Using SSL/TLS to encrypt a connection to a DB cluster - Amazon Aurora
Certificate authoritiesCertificate bundles for all AWS RegionsCertificate bundles for specific AWS RegionsAWS GovCloud (US) certificates

Using SSL/TLS to encrypt a connection to a DB cluster

You can use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) from your application to encrypt a connection to a DB cluster running Aurora MySQL or Aurora PostgreSQL.

SSL/TLS connections provide a layer of security by encrypting data that moves between your client and DB cluster. Optionally, your SSL/TLS connection can perform server identity verification by validating the server certificate installed on your DB cluster. To require server identity verification, follow this general process:

  1. Choose the certificate authority (CA) that signs the DB server certificate, for your database. For more information about certificate authorities, see Certificate authorities.

  2. Download a certificate bundle to use when you are connecting to the database. To download a certificate bundle, see Certificate bundles for all AWS Regions and Certificate bundles for specific AWS Regions.

    Note

    All certificates are only available for download using SSL/TLS connections.

  3. Connect to the database using your DB engine's process for implementing SSL/TLS connections. Each DB engine has its own process for implementing SSL/TLS. To learn how to implement SSL/TLS for your database, follow the link that corresponds to your DB engine:

Certificate authorities

The certificate authority (CA) is the certificate that identifies the root CA at the top of the certificate chain. The CA signs the DB server certificate, which is installed on each DB instance. The DB server certificate identifies the DB instance as a trusted server.

Certificate authority overview

Amazon RDS provides the following CAs to sign the DB server certificate for a DB instance.

Certificate authority (CA) Description

rds-ca-2019

Uses a certificate authority with RSA 2048 private key algorithm and SHA256 signing algorithm. This CA expires in 2024 and doesn't support automatic server certificate rotation. If you are using this CA and want to keep the same standard, we recommend that you switch to the rds-ca-rsa2048-g1 CA.

rds-ca-rsa2048-g1

Uses a certificate authority with RSA 2048 private key algorithm and SHA256 signing algorithm in most AWS Regions.

In the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions, this CA uses a certificate authority with RSA 2048 private key algorithm and SHA384 signing algorithm.

This CA remains valid for longer than the rds-ca-2019 CA. This CA supports automatic server certificate rotation.

rds-ca-rsa4096-g1

Uses a certificate authority with RSA 4096 private key algorithm and SHA384 signing algorithm. This CA supports automatic server certificate rotation.

rds-ca-ecc384-g1

Uses a certificate authority with ECC 384 private key algorithm and SHA384 signing algorithm. This CA supports automatic server certificate rotation.

Note

If you are using the AWS CLI, you can see the validities of the certificate authorities listed above by using describe-certificates.

These CA certificates are included in the regional and global certificate bundle. When you use the rds-ca-rsa2048-g1, rds-ca-rsa4096-g1, or rds-ca-ecc384-g1 CA with a database, RDS manages the DB server certificate on the database. RDS rotates the DB server certificate automatically before it expires.

Setting the CA for your database

You can set the CA for a database when you perform the following tasks:

  • Create an Aurora DB cluster – You can set the CA for a DB instance in an Aurora cluster when you create the first DB instance in the DB cluster using the AWS CLI or RDS API. Currently, you can't set the CA for the DB instances in a DB cluster when you create the DB cluster using the RDS console. For instructions, see Creating an Amazon Aurora DB cluster.

  • Modify a DB instance – You can set the CA for a DB instance in a DB cluster by modifying it. For instructions, see Modifying a DB instance in a DB cluster.

Note

You can override the default CA for your AWS account by using the modify-certificates command.

The available CAs depend on the DB engine and DB engine version. When you use the AWS Management Console, you can choose the CA using the Certificate authority setting, as shown in the following image.

Certificate authority option

The console only shows the CAs that are available for the DB engine and DB engine version. If you are using the AWS CLI, you can set the CA for a DB instance using the create-db-instance or modify-db-instance command.

If you are using the AWS CLI, you can see the available CAs for your account by using the describe-certificates command. This command also shows the expiration date for each CA in ValidTill in the output. You can find the CAs that are available for a specific DB engine and DB engine version using the describe-db-engine-versions command.

The following example shows the CAs available for the default RDS for PostgreSQL DB engine version.

aws rds describe-db-engine-versions --default-only --engine postgres

Your output is similar to the following. The available CAs are listed in SupportedCACertificateIdentifiers. The output also shows whether the DB engine version supports rotating the certificate without restart in SupportsCertificateRotationWithoutRestart.

{
    "DBEngineVersions": [
        {
            "Engine": "postgres",
            "MajorEngineVersion": "13",
            "EngineVersion": "13.4",
            "DBParameterGroupFamily": "postgres13",
            "DBEngineDescription": "PostgreSQL",
            "DBEngineVersionDescription": "PostgreSQL 13.4-R1",
            "ValidUpgradeTarget": [],
            "SupportsLogExportsToCloudwatchLogs": false,
            "SupportsReadReplica": true,
            "SupportedFeatureNames": [
                "Lambda"
            ],
            "Status": "available",
            "SupportsParallelQuery": false,
            "SupportsGlobalDatabases": false,
            "SupportsBabelfish": false,
            "SupportsCertificateRotationWithoutRestart": true,
            "SupportedCACertificateIdentifiers": [
                "rds-ca-2019",
                "rds-ca-rsa2048-g1",
                "rds-ca-ecc384-g1",
                "rds-ca-rsa4096-g1"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

DB server certificate validities

The validity of DB server certificate depends on the DB engine and DB engine version. If the DB engine version supports rotating the certificate without restart, the validity of the DB server certificate is 1 year. Otherwise the validity is 3 years.

For more information about DB server certificate rotation, see Automatic server certificate rotation.

Viewing the CA for your database

You can view the details about the CA for a DB instance by viewing the Connectivity & security tab in the console, as in the following image.

Certificate authority details

If you are using the AWS CLI, you can view the details about the CA for a DB instance by using the describe-db-instances command.

To check the contents of your CA certificate bundle, use the following command: 

keytool -printcert -v -file global-bundle.pem

Certificate bundles for all AWS Regions

To get a certificate bundle that contains both the intermediate and root certificates for all AWS Regions, download it from https://truststore.pki.rds.amazonaws.com/global/global-bundle.pem.

If your application is on Microsoft Windows and requires a PKCS7 file, you can download the PKCS7 certificate bundle. This bundle contains both the intermediate and root certificates at https://truststore.pki.rds.amazonaws.com/global/global-bundle.p7b.

Note

Amazon RDS Proxy and Aurora Serverless use certificates from the AWS Certificate Manager (ACM). If you are using RDS Proxy, you don't need to download Amazon RDS certificates or update applications that use RDS Proxy connections. For more information about using TLS/SSL with RDS Proxy, see Using TLS/SSL with RDS Proxy.

If you are using Aurora Serverless, downloading Amazon RDS certificates isn't required. For more information about using TLS/SSL with Aurora Serverless, see Using TLS/SSL with Aurora Serverless v1.

Certificate bundles for specific AWS Regions

To get a certificate bundle that contains both the intermediate and root certificates for an AWS Region, download it from the link for the AWS Region in the following table.

AWS Region Certificate bundle (PEM) Certificate bundle (PKCS7)
US East (N. Virginia) us-east-1-bundle.pem us-east-1-bundle.p7b
US East (Ohio) us-east-2-bundle.pem us-east-2-bundle.p7b
US West (N. California) us-west-1-bundle.pem us-west-1-bundle.p7b
US West (Oregon) us-west-2-bundle.pem us-west-2-bundle.p7b
Africa (Cape Town) af-south-1-bundle.pem af-south-1-bundle.p7b
Asia Pacific (Hong Kong) ap-east-1-bundle.pem ap-east-1-bundle.p7b
Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) ap-south-2-bundle.pem ap-south-2-bundle.p7b
Asia Pacific (Jakarta) ap-southeast-3-bundle.pem ap-southeast-3-bundle.p7b
Asia Pacific (Melbourne) ap-southeast-4-bundle.pem ap-southeast-4-bundle.p7b
Asia Pacific (Mumbai) ap-south-1-bundle.pem ap-south-1-bundle.p7b
Asia Pacific (Osaka) ap-northeast-3-bundle.pem ap-northeast-3-bundle.p7b
Asia Pacific (Tokyo) ap-northeast-1-bundle.pem ap-northeast-1-bundle.p7b
Asia Pacific (Seoul) ap-northeast-2-bundle.pem ap-northeast-2-bundle.p7b
Asia Pacific (Singapore) ap-southeast-1-bundle.pem ap-southeast-1-bundle.p7b
Asia Pacific (Sydney) ap-southeast-2-bundle.pem ap-southeast-2-bundle.p7b
Canada (Central) ca-central-1-bundle.pem ca-central-1-bundle.p7b
Europe (Frankfurt) eu-central-1-bundle.pem eu-central-1-bundle.p7b
Europe (Ireland) eu-west-1-bundle.pem eu-west-1-bundle.p7b
Europe (London) eu-west-2-bundle.pem eu-west-2-bundle.p7b
Europe (Milan) eu-south-1-bundle.pem eu-south-1-bundle.p7b
Europe (Paris) eu-west-3-bundle.pem eu-west-3-bundle.p7b
Europe (Spain) eu-south-2-bundle.pem eu-south-2-bundle.p7b
Europe (Stockholm) eu-north-1-bundle.pem eu-north-1-bundle.p7b
Europe (Zurich) eu-central-2-bundle.pem eu-central-2-bundle.p7b
Israel (Tel Aviv) il-central-1-bundle.pem il-central-1-bundle.p7b
Middle East (Bahrain) me-south-1-bundle.pem me-south-1-bundle.p7b
Middle East (UAE) me-central-1-bundle.pem me-central-1-bundle.p7b
South America (São Paulo) sa-east-1-bundle.pem sa-east-1-bundle.p7b

AWS GovCloud (US) certificates

To get a certificate bundle that contains both the intermediate and root certificates for the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions, download from https://truststore.pki.us-gov-west-1.rds.amazonaws.com/global/global-bundle.pem.

If your application is on Microsoft Windows and requires a PKCS7 file, you can download the PKCS7 certificate bundle. This bundle contains both the intermediate and root certificates at https://truststore.pki.us-gov-west-1.rds.amazonaws.com/global/global-bundle.p7b.

To get a certificate bundle that contains both the intermediate and root certificates for an AWS GovCloud (US) Region, download from the link for the AWS GovCloud (US) Region in the following table.

AWS GovCloud (US) Region Certificate bundle (PEM) Certificate bundle (PKCS7)
AWS GovCloud (US-East) us-gov-east-1-bundle.pem us-gov-east-1-bundle.p7b
AWS GovCloud (US-West) us-gov-west-1-bundle.pem us-gov-west-1-bundle.p7b