status: ["NEW", "RESOLVED"]   # every status unless set
      - name: config
        # config:
        #   expression: "SELECT resourceId, resourceType, configuration"   # replaces the default SELECT
      - name: cloudwatch_logs
        config:
          log_group_name: "/aws/vpc/flowlogs"   # required
          # filter_pattern: ""                   # optional
      - name: cloudwatch_metrics
        config:
          namespaces: ["AWS/EC2"]                # required
          # metric_names: ["CPUUtilization"]     # optional; narrows ListMetrics on the API
          # period_secs: 300
          # stat: "Average"
          # output_format: "json"                # "json" (default) or "otlp"
      - name: inspector
        config:
          max_results: 100                       # per page, max 100
      - name: health
        config:
          max_results: 100                       # per page, max 100
    topic: "aws"
    # filter: 'eventName != "ConsoleLogin"'      # CEL, hot-reloaded
    # connections:                               # several accounts from one block
    #   - id: aws-acct-123
    #     region: us-east-1
    #     credential_secret: "vault:kv/data/aws-acct-123:credentials"

Notes: inspector calls the Inspector v2 REST API (inspector2), and health is region-locked to us-east-1 regardless of the configured region. config runs SelectResourceConfig with a default expression that names the configuration item's top-level properties (SELECT * would not return configuration); the expression knob replaces it. Each Results string lands as the document it holds.

Environment Variables​

Pattern: DFE_FETCHER_SOURCES__AWS__<FIELD> (double underscores).

DFE_FETCHER_SOURCES__AWS__ENABLED="true"
DFE_FETCHER_SOURCES__AWS__REGION="ap-southeast-2"
DFE_FETCHER_SOURCES__AWS__ACCESS_KEY_ID="AKIA..."
DFE_FETCHER_SOURCES__AWS__SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="wJalrXUtnFEMI..."

Secrets Manager​

credential_secret resolves from the secrets manager. Format is vault:<mount>/data/<path>:<key>, e.g. vault:kv/data/aws:credentials -- the KV v2 mount followed by a literal data segment, without which the whole path is read under the default secret mount. Individual access_key_id / secret_access_key values may also be env: or vault: prefixed. Credentials are resolved once per instance, not per API call.

sources:
  aws:
    enabled: true
    region: "ap-southeast-2"
    credential_secret: "vault:kv/data/dfe/aws:credentials"
    services:
      - name: cloudtrail
      - name: guardduty
    topic: "aws"

The vault secret must be JSON with these keys (PascalCase AccessKeyId / SecretAccessKey are also accepted):

{
  "access_key_id": "AKIA...",
  "secret_access_key": "wJalrXUtnFEMI..."
}

Verification​

  1. Credential check. The profile's probe calls STS GetCallerIdentity with the signed key, so a healthy result proves the key pair is valid and the signature is accepted, not that any service permission is granted. Exercise it via the env-gated smoke test:

    cargo test -p dfe-fetcher --test e2e aws_health_check -- --ignored

  2. Live fetch tests. The env-gated tests in crates/fetcher/tests/e2e/smoke_remote.rs hit real AWS APIs. They are #[ignore] by default and read credentials from .env-cloud (preferred) or .env: AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID, AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY, AWS_REGION, AWS_CLOUDWATCH_LOG_GROUP (optional). A refusal fails its test rather than passing with zero records.

    cargo test -p dfe-fetcher --test e2e aws_ -- --ignored

  3. Common failures.

    • 403 / SignatureDoesNotMatch: clock skew or wrong secret key.
    • Empty results from GuardDuty / SecurityHub / Inspector: the service is not enabled, or there is no detector / scan target. This is normal on a fresh account.
    • AccessDeniedException on Config: config:SelectResourceConfig is not granted, or AWS Config is not recording in the account.
    • SubscriptionRequiredException on Health: account is below Business support tier.
    • cloudwatch_logs requires log_group_name / cloudwatch_metrics requires namespaces: the per-service config block is missing a required key; the config is refused at load.

Cost​

dfe-fetcher only reads; it never enables services or creates trails, log groups, detectors, or recorders. The core read paths generally carry no additional charge, but some capabilities here may have a cost depending on your AWS plan and what is enabled - for example the Health programmatic API requires a paid support plan, and services such as Inspector or Config are billed when enabled. Confirm any cost implications against your own AWS agreement.

References​