Using Amazon EMR block public access

Amazon EMR block public access (BPA) prevents you from launching a cluster in a public subnet if the cluster has a security configuration that allows inbound traffic from public IP addresses on a port.

Important

Block public access is enabled by default. To increase account protection, we recommend that you keep it enabled.

Understanding block public access

You can use the block public access account-level configuration to centrally manage public network access to Amazon EMR clusters.

When a user from your AWS account launches a cluster, Amazon EMR checks the port rules in the security group for the cluster and compares them with your inbound traffic rules. If the security group has an inbound rule that opens ports to the public IP addresses IPv4 0.0.0.0/0 or IPv6 ::/0, and those ports aren't specified as exceptions for your account, Amazon EMR doesn't let the user create the cluster.

If a user modifies the security group rules for a running cluster in a public subnet to have a public access rule that violates the BPA configuration for your account, Amazon EMR revokes the new rule if it has permission to do so. If Amazon EMR doesn't have permission to revoke the rule, it creates an event in the AWS Health dashboard that describes the violation. To grant the revoke rule permission to Amazon EMR, see Configure Amazon EMR to revoke security group rules.

Block public access is enabled by default for all clusters in every AWS Region for your AWS account. BPA applies to the entire lifecycle of a cluster, but doesn't apply to clusters that you create in private subnets. You can configure exceptions to the BPA rule; port 22 is an exception by default. For more information on setting exceptions, see Configure block public access.

Configure block public access

You can update security groups and the block public access configuration in your accounts at any time.

You can turn block public access (BPA) settings on and off with the AWS Management Console, the AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), and the Amazon EMR API. Settings apply across your account on a Region-by-Region basis. To maintain cluster security, we recommend that you use BPA.

New console

Note

We’ve redesigned the Amazon EMR console to make it easier to use. See Amazon EMR console to learn about the differences between the old and new console experiences.

To configure block public access with the new console

1. Sign in to the AWS Management Console, then open the Amazon EMR console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/emr.

2. On the top navigation bar, select the Region that you want to configure if it's not already selected.

3. Under EMR on EC2 in the left navigation pane, choose Block public access.

4. Under Block public access settings, complete the following steps.

   To...	Do this...
   Turn block public access on or off	Choose Edit, choose Turn on or Turn off as appropriate, and then choose Save.
   Edit ports in the list of exceptions	Choose Edit and find the Port range exceptions section. To add ports to the list of exceptions, choose Add a port range and enter a new port or port range. Repeat for each port or port range to add. To remove a port or port range, choose Remove next to the entry in the list of port ranges. Choose Save.

Old console

To view configure block public access with the old console

1. Open the Amazon EMR console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/emr.

2. On the top navigation bar, verify that the Region you want to configure is selected.

3. Choose Block public access.

4. Under Block public access settings, complete the following steps.

   To...	Do this...
   Turn block public access on or off	Choose Change, choose On or Off as appropriate, and then choose the check mark to confirm.
   Edit ports in the list of exceptions	Under Exceptions, choose Edit. To add ports to the list of exceptions, choose Add a port range and enter a new port or port range. Repeat for each port or port range to add. To remove a port or port range, choose the x next to the entry in the Port ranges list. Choose Save Changes.

AWS CLI

To configure block public access using the AWS CLI

• Use the aws emr put-block-public-access-configuration command to configure block public access as shown in the following examples.

  To...	Do this...
  Turn block public access on	Set BlockPublicSecurityGroupRules to true as shown in the following example. For the cluster to launch, no security group associated with a cluster can have an inbound rule that allows public access. aws emr put-block-public-access-configuration --block-public-access-configuration BlockPublicSecurityGroupRules=true
  Turn block public access off	Set BlockPublicSecurityGroupRules to false as shown in the following example. Security groups associated with a cluster can have inbound rules that allow public access on any port. We do not recommend this configuration. aws emr put-block-public-access-configuration --block-public-access-configuration BlockPublicSecurityGroupRules=false
  Turn block public access on and specify ports as exceptions	The following example turns on block public access, and specifies Port 22 and Ports 100-101 as exceptions. This allows clusters to be created if an associated security group has an inbound rule that allows public access on Port 22, Port 100, or Port 101. aws emr put-block-public-access-configuration --block-public-access-configuration '{ "BlockPublicSecurityGroupRules": true, "PermittedPublicSecurityGroupRuleRanges": [ { "MinRange": 22, "MaxRange": 22 }, { "MinRange": 100, "MaxRange": 101 } ] }'

Configure Amazon EMR to revoke security group rules

Amazon EMR needs permission to revoke security group rules and comply with your block public access configuration. You can use one of the following approaches to give Amazon EMR the permission that it needs:

• (Recommended) Attach the AmazonEMRServicePolicy_v2 managed policy to the service role. For more information, see Service role for Amazon EMR (EMR role).

• Create a new inline policy that allows the ec2:RevokeSecurityGroupIngress action on security groups. For more information about how to modify a role permissions policy, see Modifying a role permissions policy with the IAM Console, AWS API, and AWS CLI in the IAM User Guide.

Resolve block public access violations

If a block public access violation occurs, you can mitigate it with one of the following actions:

• If you want to access a web interface on your cluster, use one of the options described in View web interfaces hosted on Amazon EMR clusters to access the interface through SSH (port 22).

• To allow traffic to the cluster from specific IP addresses rather than from the public IP address, add a security group rule. For more information, see Add rules to a security group in the Amazon EC2 Getting Started Guide.

• (Not recommended) You can configure Amazon EMR BPA exceptions to include the desired port or range of ports. When you specify a BPA exception, you introduce risk with an unprotected port. If you plan to specify an exception, you should remove the exception as soon as it's no longer needed. For more information, see Configure block public access.

Identify clusters associated with security group rules

You might need to identify all of the clusters that are associated with a given security group rule, or to find the security group rule for a given cluster.

• If you know the security group, then you can identify its associated clusters if you find the network interfaces for the security group. For more information, see How can I find the resources associated with an Amazon EC2 security group? on AWS re:Post. The Amazon EC2 instances that are attached to these network interfaces will be tagged with the ID of the cluster that they belong to.

• If you want to find the security groups for a known cluster, follow the steps in View cluster status and details. You can find the security groups for the cluster in the Network and security panel in the console, or in the Ec2InstanceAttributes field from the AWS CLI.