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

You can use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) from your application to encrypt a connection to a database running Db2, MariaDB, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, or PostgreSQL.

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

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.

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

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:

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.

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

If you're 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-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 DB instance

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

If you're using the AWS CLI, you can view the details about the CA for a DB instance by using the describe-db-instances command. You can view the details about the CA for a Multi-AZ DB cluster by using the describe-db-clusters command.

Download certificate bundles for Amazon RDS

When you connect to your database with SSL or TLS, the database instance requires a trust certificate from Amazon RDS. Select the appropriate link in the following table to download the bundle that corresponds with the AWS Region where you host your database.

Certificate bundles by AWS Region

The certificate bundles for all AWS Regions and GovCloud (US) Regions contain the following root CA certificates:

Your application trust store only needs to register the root CA certificate.

To download a certificate bundle for an AWS Region, select the link for the AWS Region that hosts your database in the following table.

Viewing the contents of your CA certificate

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

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