AWS EC2 Connector

The following is not supported in Tenable FedRAMP Moderate environments. For more information, see the Tenable FedRAMP Product Offering.

Configure AWS Integration with Cross-Account Access in Tenable Exposure Management

When integrating AWS with Tenable Exposure Management, you have the flexibility to manage how data from multiple AWS accounts is accessed and consolidated. Depending on your organizational needs, you can choose between two options for fetching data:

• Option 1: Single-Account Data Fetching — If your focus is solely on the findings from the main AWS account, a single ARN (Amazon Resource Name) setup is sufficient. This option streamlines the integration process by using secret and access keys to fetch data exclusively from the main account.

• Option 2: Cross-Account Data Fetching — To include data from both your main AWS account and any linked accounts (enabling cross-account access), you must specify an ARN for each account involved. This ensures that findings across all accounts are aggregated and available through Tenable Exposure Management.

Prerequisites and User Permissions

Before you begin configuring the connector, make sure you have the following:

• A cross AWS account with the following permissions:

  • ec2:DescribeSecurityGroups

  • ec2:DescribeInstances

Generate Credentials and Grant Permissions

You can generate the following types of credentials for use with Tenable Exposure Management:

• Secret Key + Access Key

  If you want to focus solely on the findings from the main AWS account, then you must generate an Access Key and A Secret Key to configure the connector within Tenable Exposure Management.

  In the AWS Console:

  1. Login with the target account credentials.

  2. Navigate to IAM > Users.

  3. Select the user with the appropriate permissions.

     

  4. Navigate to the Security Credentials tab.

  5. In the Access Keys section, click Create access key.

     A Create access key wizard appears.

  6. In the Use case section, select the Third-party service radio button.

  7. Click Next.

  8. In the Description tag value text box, type a descriptive tag for the key.

  9. Click Create access key.

  10. Save the Access key and Secret key values for use within Tenable Exposure Management.

• ARN + External ID

  To include data from both your main AWS account and any linked accounts (enabling cross-account access), you must generate an ARN and External ID to configure the connector within Tenable Exposure Management.

  Important: If you're creating roles for multiple AWS accounts, you must repeat these generation steps for each individual account.
  

  You must also:

  • Use the same External ID for all roles.

  • When configuring the connection in Tenable, if you're entering multiple ARNs, separate them with commas, for example, arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/TenableRole,arn:aws:iam::098765432109:role/TenableRole.

  In the AWS Console:

  1. Navigate to IAM > Policies > Create Policy > Visual Editor.

  2. From the Service drop-down, select the appropriate EC2 service.

     

  3. From the Actions allowed drop-down, select the following permissions:

     • DescribeInstances

     • DescribeSecurityGroups

  4. Click Next: Review.

  5. On the Review policy page, type a Name and Description for the policy.

  6. Review the Summary.

  7. Click Create Policy.

  8. Navigate to IAM > Roles > Create Role > Another AWS account.

  9. In the Account ID field, paste the following Tenable account ID:

     012615275169

  10. Select the Require External ID check box.

      

  11. In the text box, type the value of your external ID.

  12. Paste this value into the Connector text box.

  13. Ensure the Require MFA check box is deselected.

  14. Click Next: Permissions.

  15. Attach the policy you created.

  16. Continue through the wizard and review the settings.

  17. Create the role.

  18. Copy the generated ARN for use within Tenable Exposure Management.

Add a Connector

To add a new connector:

1. In the left navigation menu, click Connectors.

   The Connectors page appears.

   

2. In the upper-right corner, click Add new connector.

   The Connector Library appears.

   

3. In the search box, type the name of the connector.

4. On the tile for the connector, click Connect.

   The connector configuration options appear.

Configure the Connector

1. (Optional) In the Connector's Name text box, type a descriptive name for the connector.

2. In the Regions text box, type a comma separated list of the cloud regions in which your AWS accounts reside.

3. Do one of the following:

   • For a single AWS account:

     1. In the Access Key Integration section, in the Access Key and Secret Key text boxes, paste the access and secret keys generated in AWS.

   • For multiple AWS accounts:

     1. In the ARN integration section, in the External ID text box, type the external ID for your AWS account.

     2. In the ARNs text box, type a list of comma separated ARNs from which you want to pull AWS data.

4. In the Data pulling configuration section, you can configure dynamic settings specific to the connector.

   • In the Asset Retention text box, type the number of days after which you want assets to be removed from Tenable Exposure Management. If an asset has not been detected or updated within the specified number of days, it is automatically removed from the application, ensuring your asset inventory is current and relevant.

     Tip: For more information, see Asset Retention.

5. In the Test connectivity section, click the Test Connectivity button to verify that Tenable Exposure Management can connect to your connector instance.
   

   • A successful connectivity test confirms that the platform can connect to the connector instance. It does not, however, guarantee that the synchronization process will succeed, as additional syncing or processing issues may arise.
     

   • If the connectivity test fails, an error message with details about the issue appears. Click Show tests for more information about the exact error.
     

     

6. In the Connector scheduling section, configure the time and day(s) on which you want connector syncs to occur.

   Tip: For more information, see Connector Scheduling

7. Click Create. Tenable Exposure Management begins syncing the connector. The sync can take some time to complete.
   

8. To confirm the sync is complete, do the following:

   • Navigate to the Connectors page and monitor the connector's status. Sync is complete once the connector status is Connected.

   • View the sync logs for the connector to monitor the logs for a successful connection.

AWS in Tenable Exposure Management

Locate Connector Assets in Tenable Exposure Management

As the connector discovers assets, Tenable Exposure Management ingests those devices for reporting.

To view assets by connector:

1. In Tenable Exposure Management, navigate to the Assets page.

2. In the Filters section, under 3rd Party Connectors, click the connector name for which you want to view assets.

   

   The asset list updates to show only assets from the selected connector.

3. Click on any asset to view Asset Details.