CloudFormation Security Architecture

CloudFormation Security Architecture

CloudFormation operates with significant privileges within AWS accounts, requiring careful security architecture design. The service needs permissions to create, modify, and delete resources across multiple AWS services. This broad access makes CloudFormation execution roles and service permissions critical security boundaries that must be carefully controlled and monitored.

Stack permissions and IAM roles form the foundation of CloudFormation security. Each stack execution requires appropriate IAM permissions, either through user credentials or service roles. Overly permissive roles can allow CloudFormation templates to access or modify resources beyond their intended scope. Implementing least-privilege IAM policies specific to each template's requirements reduces the blast radius of potential security incidents.

Template validation occurs at multiple stages in CloudFormation execution. AWS performs basic syntax validation, but security validation requires additional tooling and processes. Templates might pass AWS validation while still creating insecure resources like publicly accessible S3 buckets or databases. Comprehensive security validation must examine resource configurations, parameter values, and the interactions between resources.