Amazon Redshift
      Back to home
      1. CNS Policies
      2. AWS Knowledge Base
      3. Amazon Redshift

      Redshift Cluster Not In VPC

      Risk Level: Medium

      Description

      This Plugin ensures that Amazon Redshift clusters are launched within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). AWS VPCs are the latest and more secure method of launching AWS resources. Classic Networking should not be used.

      About the Service

      Amazon RedShift: Amazon RedShift is a data warehouse with fast and secure data analyzing features. It is a powerful and robust service powered by Amazon to run SQL queries and even deploy ML (Machine Learning) models on the data. For additional monitoring benefits, it also provides access to real time operational analytics.

      Impact

      EC2-Classic networking is the traditional method to create a cluster. Virtual Private Cloud by AWS is currently a more secure method to create a cluster. Therefore, it is recommended to migrate all the insecure cluster instances to VPC.

      Steps to Reproduce

      Using AWS Console-

      1. Log In to your AWS Console.
      2. Open the Amazon RedShift Console. You can use this link (https://console.aws.amazon.com/redshiftv2/) to navigate directly if already logged in. 
      3. From the left navigation pane, click on Clusters.
      4. A list of clusters will be displayed. Select the cluster you want to examine by clicking on it’s Cluster Name.
      5. Move to the Properties tab.
      6. Check the VPC ID. If it is empty, the vulnerability exists.
      7. Repeat steps for all the clusters you wish to examine.

      Steps for Remediation

      Create a new cluster with VPC enabled.

      1. Log In to your AWS Console.
      2. Open the Amazon RedShift Console. You can use this link (https://console.aws.amazon.com/redshiftv2/) to navigate directly if already logged in. 
      3. From the left navigation pane, click on Clusters.
      4. A list of clusters will be displayed. Select the vulnerable cluster by clicking on it’s Cluster Name.
      5. From the Actions menu, click on Create Snapshot to make a backup.
      6. Specify a new name and retention period. Click on Create Snapshot.
      7. After the snapshot is created, you can safely delete the vulnerable cluster. Click on Actions and choose Delete. Uncheck the create final snapshot option as we have already created a snapshot for the same.
      8. Now, create a new cluster with the snapshot saved. Move to the Snapshots section from the Left navigation pane.
      9. Select the snapshot created by clicking on its Name.
      10. Click on Restore from snapshot from the top right corner.
      11. Change the Node Type from the dropdown-list. Finally, click on Restore Cluster from snapshot to create the cluster.
      12. In the Additional Settings, disable the the default configurations. 
      13. In the Network and Security section, select the VPC you wish to associate with the cluster.
      14. Repeat steps for all the vulnerable clusters.