Use DescribeSecurityGroups with an AWS SDK or CLI - AWS SDK Code Examples

There are more AWS SDK examples available in the AWS Doc SDK Examples GitHub repo.

Use DescribeSecurityGroups with an AWS SDK or CLI

The following code examples show how to use DescribeSecurityGroups.

Action examples are code excerpts from larger programs and must be run in context. You can see this action in context in the following code example:

.NET
AWS SDK for .NET
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository. 

    /// <summary>
    /// Retrieve information for an Amazon EC2 security group.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="groupId">The Id of the Amazon EC2 security group.</param>
    /// <returns>A list of security group information.</returns>
    public async Task<List<SecurityGroup>> DescribeSecurityGroups(string groupId)
    {
        var request = new DescribeSecurityGroupsRequest();
        var groupIds = new List<string> { groupId };
        request.GroupIds = groupIds;

        var response = await _amazonEC2.DescribeSecurityGroupsAsync(request);
        return response.SecurityGroups;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Display the information returned by the call to
    /// DescribeSecurityGroupsAsync.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="securityGroup">A list of security group information.</param>
    public void DisplaySecurityGroupInfoAsync(SecurityGroup securityGroup)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"{securityGroup.GroupName}");
        Console.WriteLine("Ingress permissions:");
        securityGroup.IpPermissions.ForEach(permission =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"\tFromPort: {permission.FromPort}");
            Console.WriteLine($"\tIpProtocol: {permission.IpProtocol}");

            Console.Write($"\tIpv4Ranges: ");
            permission.Ipv4Ranges.ForEach(range => { Console.Write($"{range.CidrIp} "); });

            Console.WriteLine($"\n\tIpv6Ranges:");
            permission.Ipv6Ranges.ForEach(range => { Console.Write($"{range.CidrIpv6} "); });

            Console.Write($"\n\tPrefixListIds: ");
            permission.PrefixListIds.ForEach(id => Console.Write($"{id.Id} "));

            Console.WriteLine($"\n\tTo Port: {permission.ToPort}");
        });
        Console.WriteLine("Egress permissions:");
        securityGroup.IpPermissionsEgress.ForEach(permission =>
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"\tFromPort: {permission.FromPort}");
            Console.WriteLine($"\tIpProtocol: {permission.IpProtocol}");

            Console.Write($"\tIpv4Ranges: ");
            permission.Ipv4Ranges.ForEach(range => { Console.Write($"{range.CidrIp} "); });

            Console.WriteLine($"\n\tIpv6Ranges:");
            permission.Ipv6Ranges.ForEach(range => { Console.Write($"{range.CidrIpv6} "); });

            Console.Write($"\n\tPrefixListIds: ");
            permission.PrefixListIds.ForEach(id => Console.Write($"{id.Id} "));

            Console.WriteLine($"\n\tTo Port: {permission.ToPort}");
        });
    }
Bash
AWS CLI with Bash script
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository. 

###############################################################################
# function ec2_describe_security_groups
#
# This function describes one or more Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) security groups.
#
# Parameters:
#       -g security_group_id - The ID of the security group to describe (optional).
#
# And:
#       0 - If successful.
#       1 - If it fails.
###############################################################################
function ec2_describe_security_groups() {
  local security_group_id response
  local option OPTARG # Required to use getopts command in a function.

  # bashsupport disable=BP5008
  function usage() {
    echo "function ec2_describe_security_groups"
    echo "Describes one or more Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) security groups."
    echo "  -g security_group_id - The ID of the security group to describe (optional)."
    echo ""
  }

  # Retrieve the calling parameters.
  while getopts "g:h" option; do
    case "${option}" in
      g) security_group_id="${OPTARG}" ;;
      h)
        usage
        return 0
        ;;
      \?)
        echo "Invalid parameter"
        usage
        return 1
        ;;
    esac
  done
  export OPTIND=1

  local query="SecurityGroups[*].[GroupName, GroupId, VpcId, IpPermissions[*].[IpProtocol, FromPort, ToPort, IpRanges[*].CidrIp]]"

  if [[ -n "$security_group_id" ]]; then
    response=$(aws ec2 describe-security-groups --group-ids "$security_group_id" --query "${query}" --output text)
  else
    response=$(aws ec2 describe-security-groups --query "${query}" --output text)
  fi

  local error_code=${?}

  if [[ $error_code -ne 0 ]]; then
    aws_cli_error_log $error_code
    errecho "ERROR: AWS reports describe-security-groups operation failed.$response"
    return 1
  fi

  echo "$response"

  return 0
}

The utility functions used in this example.

###############################################################################
# function errecho
#
# This function outputs everything sent to it to STDERR (standard error output).
###############################################################################
function errecho() {
  printf "%s\n" "$*" 1>&2
}

##############################################################################
# function aws_cli_error_log()
#
# This function is used to log the error messages from the AWS CLI.
#
# The function expects the following argument:
#         $1 - The error code returned by the AWS CLI.
#
#  Returns:
#          0: - Success.
#
##############################################################################
function aws_cli_error_log() {
  local err_code=$1
  errecho "Error code : $err_code"
  if [ "$err_code" == 1 ]; then
    errecho "  One or more S3 transfers failed."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 2 ]; then
    errecho "  Command line failed to parse."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 130 ]; then
    errecho "  Process received SIGINT."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 252 ]; then
    errecho "  Command syntax invalid."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 253 ]; then
    errecho "  The system environment or configuration was invalid."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 254 ]; then
    errecho "  The service returned an error."
  elif [ "$err_code" == 255 ]; then
    errecho "  255 is a catch-all error."
  fi

  return 0
}
C++
SDK for C++
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository. 

//! Describe all Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) security groups, or a specific group.
/*!
  \param groupID: A group ID, ignored if empty.
  \param clientConfiguration: AWS client configuration.
  \return bool: Function succeeded.
 */
bool AwsDoc::EC2::describeSecurityGroups(const Aws::String &groupID,
                                         const Aws::Client::ClientConfiguration &clientConfiguration) {
    Aws::EC2::EC2Client ec2Client(clientConfiguration);
    Aws::EC2::Model::DescribeSecurityGroupsRequest request;

    if (!groupID.empty()) {
        request.AddGroupIds(groupID);
    }

    Aws::String nextToken;
    do {
        if (!nextToken.empty()) {
            request.SetNextToken(nextToken);
        }

        Aws::EC2::Model::DescribeSecurityGroupsOutcome outcome = ec2Client.DescribeSecurityGroups(request);
        if (outcome.IsSuccess()) {
            std::cout << std::left <<
                      std::setw(32) << "Name" <<
                      std::setw(30) << "GroupId" <<
                      std::setw(30) << "VpcId" <<
                      std::setw(64) << "Description" << std::endl;

            const std::vector<Aws::EC2::Model::SecurityGroup> &securityGroups =
                    outcome.GetResult().GetSecurityGroups();

            for (const auto &securityGroup: securityGroups) {
                std::cout << std::left <<
                          std::setw(32) << securityGroup.GetGroupName() <<
                          std::setw(30) << securityGroup.GetGroupId() <<
                          std::setw(30) << securityGroup.GetVpcId() <<
                          std::setw(64) << securityGroup.GetDescription() <<
                          std::endl;
            }
        } else {
            std::cerr << "Failed to describe security groups:" <<
                      outcome.GetError().GetMessage() << std::endl;
            return false;
        }

        nextToken = outcome.GetResult().GetNextToken();
    } while (!nextToken.empty());

    return true;
}
CLI
AWS CLI

Example 1: To describe a security group

The following describe-security-groups example describes the specified security group.

aws ec2 describe-security-groups \
    --group-ids sg-903004f8

Output:

{
    "SecurityGroups": [
        {
            "IpPermissionsEgress": [
                {
                    "IpProtocol": "-1",
                    "IpRanges": [
                        {
                            "CidrIp": "0.0.0.0/0"
                        }
                    ],
                    "UserIdGroupPairs": [],
                    "PrefixListIds": []
                }
            ],
            "Description": "My security group",
            "Tags": [
                {
                    "Value": "SG1",
                    "Key": "Name"
                }
            ],
            "IpPermissions": [
                {
                    "IpProtocol": "-1",
                    "IpRanges": [],
                    "UserIdGroupPairs": [
                        {
                            "UserId": "123456789012",
                            "GroupId": "sg-903004f8"
                        }
                    ],
                    "PrefixListIds": []
                },
                {
                    "PrefixListIds": [],
                    "FromPort": 22,
                    "IpRanges": [
                        {
                            "Description": "Access from NY office",
                            "CidrIp": "203.0.113.0/24"
                        }
                    ],
                    "ToPort": 22,
                    "IpProtocol": "tcp",
                    "UserIdGroupPairs": []
                    }
            ],
            "GroupName": "MySecurityGroup",
            "VpcId": "vpc-1a2b3c4d",
            "OwnerId": "123456789012",
            "GroupId": "sg-903004f8",
        }
    ]
}

Example 2: To describe security groups that have specific rules

The following describe-security-groups example uses filters to scope the results to security groups that have a rule that allows SSH traffic (port 22) and a rule that allows traffic from all addresses (0.0.0.0/0). The example uses the --query parameter to display only the names of the security groups. Security groups must match all filters to be returned in the results; however, a single rule does not have to match all filters. For example, the output returns a security group with a rule that allows SSH traffic from a specific IP address and another rule that allows HTTP traffic from all addresses.

aws ec2 describe-security-groups \
    --filters Name=ip-permission.from-port,Values=22 Name=ip-permission.to-port,Values=22 Name=ip-permission.cidr,Values='0.0.0.0/0' \
    --query "SecurityGroups[*].[GroupName]" \
    --output text

Output:

default
my-security-group
web-servers
launch-wizard-1

Example 3: To describe security groups based on tags

The following describe-security-groups example uses filters to scope the results to security groups that include test in the security group name, and that have the tag Test=To-delete. The example uses the --query parameter to display only the names and IDs of the security groups.

aws ec2 describe-security-groups \
    --filters Name=group-name,Values=*test* Name=tag:Test,Values=To-delete \
    --query "SecurityGroups[*].{Name:GroupName,ID:GroupId}"

Output:

[
    {
        "Name": "testfornewinstance",
        "ID": "sg-33bb22aa"
    },
    {
        "Name": "newgrouptest",
        "ID": "sg-1a2b3c4d"
    }
]

For additional examples using tag filters, see Working with tags in the Amazon EC2 User Guide.

Java
SDK for Java 2.x
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository. 


    /**
     * Asynchronously describes the security groups for the specified group ID.
     *
     * @param groupName the name of the security group to describe
     * @return a {@link CompletableFuture} that represents the asynchronous operation
     *         of describing the security groups. The future will complete with a
     *         {@link DescribeSecurityGroupsResponse} object that contains the
     *         security group information.
     */
    public CompletableFuture<String> describeSecurityGroupArnByNameAsync(String groupName) {
        DescribeSecurityGroupsRequest request = DescribeSecurityGroupsRequest.builder()
            .groupNames(groupName)
            .build();

        DescribeSecurityGroupsPublisher paginator = getAsyncClient().describeSecurityGroupsPaginator(request);
        AtomicReference<String> groupIdRef = new AtomicReference<>();
        return paginator.subscribe(response -> {
            response.securityGroups().stream()
                .filter(securityGroup -> securityGroup.groupName().equals(groupName))
                .findFirst()
                .ifPresent(securityGroup -> groupIdRef.set(securityGroup.groupId()));
        }).thenApply(v -> {
            String groupId = groupIdRef.get();
            if (groupId == null) {
                throw new RuntimeException("No security group found with the name: " + groupName);
            }
            return groupId;
        }).exceptionally(ex -> {
            logger.info("Failed to describe security group: " + ex.getMessage());
            throw new RuntimeException("Failed to describe security group", ex);
        });
    }
JavaScript
SDK for JavaScript (v3)
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository. 

import { DescribeSecurityGroupsCommand, EC2Client } from "@aws-sdk/client-ec2";

/**
 * Describes the specified security groups or all of your security groups.
 * @param {{ groupIds: string[] }} options
 */
export const main = async ({ groupIds = [] }) => {
  const client = new EC2Client({});
  const command = new DescribeSecurityGroupsCommand({
    GroupIds: groupIds,
  });

  try {
    const { SecurityGroups } = await client.send(command);
    const sgList = SecurityGroups.map(
      (sg) => `• ${sg.GroupName} (${sg.GroupId}): ${sg.Description}`,
    ).join("\n");
    if (sgList.length) {
      console.log(`Security groups:\n${sgList}`);
    } else {
      console.log("No security groups found.");
    }
  } catch (caught) {
    if (caught instanceof Error && caught.name === "InvalidGroupId.Malformed") {
      console.warn(`${caught.message}. Please provide a valid GroupId.`);
    } else if (
      caught instanceof Error &&
      caught.name === "InvalidGroup.NotFound"
    ) {
      console.warn(caught.message);
    } else {
      throw caught;
    }
  }
};
Kotlin
SDK for Kotlin
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository. 

suspend fun describeEC2SecurityGroups(groupId: String) {
    val request =
        DescribeSecurityGroupsRequest {
            groupIds = listOf(groupId)
        }

    Ec2Client { region = "us-west-2" }.use { ec2 ->

        val response = ec2.describeSecurityGroups(request)
        response.securityGroups?.forEach { group ->
            println("Found Security Group with id ${group.groupId}, vpc id ${group.vpcId} and description ${group.description}")
        }
    }
}
PowerShell
Tools for PowerShell

Example 1: This example describes the specified security group for a VPC. When working with security groups belonging to a VPC you must use the security group ID (-GroupId parameter), not name (-GroupName parameter), to reference the group.

Get-EC2SecurityGroup -GroupId sg-12345678

Output:

Description         : default VPC security group
GroupId             : sg-12345678
GroupName           : default
IpPermissions       : {Amazon.EC2.Model.IpPermission}
IpPermissionsEgress : {Amazon.EC2.Model.IpPermission}
OwnerId             : 123456789012
Tags                : {}
VpcId               : vpc-12345678

Example 2: This example describes the specified security group for EC2-Classic. When working with security groups for EC2-Classic you may use either the group name (-GroupName parameter) or group ID (-GroupId parameter) to reference the security group.

Get-EC2SecurityGroup -GroupName my-security-group

Output:

Description         : my security group
GroupId             : sg-45678901
GroupName           : my-security-group
IpPermissions       : {Amazon.EC2.Model.IpPermission, Amazon.EC2.Model.IpPermission}
IpPermissionsEgress : {}
OwnerId             : 123456789012
Tags                : {}
VpcId               :

Example 3: This example retrieves all the security groups for the vpc-0fc1ff23456b789eb

Get-EC2SecurityGroup -Filter @{Name="vpc-id";Values="vpc-0fc1ff23456b789eb"}
Python
SDK for Python (Boto3)
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository. 

class SecurityGroupWrapper:
    """Encapsulates Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) security group actions."""

    def __init__(self, ec2_client: boto3.client, security_group: Optional[str] = None):
        """
        Initializes the SecurityGroupWrapper with an EC2 client and an optional security group ID.

        :param ec2_client: A Boto3 Amazon EC2 client. This client provides low-level
                           access to AWS EC2 services.
        :param security_group: The ID of a security group to manage. This is a high-level identifier
                               that represents the security group.
        """
        self.ec2_client = ec2_client
        self.security_group = security_group

    @classmethod
    def from_client(cls) -> "SecurityGroupWrapper":
        """
        Creates a SecurityGroupWrapper instance with a default EC2 client.

        :return: An instance of SecurityGroupWrapper initialized with the default EC2 client.
        """
        ec2_client = boto3.client("ec2")
        return cls(ec2_client)


    def describe(self, security_group_id: Optional[str] = None) -> bool:
        """
        Displays information about the specified security group or all security groups if no ID is provided.

        :param security_group_id: The ID of the security group to describe.
                                  If None, an open search is performed to describe all security groups.
        :returns: True if the description is successful.
        :raises ClientError: If there is an error describing the security group(s), such as an invalid security group ID.
        """
        try:
            paginator = self.ec2_client.get_paginator("describe_security_groups")

            if security_group_id is None:
                # If no ID is provided, return all security groups.
                page_iterator = paginator.paginate()
            else:
                page_iterator = paginator.paginate(GroupIds=[security_group_id])

            for page in page_iterator:
                for security_group in page["SecurityGroups"]:
                    print(f"Security group: {security_group['GroupName']}")
                    print(f"\tID: {security_group['GroupId']}")
                    print(f"\tVPC: {security_group['VpcId']}")
                    if security_group["IpPermissions"]:
                        print("Inbound permissions:")
                        pp(security_group["IpPermissions"])

            return True
        except ClientError as err:
            logger.error("Failed to describe security group(s).")
            if err.response["Error"]["Code"] == "InvalidGroup.NotFound":
                logger.error(
                    f"Security group {security_group_id} does not exist "
                    f"because the specified security group ID was not found."
                )
            raise
Rust
SDK for Rust
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository. 

async fn show_security_groups(client: &aws_sdk_ec2::Client, group_ids: Vec<String>) {
    let response = client
        .describe_security_groups()
        .set_group_ids(Some(group_ids))
        .send()
        .await;

    match response {
        Ok(output) => {
            for group in output.security_groups() {
                println!(
                    "Found Security Group {} ({}), vpc id {} and description {}",
                    group.group_name().unwrap_or("unknown"),
                    group.group_id().unwrap_or("id-unknown"),
                    group.vpc_id().unwrap_or("vpcid-unknown"),
                    group.description().unwrap_or("(none)")
                );
            }
        }
        Err(err) => {
            let err = err.into_service_error();
            let meta = err.meta();
            let message = meta.message().unwrap_or("unknown");
            let code = meta.code().unwrap_or("unknown");
            eprintln!("Error listing EC2 Security Groups: ({code}) {message}");
        }
    }
}
SAP ABAP
SDK for SAP ABAP
Note

There's more on GitHub. Find the complete example and learn how to set up and run in the AWS Code Examples Repository. 

    TRY.
        DATA lt_group_ids TYPE /aws1/cl_ec2groupidstrlist_w=>tt_groupidstringlist.
        APPEND NEW /aws1/cl_ec2groupidstrlist_w( iv_value = iv_group_id ) TO lt_group_ids.
        oo_result = lo_ec2->describesecuritygroups( it_groupids = lt_group_ids ).         " oo_result is returned for testing purposes. "
        DATA(lt_security_groups) = oo_result->get_securitygroups( ).
        MESSAGE 'Retrieved information about security groups.' TYPE 'I'.
      CATCH /aws1/cx_rt_service_generic INTO DATA(lo_exception).
        DATA(lv_error) = |"{ lo_exception->av_err_code }" - { lo_exception->av_err_msg }|.
        MESSAGE lv_error TYPE 'E'.
    ENDTRY.