ELBs Allow Clear Text (HTTP) Communication

Introduction

Elastic Load Balancers (ELB) play a crucial role in distributing incoming network traffic across multiple targets, such as Amazon EC2 instances, containers, and IP addresses, in Amazon Web Services (AWS). While ELBs can handle both HTTP and HTTPS traffic, allowing HTTP (clear text) communication poses significant security risks. This document outlines the security implications of using HTTP with ELBs and provides best practices for enhancing security.

Security Risks

1. Data Interception: Allowing clear text communication means that the data transmitted between the client and the load balancer is not encrypted. This exposes sensitive information to interception by malicious actors, particularly in man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks.

2. Data Integrity: Without encryption, data can be altered during transit without detection, leading to issues with data integrity and potentially causing harm if the data is relied upon for critical decision-making.

3. Compliance Violations: Many regulatory frameworks, such as GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, require data to be encrypted during transmission. Using HTTP could lead to compliance violations and legal consequences.

Operational Best Practices

1. Enforce HTTPS:

   • Redirect HTTP to HTTPS: Configure your ELB to redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS, ensuring that communications are automatically upgraded to a secure channel.

   • Security Policies: Apply stringent security policies on the ELB to enforce the use of strong ciphers and SSL/TLS protocols, mitigating the risk of vulnerabilities associated with weaker protocols.

2. Monitoring and Logging: Enable detailed logging and continuous monitoring of the ELB to detect any unusual patterns that might indicate a security breach or an attempt to exploit the HTTP setup.

3. Regular Updates and Patches: Keep your ELB and the backend instances up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates. Regular maintenance reduces the exposure to exploits that could leverage outdated systems.

4. Security Group and NACLs: Configure Network Access Control Lists (NACLs) and security groups to restrict traffic only to necessary sources and destinations, minimizing the potential attack surface.

Conclusion

Using ELBs with HTTP increases the risk of security breaches due to unencrypted data transmission. IT and Security Engineers should implement and maintain HTTPS configurations to protect data integrity and confidentiality, comply with regulatory requirements, and maintain trust with customers and stakeholders.

Additional Resources

• AWS Documentation on ELB: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/elasticloadbalancing/

• Best Practices for Security in Amazon Web Services: https://aws.amazon.com/architecture/security-identity-compliance/