Instance Deletion Protection

Risk Level: Medium (should be achieved)

Rule ID: RDS-031

Ensure that all your Amazon RDS database instances have the Deletion Protection feature enabled in order to protect them from being accidentally deleted.

This rule can help you with the following compliance standards:

NIST4

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 Deletion Protection safety feature enabled, you have the guarantee that your Amazon RDS database instances can't be accidentally deleted and make sure that your data remains safe. Deletion protection prevents any existing or new database instances from being deleted by users via the AWS Management Console, the AWS CLI, or the AWS API, unless the feature is explicitly disabled.

Note: Deletion protection for Amazon RDS instances is supported by all database engines, except Amazon Aurora where the Deletion Protection feature is implemented at the cluster level, not instance level.

Audit

To determine if your Amazon RDS database instances are protected against accidental deletion, perform the following operations:

Using AWS Console

01 Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

02 Navigate to Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

03 In the navigation panel, under Amazon RDS, choose Databases.

04 Click on the name (link) of the Amazon RDS database instance that you want to examine.

05 Select the Configuration tab and check the Deletion protection attribute value. If the Deletion protection value is set to Disabled, the Deletion Protection safety feature is not enabled for the selected Amazon RDS database instance.

06 Repeat steps no. 4 and 5 for each Amazon RDS database instance available within the current AWS region.

07 Change the AWS cloud region from the navigation bar and repeat the Audit process for other regions.

Using AWS CLI

01 Run describe-db-instances command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) with custom query filters to list the names of the Amazon RDS database instances provisioned in the selected AWS region:

aws rds describe-db-instances
  --region us-east-1
  --output table
  --query 'DBInstances[*].DBInstanceIdentifier'

02 The command output should return a table with the requested database instance names:

--------------------------------
|     DescribeDBInstances      |
+------------------------------+
|  cc-project5-mysql-database  |
|  cc-prod-postgres-database   |
+------------------------------+

03 Run describe-db-instances command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) using the name of the Amazon RDS database instance that you want to examine as the identifier parameter and custom query filters to describe the Deletion Protection feature status for the selected database instance:

aws rds describe-db-instances
  --region us-east-1
  --db-instance-identifier cc-project5-mysql-database
  --query 'DBInstances[*].DeletionProtection'

04 The command output should return the feature status (true for enabled, false for disabled):

[
	false
]

If the describe-db-instances command output returns false, as shown in the output example above, the Deletion Protection safety feature is not enabled for the selected Amazon RDS database instance.

05 Repeat steps no. 3 and 4 for each Amazon RDS database instance available in the selected AWS region.

06 Change the AWS cloud region by updating the --region command parameter value and repeat the Audit process for other regions.

Remediation / Resolution

To enable the Deletion Protection feature for your existing Amazon RDS database instances, perform the following operations:

Using AWS CloudFormation

01 CloudFormation template (JSON):

{
	"AWSTemplateFormatVersion": "2010-09-09",
	"Description": "Enable Deletion Protection For Database Instances",
	"Parameters": {
		"DBInstanceName": {
			"Default": "mysql-database-instance",
			"Description": "RDS database instance name",
			"Type": "String",
			"MinLength": "1",
			"MaxLength": "63",
			"AllowedPattern": "^[0-9a-zA-Z-/]*$",
			"ConstraintDescription": "Must begin with a letter and must not end with a hyphen or contain two consecutive hyphens."
		},
		"DBInstanceClass": {
				"Default": "db.t2.small",
				"Description": "DB instance class/type",
				"Type": "String",
				"ConstraintDescription": "Must provide a valid DB instance type."
		},
		"DBAllocatedStorage": {
			"Default": "20",
			"Description": "The size of the database (GiB)",
			"Type": "Number",
			"MinValue": "20",
			"MaxValue": "65536",
			"ConstraintDescription": "Must be between 20 and 65536 GiB."
		},
		"DBName": {
			"Default": "mysqldb",
			"Description": "Database name",
			"Type": "String",
			"MinLength": "1",
			"MaxLength": "64",
			"AllowedPattern": "[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*",
			"ConstraintDescription": "Must begin with a letter and contain only alphanumeric characters."
		},
		"DBUsername": {
			"Description": "Username for database access",
			"Type": "String",
			"MinLength": "1",
			"MaxLength": "16",
			"AllowedPattern": "[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*",
			"ConstraintDescription": "Must begin with a letter and contain only alphanumeric characters."
		},
		"DBPassword": {
			"NoEcho": "true",
			"Description": "Password for database access",
			"Type": "String",
			"MinLength": "8",
			"MaxLength": "41",
			"AllowedPattern": "[a-zA-Z0-9]*",
			"ConstraintDescription": "Must contain only alphanumeric characters."
		}
	},
	"Resources": {
		"RDSInstance": {
			"Type": "AWS::RDS::DBInstance",
			"Properties": {
				"DBInstanceIdentifier": {
					"Ref": "DBInstanceName"
				},
				"DBName": {
					"Ref": "DBName"
				},
				"MasterUsername": {
					"Ref": "DBUsername"
				},
				"MasterUserPassword": {
					"Ref": "DBPassword"
				},
				"DBInstanceClass": {
					"Ref": "DBInstanceClass"
				},
				"AllocatedStorage": {
					"Ref": "DBAllocatedStorage"
				},
				"Engine": "MySQL",
				"EngineVersion": "5.7.36",
				"DeletionProtection": true
			}
		}
	}
}

02 CloudFormation template (YAML):

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
	Description: Enable Deletion Protection For Database Instances
	Parameters:
		DBInstanceName:
		Default: mysql-database-instance
		Description: RDS database instance name
		Type: String
		MinLength: '1'
		MaxLength: '63'
		AllowedPattern: ^[0-9a-zA-Z-/]*$
		ConstraintDescription: Must begin with a letter and must not end with a hyphen
			or contain two consecutive hyphens.
		DBInstanceClass:
		Default: db.t2.small
		Description: DB instance class/type
		Type: String
		ConstraintDescription: Must provide a valid DB instance type.
		DBAllocatedStorage:
		Default: '20'
		Description: The size of the database (GiB)
		Type: Number
		MinValue: '20'
		MaxValue: '65536'
		ConstraintDescription: Must be between 20 and 65536 GiB.
		DBName:
		Default: mysqldb
		Description: Database name
		Type: String
		MinLength: '1'
		MaxLength: '64'
		AllowedPattern: '[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*'
		ConstraintDescription: Must begin with a letter and contain only alphanumeric
			characters.
		DBUsername:
		Description: Username for database access
		Type: String
		MinLength: '1'
		MaxLength: '16'
		AllowedPattern: '[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9]*'
		ConstraintDescription: Must begin with a letter and contain only alphanumeric
			characters.
		DBPassword:
		NoEcho: 'true'
		Description: Password for database access
		Type: String
		MinLength: '8'
		MaxLength: '41'
		AllowedPattern: '[a-zA-Z0-9]*'
		ConstraintDescription: Must contain only alphanumeric characters.
	Resources:
		RDSInstance:
		Type: AWS::RDS::DBInstance
		Properties:
			DBInstanceIdentifier: !Ref 'DBInstanceName'
			DBName: !Ref 'DBName'
			MasterUsername: !Ref 'DBUsername'
			MasterUserPassword: !Ref 'DBPassword'
			DBInstanceClass: !Ref 'DBInstanceClass'
			AllocatedStorage: !Ref 'DBAllocatedStorage'
			Engine: MySQL
			EngineVersion: 5.7.36
			DeletionProtection: true

Using Terraform

01 Terraform configuration file (.tf):

terraform {
	required_providers {
		aws = {
			source  = "hashicorp/aws"
			version = "~> 3.27"
		}
	}

	required_version = ">= 0.14.9"
}

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

resource "aws_db_instance" "rds-database-instance" {
	allocated_storage     = 20
	engine                = "mysql"
	engine_version        = "5.7"
	instance_class        = "db.t2.small"
	name                  = "mysqldb"
	username              = "mysqluser"
	password              = "mysqlpasswd"
	parameter_group_name  = "default.mysql5.7"

	# Enable Deletion Protection For Database Instances
	deletion_protection = true
}

Using AWS Console

01 Sign in to the AWS Management Console.

02 Navigate to Amazon RDS console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/rds/.

03 In the navigation panel, under Amazon RDS, choose Databases.

04 Select the Amazon RDS database instance that you want to reconfigure and choose Modify.

05 On the Modify DB instance: <instance-name> configuration page, perform the following actions:

In the Additional configuration section, under Deletion protection, select the Enable deletion protection checkbox to activate the Deletion Protection safety feature for the selected Amazon RDS database instance.
Choose Continue and review the configuration changes that you want to apply, available in the Summary of modifications section.
In the Scheduling of modifications section, perform one of the following actions based on your workload requirements:
- Select Apply during the next scheduled maintenance window to apply the changes automatically during the next scheduled maintenance window.
- Select Apply immediately to apply the changes right away. With this option any pending modifications will be asynchronously applied as soon as possible, regardless of the maintenance window configured for the selected Amazon RDS database instance. Note that any changes available in the pending modifications queue are also applied. If any of the pending modifications require downtime, choosing this option can cause unexpected downtime for your database application.
Choose Modify DB instance to apply the configuration changes.

06 Repeat steps no. 4 and 5 for each Amazon RDS database instance available within the current AWS region.

07 Change the AWS cloud region from the navigation bar and repeat the Remediation process for other regions.

Using AWS CLI

01 Run modify-db-instance command (OSX/Linux/UNIX) to enable the Deletion Protection safety feature for the selected Amazon RDS database instance. The following command request example makes use of --apply-immediately parameter to apply the configuration changes asynchronously and as soon as possible. Any changes available in the pending modifications queue are also applied with this request. If any of the pending modifications require downtime, choosing this option can cause unexpected downtime for your RDS database application. If you skip adding the --apply-immediately parameter to the command request, Amazon RDS will apply your changes during the next maintenance window:

aws rds modify-db-instance
  --region us-east-1
  --db-instance-identifier cc-project5-mysql-database
  --deletion-protection
  --apply-immediately

02 The command output should return the configuration metadata for the modified RDS database instance:

{
	"DBInstance": {
		"PubliclyAccessible": true,
		"Engine": "mysql",
		"MultiAZ": false,
		"LatestRestorableTime": "2018-10-12T09:20:00Z",
		"PerformanceInsightsEnabled": false,
		"AutoMinorVersionUpgrade": true,
		"PreferredBackupWindow": "10:46-11:16",
		"AllocatedStorage": 120,
		"BackupRetentionPeriod": 7,
		"PreferredMaintenanceWindow": "fri:09:33-fri:10:03",

		...

		"DBInstanceStatus": "available",
		"ReadReplicaDBInstanceIdentifiers": [],
		"EngineVersion": "5.6.40",
		"DeletionProtection": true,
		"AvailabilityZone": "us-east-1a",
		"StorageType": "gp2",
		"DbiResourceId": "db-AAAAAABBBBBBCCCCCCDDDDDD",
		"CACertificateIdentifier": "rds-ca-2015",
		"DBInstanceClass": "db.m3.medium",
		"DbInstancePort": 0,
		"DBInstanceIdentifier": "cc-project5-db-instance"
	}
}

03 Repeat steps no. 1 and 2 for each Amazon RDS database instance available in the selected AWS region.

04 Change the AWS cloud region by updating the --region command parameter value and repeat the Remediation process for other regions.

References

AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) Documentation
rds
describe-db-instances
modify-db-instance

CloudFormation Documentation
Amazon Relational Database Service resource type reference

Terraform Documentation
AWS Provider

Publication date Oct 29, 2018

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You are auditing:

Instance Deletion Protection

Risk Level: Medium

Audit

Using AWS Console

Using AWS CLI

Remediation / Resolution

Using AWS CloudFormation

Using Terraform

Using AWS Console

Using AWS CLI

References

Related RDS rules