CloudFront Geo Restriction

Risk Level: Low (generally tolerable level of risk)

Rule ID: CF-008

Ensure that geographic restriction is enabled for your Amazon CloudFront CDN distributions in order to allow or block viewers from specific locations (countries) from accessing your web content.

This rule can help you with the following compliance standards:

GDPR

For further details on compliance standards supported by Conformity, see here.

This rule resolution is part of the Conformity Security & Compliance tool for AWS.

Security

With Amazon CloudFront geo restriction you have the ability to block IP addresses based on Geo IP from reaching your Content Delivery Network (CDN) distribution content. The feature can also be used to assist in mitigation of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

Audit

To determine if Amazon Cloudfront geographic restriction is enabled for your CDN distributions, perform the following operations:

Using AWS Console

01 Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

02 Navigate to Amazon CloudFront console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/v3/.

03 In the left navigation panel, under CloudFront, choose Distributions.

04 Click on the name (link) of the Amazon CloudFront distribution that you want to examine.

05 Select the Geographic restrictions tab and choose Edit.

06 On the Edit geographic restrictions page, check the Restriction type configuration setting to determine the type of the geographic restriction configured for the selected distribution. If the Restriction type is set to No restrictions, the geographic restriction is not enabled for the selected Amazon CloudFront distribution, therefore the access to your distribution content is not restricted by the viewer geographic location.

07 Repeat steps no. 4 – 6 for each CloudFront distribution available within your AWS cloud account.

Using AWS CLI

01 Run list-distributions command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) with custom query filters to list the ID of each Amazon CloudFront distribution created in your AWS account:

aws cloudfront list-distributions
  --output table
  --query 'DistributionList.Items[*].Id'

02 The command output should return a table with the requested distribution ID(s):

--------------------
|ListDistributions |
+------------------+
|  ABCDABCDABCDAB  |
|  AABBCCDDAABBCC  |
+------------------+

03 Run get-distribution command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) using the ID of the Amazon CloudFront distribution that you want to examine as the identifier parameter and custom filtering to describe the type of the geo restriction configured for the selected distribution:

aws cloudfront get-distribution-config
  --id ABCDABCDABCDAB
  --query "DistributionConfig.Restrictions.GeoRestriction.RestrictionType"

04 The command output should return the requested configuration information:

"none"

If the get-distribution command output returns "none", as shown in the example above, the geographic restriction is not enabled for the selected Amazon CloudFront distribution, therefore the distribution configuration is not compliant.

05 Repeat step no. 3 and 4 to verify the geo restriction feature status for other AWS Cloudfront CDN distributions available within your AWS account.

Remediation / Resolution

To enable and configure geographic restrictions for your Amazon CloudFront distributions, perform the following operations:

Using AWS CloudFormation

01 CloudFormation template (JSON):

{
	"AWSTemplateFormatVersion": "2010-09-09",
	"Resources": {
		"CloudFrontDistribution": {
			"Type": "AWS::CloudFront::Distribution",
			"Properties": {
				"DistributionConfig": {
					"Enabled": true,
					"Comment": "CloudFront CDN Web Distribution",
					"Origins": [
						{
							"Id": "cc-cdn-origin",
							"DomainName": "domain.com"
						}
					],
					"DefaultRootObject": "index.html",
					"DefaultCacheBehavior": {
						"AllowedMethods": [
							"HEAD",
							"GET"
						],
						"Compress": true,
						"DefaultTTL": 0,
						"ForwardedValues": {
							"Cookies": {
								"Forward": "none"
							},
							"QueryString": false
						},
						"ViewerProtocolPolicy": "redirect-to-https"
					},
					"HttpVersion": "http2",
					"ViewerCertificate": {
						"CloudFrontDefaultCertificate": true
					},
					"PriceClass": "PriceClass_All",
					"Restrictions": {
						"GeoRestriction": {
							"Locations": [
								"AU",
								"US",
								"CA"
							],
							"RestrictionType": "whitelist"
						}
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
}

02 CloudFormation template (YAML):

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
	Resources:
	CloudFrontDistribution:
		Type: AWS::CloudFront::Distribution
		Properties:
		DistributionConfig:
			Enabled: true
			Comment: CloudFront CDN Web Distribution
			Origins:
			- Id: cc-cdn-origin
				DomainName: domain.com
			DefaultRootObject: index.html
			DefaultCacheBehavior:
			AllowedMethods:
				- HEAD
				- GET
			Compress: true
			DefaultTTL: 0
			ForwardedValues:
				Cookies:
				Forward: none
				QueryString: false
			ViewerProtocolPolicy: redirect-to-https
			HttpVersion: http2
			ViewerCertificate:
			CloudFrontDefaultCertificate: true
			PriceClass: PriceClass_All
			Restrictions:
			GeoRestriction:
				Locations:
				- AU
				- US
				- CA
				RestrictionType: whitelist

Using Terraform (AWS Provider)

01 Terraform configuration file (.tf):

terraform {
	required_providers {
		aws = {
			source  = "hashicorp/aws"
			version = "~> 4.0"
		}
	}

	required_version = ">= 0.14.9"
}

provider "aws" {
	profile = "default"
	region  = "us-east-1"
}

resource "aws_cloudfront_distribution" "cloudfront-distribution" {

	enabled             = true
	default_root_object = "index.html"
	comment             = "CloudFront CDN Web Distribution"

	origin {
		domain_name = "domain.com"
		origin_id   = "cc-cdn-origin"
	}

	default_cache_behavior {
		target_origin_id = "cc-domain-origin"
		allowed_methods  = ["GET", "HEAD"]
		cached_methods   = ["GET", "HEAD"]
		forwarded_values {
			query_string = false
			cookies {
				forward = "none"
			}
		}
		min_ttl                = 0
		default_ttl            = 3600
		max_ttl                = 86400
		compress               = true
		viewer_protocol_policy = "redirect-to-https"
	}

	viewer_certificate {
		cloudfront_default_certificate = true
	}

	price_class = "PriceClass_All"

	restrictions {
		geo_restriction {
			locations        = ["AU", "US", "CA"]
			restriction_type = "whitelist"
		}
	}

}

Using AWS Console

01 Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

02 Navigate to Amazon CloudFront console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/cloudfront/v3/.

03 In the left navigation panel, under CloudFront, choose Distributions.

04 Click on the name of the Amazon CloudFront distribution that you want to reconfigure.

05 Select the Geographic restrictions tab and choose Edit.

06 On the Edit geographic restrictions page, perform the following actions:

For Restriction type, choose Allow list to allow viewers in specific countries to access your CloudFront distribution content or Block list to restrict users in specific countries from accessing your distribution content.
Select the countries that you want allow or block from the Countries dropdown list, based on your requirements.
Choose Save changes to apply the configuration changes and enable geographic restriction for the selected distribution.

07 If required, repeat steps no. 4 – 6 to enable and configure geographic restrictions for each CloudFront distribution available within your AWS cloud account.

Using AWS CLI

01 Run get-distribution-config command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) to extract all the configuration information from the Amazon CloudFront distribution that you want to reconfigure:

aws cloudfront get-distribution-config
  --id ABCDABCDABCDAB
  --query 'DistributionConfig'

02 The command output should return the requested configuration information:

{
	"CallerReference": "abcd1234-abcd-1234-abcd-1234abcd1234",
	"Aliases": {
		"Quantity": 0
	},
	"DefaultRootObject": "",
	"Origins": {
		"Quantity": 1,
		"Items": [
			{
				"Id": "cloudconformity.com",
				"DomainName": "cloudconformity.com",
				"OriginPath": "",
				"CustomHeaders": {
					"Quantity": 0
				},
				"CustomOriginConfig": {
					"HTTPPort": 80,
					"HTTPSPort": 443,
					"OriginProtocolPolicy": "https-only",
					"OriginSslProtocols": {
						"Quantity": 1,
						"Items": [
							"TLSv1.2"
						]
					},
					"OriginReadTimeout": 30,
					"OriginKeepaliveTimeout": 5
				},
				"ConnectionAttempts": 3,
				"ConnectionTimeout": 10,
				"OriginShield": {
					"Enabled": false
				}
			}
		]
	},
	"OriginGroups": {
		"Quantity": 0
	},
	"DefaultCacheBehavior": {
		"TargetOriginId": "cloudconformity.com",
		"TrustedSigners": {
			"Enabled": false,
			"Quantity": 0
		},
		"TrustedKeyGroups": {
			"Enabled": false,
			"Quantity": 0
		},
		"ViewerProtocolPolicy": "allow-all",
		"AllowedMethods": {
			"Quantity": 2,
			"Items": [
				"HEAD",
				"GET"
			],
			"CachedMethods": {
				"Quantity": 2,
				"Items": [
					"HEAD",
					"GET"
				]
			}
		},
		"SmoothStreaming": false,
		"Compress": true,
		"LambdaFunctionAssociations": {
			"Quantity": 0
		},
		"FunctionAssociations": {
			"Quantity": 0
		},
		"FieldLevelEncryptionId": "",
		"ForwardedValues": {
			"QueryString": false,
			"Cookies": {
				"Forward": "none"
			},
			"Headers": {
				"Quantity": 0
			},
			"QueryStringCacheKeys": {
				"Quantity": 0
			}
		},
		"MinTTL": 0,
		"DefaultTTL": 86400,
		"MaxTTL": 31536000
	},
	"CacheBehaviors": {
		"Quantity": 1,
		"Items": [
			{
				"PathPattern": "/images",
				"TargetOriginId": "cloudconformity.com",
				"TrustedSigners": {
					"Enabled": false,
					"Quantity": 0
				},
				"TrustedKeyGroups": {
					"Enabled": false,
					"Quantity": 0
				},
				"ViewerProtocolPolicy": "allow-all",
				"AllowedMethods": {
					"Quantity": 2,
					"Items": [
						"HEAD",
						"GET"
					],
					"CachedMethods": {
						"Quantity": 2,
						"Items": [
							"HEAD",
							"GET"
						]
					}
				},
				"SmoothStreaming": false,
				"Compress": true,
				"LambdaFunctionAssociations": {
					"Quantity": 0
				},
				"FunctionAssociations": {
					"Quantity": 0
				},
				"FieldLevelEncryptionId": "",
				"ForwardedValues": {
					"QueryString": false,
					"Cookies": {
						"Forward": "none"
					},
					"Headers": {
						"Quantity": 0
					},
					"QueryStringCacheKeys": {
						"Quantity": 0
					}
				},
				"MinTTL": 0,
				"DefaultTTL": 86400,
				"MaxTTL": 31536000
			}
		]
	},
	"CustomErrorResponses": {
		"Quantity": 0
	},
	"Comment": "",
	"Logging": {
		"Enabled": false,
		"IncludeCookies": false,
		"Bucket": "",
		"Prefix": ""
	},
	"PriceClass": "PriceClass_100",
	"Enabled": true,
	"ViewerCertificate": {
		"CloudFrontDefaultCertificate": true,
		"MinimumProtocolVersion": "TLSv1",
		"CertificateSource": "cloudfront"
	},
	"Restrictions": {
		"GeoRestriction": {
			"RestrictionType": "none",
			"Quantity": 0
		}
	},
	"WebACLId": "",
	"HttpVersion": "http1.1",
	"IsIPV6Enabled": false
}

03 Run get-distribution-config command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) to describe the current version of the configuration available for the selected distribution (i.e. eTag):

aws cloudfront get-distribution-config
  --id ABCDABCDABCDAB
  --query 'ETag'

04 The command output should return the requested information:

"AAAABBBBCCCCD"

05 Modify the configuration document returned at step no. 2 to enable geographic restriction by editing the "GeoRestriction" configuration object and allowing/blocking the access to the countries listed in the "Items" array. In the following example, the distribution content is allowed to the Australian audience only (the access from all other countries is blocked). Save the document with the modified distribution configuration (highlighted) to a JSON file named enable-geo-restriction.json:

{
	"CallerReference": "abcd1234-abcd-1234-abcd-1234abcd1234",
	"Aliases": {
		"Quantity": 0
	},
	"DefaultRootObject": "",
	"Origins": {
		"Quantity": 1,
		"Items": [
			{
				"Id": "cloudconformity.com",
				"DomainName": "cloudconformity.com",
				"OriginPath": "",
				"CustomHeaders": {
					"Quantity": 0
				},
				"CustomOriginConfig": {
					"HTTPPort": 80,
					"HTTPSPort": 443,
					"OriginProtocolPolicy": "https-only",
					"OriginSslProtocols": {
						"Quantity": 1,
						"Items": [
							"TLSv1.2"
						]
					},
					"OriginReadTimeout": 30,
					"OriginKeepaliveTimeout": 5
				},
				"ConnectionAttempts": 3,
				"ConnectionTimeout": 10,
				"OriginShield": {
					"Enabled": false
				}
			}
		]
	},
	"OriginGroups": {
		"Quantity": 0
	},
	"DefaultCacheBehavior": {
		"TargetOriginId": "cloudconformity.com",
		"TrustedSigners": {
			"Enabled": false,
			"Quantity": 0
		},
		"TrustedKeyGroups": {
			"Enabled": false,
			"Quantity": 0
		},
		"ViewerProtocolPolicy": "allow-all",
		"AllowedMethods": {
			"Quantity": 2,
			"Items": [
				"HEAD",
				"GET"
			],
			"CachedMethods": {
				"Quantity": 2,
				"Items": [
					"HEAD",
					"GET"
				]
			}
		},
		"SmoothStreaming": false,
		"Compress": true,
		"LambdaFunctionAssociations": {
			"Quantity": 0
		},
		"FunctionAssociations": {
			"Quantity": 0
		},
		"FieldLevelEncryptionId": "",
		"ForwardedValues": {
			"QueryString": false,
			"Cookies": {
				"Forward": "none"
			},
			"Headers": {
				"Quantity": 0
			},
			"QueryStringCacheKeys": {
				"Quantity": 0
			}
		},
		"MinTTL": 0,
		"DefaultTTL": 86400,
		"MaxTTL": 31536000
	},
	"CacheBehaviors": {
		"Quantity": 1,
		"Items": [
			{
				"PathPattern": "/images",
				"TargetOriginId": "cloudconformity.com",
				"TrustedSigners": {
					"Enabled": false,
					"Quantity": 0
				},
				"TrustedKeyGroups": {
					"Enabled": false,
					"Quantity": 0
				},
				"ViewerProtocolPolicy": "allow-all",
				"AllowedMethods": {
					"Quantity": 2,
					"Items": [
						"HEAD",
						"GET"
					],
					"CachedMethods": {
						"Quantity": 2,
						"Items": [
							"HEAD",
							"GET"
						]
					}
				},
				"SmoothStreaming": false,
				"Compress": true,
				"LambdaFunctionAssociations": {
					"Quantity": 0
				},
				"FunctionAssociations": {
					"Quantity": 0
				},
				"FieldLevelEncryptionId": "",
				"ForwardedValues": {
					"QueryString": false,
					"Cookies": {
						"Forward": "none"
					},
					"Headers": {
						"Quantity": 0
					},
					"QueryStringCacheKeys": {
						"Quantity": 0
					}
				},
				"MinTTL": 0,
				"DefaultTTL": 86400,
				"MaxTTL": 31536000
			}
		]
	},
	"CustomErrorResponses": {
		"Quantity": 0
	},
	"Comment": "",
	"Logging": {
		"Enabled": false,
		"IncludeCookies": false,
		"Bucket": "",
		"Prefix": ""
	},
	"PriceClass": "PriceClass_100",
	"Enabled": true,
	"ViewerCertificate": {
		"CloudFrontDefaultCertificate": true,
		"MinimumProtocolVersion": "TLSv1",
		"CertificateSource": "cloudfront"
	},
	"Restrictions": {
		"GeoRestriction": {
			"RestrictionType": "whitelist",
			"Quantity": 1,
			"Items": [
				"AU"
			]
		}
	},
	"WebACLId": "",
	"HttpVersion": "http1.1",
	"IsIPV6Enabled": false
}

06 Run update-distribution command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) using the document modified at the previous step (i.e. enable-geo-restriction.json) as the distribution configuration document, to reconfigure the selected Amazon CloudFront distribution in order to enable geographic restriction for the selected distribution. --if-match parameter represents the current version of the configuration, returned at step no. 4:

aws cloudfront update-distribution
  --id ABCDABCDABCDAB
  --if-match AAAABBBBCCCCD
  --distribution-config file://enable-geo-restriction.json
  --query 'Distribution.Status'

07 The command output should return the status of the modified CloudFront distribution:

"InProgress"

08 Repeat steps no. 1 – 7 for each Amazon CloudFront distribution deployed in your AWS cloud account.

References

AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) Documentation
cloudfront
list-distributions
get-distribution
get-distribution-config
update-distribution

Publication date Apr 20, 2018

Audit

Using AWS Console

Using AWS CLI

Remediation / Resolution

Using AWS CloudFormation

Using Terraform (AWS Provider)

Using AWS Console

Using AWS CLI

References

Related CloudFront rules