Automating secret creation in AWS CloudFormation
By using an AWS CloudFormation template, you can automate creating secrets for database or service resources in your AWS cloud infrastructure.
You can use AWS CloudFormation to automate the creation of your cloud infrastructure. You create a template in either JSON or YAML to define the resources you need for your project. AWS CloudFormation then processes the template and builds the defined resources. This enables you to easily recreate a new copy of your infrastructure whenever you need it. For example, you can duplicate your test infrastructure to create the public version. You can also easily share the infrastructure as a simple text file, which enables others to replicate the resources without manual intervention.
You can use CloudFormer to capture all of the details of an existing set of resources into an AWS CloudFormation template.
Secrets Manager provides the following resource types to enable you to create secrets as part of an AWS CloudFormation template. For details about configuring each in your AWS CloudFormation template, choose the resource type name for a link to the AWS CloudFormation User Guide.
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AWS::SecretsManager::Secret – Creates a secret and stores it in Secrets Manager. You can specify a password or let Secrets Manager generate one for you. You may also create an empty secret and update it later using the parameter
SecretString. -
AWS::SecretsManager::ResourcePolicy – Creates a resource-based policy and attaches it to the specified secret. A resource-based policy controls who can perform actions on the secret.
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AWS::SecretsManager::RotationSchedule – Configures a secret to perform automatic periodic rotation using the specified Lambda rotation function.
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AWS::SecretsManager::SecretTargetAttachment – After you create a secret and then reference it to access the credentials when you create a service or database, this resource type goes back and finishes the configuration of the secret. Secrets Manager configures the secret with the details about the service or database required for rotation to work. For example, for an Amazon RDS DB instance, Secrets Manager adds the connection details and database engine type as entries in the
SecureStringproperty of the secret.
Examples
The following example templates create a secret and an Amazon RDS MySQL DB instance using the credentials in the secret as the master user and password. The secret has a resource-based policy attached that specifies access to the secret. The template also creates a Lambda rotation function and configures the secret to automatically rotate every 30 days.
The JSON specification
If deploying a Aurora PostgreSQL database, you must create a username other than
admin. admin is a reserved keyword
and you cannot create the database with that username.
JSON
{ "Transform": "AWS::SecretsManager-2020-07-23", "Description": "This is an example template to demonstrate CloudFormation resources for Secrets Manager", "Resources": { "TestVPC": { "Type": "AWS::EC2::VPC", "Properties": { "CidrBlock": "10.0.0.0/16", "EnableDnsHostnames": true, "EnableDnsSupport": true } }, "TestSubnet01": { "Type": "AWS::EC2::Subnet", "Properties": { "CidrBlock": "10.0.96.0/19", "AvailabilityZone": { "Fn::Select": [ "0", { "Fn::GetAZs": { "Ref": "AWS::Region" } } ] }, "VpcId": { "Ref": "TestVPC" } } }, "TestSubnet02": { "Type": "AWS::EC2::Subnet", "Properties": { "CidrBlock": "10.0.128.0/19", "AvailabilityZone": { "Fn::Select": [ "1", { "Fn::GetAZs": { "Ref": "AWS::Region" } } ] }, "VpcId": { "Ref": "TestVPC" } } }, "SecretsManagerVPCEndpoint": { "Type": "AWS::EC2::VPCEndpoint", "Properties": { "SubnetIds": [ { "Ref": "TestSubnet01" }, { "Ref": "TestSubnet02" } ], "SecurityGroupIds": [ { "Fn::GetAtt": [ "TestVPC", "DefaultSecurityGroup" ] } ], "VpcEndpointType": "Interface", "ServiceName": { "Fn::Sub": "com.amazonaws.${AWS::Region}.secretsmanager" }, "PrivateDnsEnabled": true, "VpcId": { "Ref": "TestVPC" } } }, "MyRDSInstanceRotationSecret": { "Type": "AWS::SecretsManager::Secret", "Properties": { "Description": "This is my rds instance secret", "GenerateSecretString": { "SecretStringTemplate": "{\"username\": \"admin\"}", "GenerateStringKey": "password", "PasswordLength": 16, "ExcludeCharacters": "\"@/\\" }, "Tags": [ { "Key": "AppName", "Value": "MyApp" } ] } }, "MyDBInstance": { "Type": "AWS::RDS::DBInstance", "Properties": { "AllocatedStorage": 20, "DBInstanceClass": "db.t2.micro", "Engine": "mysql", "DBSubnetGroupName": { "Ref": "MyDBSubnetGroup" }, "MasterUsername": { "Fn::Sub": "{{resolve:secretsmanager:${MyRDSInstanceRotationSecret}::username}}" }, "MasterUserPassword": { "Fn::Sub": "{{resolve:secretsmanager:${MyRDSInstanceRotationSecret}::password}}" }, "BackupRetentionPeriod": 0, "VPCSecurityGroups": [ { "Fn::GetAtt": [ "TestVPC", "DefaultSecurityGroup" ] } ] } }, "MyDBSubnetGroup": { "Type": "AWS::RDS::DBSubnetGroup", "Properties": { "DBSubnetGroupDescription": "Test Group", "SubnetIds": [ { "Ref": "TestSubnet01" }, { "Ref": "TestSubnet02" } ] } }, "SecretRDSInstanceAttachment": { "Type": "AWS::SecretsManager::SecretTargetAttachment", "Properties": { "SecretId": { "Ref": "MyRDSInstanceRotationSecret" }, "TargetId": { "Ref": "MyDBInstance" }, "TargetType": "AWS::RDS::DBInstance" } }, "MySecretRotationSchedule": { "Type": "AWS::SecretsManager::RotationSchedule", "DependsOn": "SecretRDSInstanceAttachment", "Properties": { "SecretId": { "Ref": "MyRDSInstanceRotationSecret" }, "HostedRotationLambda": { "RotationType": "MySQLSingleUser", "RotationLambdaName": "SecretsManagerRotation", "VpcSecurityGroupIds": { "Fn::GetAtt": [ "TestVPC", "DefaultSecurityGroup" ] }, "VpcSubnetIds": { "Fn::Join": [ ",", [ { "Ref": "TestSubnet01" }, { "Ref": "TestSubnet02" } ] ] } }, "RotationRules": { "AutomaticallyAfterDays": 30 } } } } }
YAML
Transform: AWS::SecretsManager-2020-07-23 Description: "This is an example template to demonstrate CloudFormation resources for Secrets Manager" Resources: #This is the VPC that the rotation Lambda and the RDS instance will be placed in TestVPC: Type: AWS::EC2::VPC Properties: CidrBlock: 10.0.0.0/16 EnableDnsHostnames: true EnableDnsSupport: true # Subnet that the rotation Lambda and the RDS instance will be placed in TestSubnet01: Type: AWS::EC2::Subnet Properties: CidrBlock: 10.0.96.0/19 AvailabilityZone: Fn::Select: - '0' - Fn::GetAZs: {Ref: 'AWS::Region'} VpcId: Ref: TestVPC TestSubnet02: Type: AWS::EC2::Subnet Properties: CidrBlock: 10.0.128.0/19 AvailabilityZone: Fn::Select: - '1' - Fn::GetAZs: {Ref: 'AWS::Region'} VpcId: Ref: TestVPC #VPC endpoint that will enable the rotation Lambda to make api calls to Secrets Manager SecretsManagerVPCEndpoint: Type: AWS::EC2::VPCEndpoint Properties: SubnetIds: - Ref: TestSubnet01 - Ref: TestSubnet02 SecurityGroupIds: - !GetAtt TestVPC.DefaultSecurityGroup VpcEndpointType: 'Interface' ServiceName: !Sub "com.amazonaws.${AWS::Region}.secretsmanager" PrivateDnsEnabled: true VpcId: Ref: TestVPC #This is a Secret resource with a randomly generated password in its SecretString JSON. MyRDSInstanceRotationSecret: Type: AWS::SecretsManager::Secret Properties: Description: 'This is my rds instance secret' GenerateSecretString: SecretStringTemplate: '{"username": "admin"}' GenerateStringKey: 'password' PasswordLength: 16 ExcludeCharacters: '"@/\' Tags: - Key: AppName Value: MyApp #This is an RDS instance resource. Its master username and password use dynamic references to resolve values from #SecretsManager. The dynamic reference guarantees that CloudFormation will not log or persist the resolved value #We sub the Secret resource's logical id in order to construct the dynamic reference, since the Secret's name is being #generated by CloudFormation MyDBInstance: Type: AWS::RDS::DBInstance Properties: AllocatedStorage: 20 DBInstanceClass: db.t2.micro Engine: mysql DBSubnetGroupName: Ref: MyDBSubnetGroup MasterUsername: !Sub '{{resolve:secretsmanager:${MyRDSInstanceRotationSecret}::username}}' MasterUserPassword: !Sub '{{resolve:secretsmanager:${MyRDSInstanceRotationSecret}::password}}' BackupRetentionPeriod: 0 VPCSecurityGroups: - !GetAtt TestVPC.DefaultSecurityGroup #Database subnet group for the RDS instance MyDBSubnetGroup: Type: AWS::RDS::DBSubnetGroup Properties: DBSubnetGroupDescription: "Test Group" SubnetIds: - Ref: TestSubnet01 - Ref: TestSubnet02 #This is a SecretTargetAttachment resource which updates the referenced Secret resource with properties about #the referenced RDS instance SecretRDSInstanceAttachment: Type: AWS::SecretsManager::SecretTargetAttachment Properties: SecretId: !Ref MyRDSInstanceRotationSecret TargetId: !Ref MyDBInstance TargetType: AWS::RDS::DBInstance #This is a RotationSchedule resource. It configures rotation of password for the referenced secret using a rotation lambda #The first rotation happens at resource creation time, with subsequent rotations scheduled according to the rotation rules #We explicitly depend on the SecretTargetAttachment resource being created to ensure that the secret contains all the #information necessary for rotation to succeed MySecretRotationSchedule: Type: AWS::SecretsManager::RotationSchedule DependsOn: SecretRDSInstanceAttachment Properties: SecretId: !Ref MyRDSInstanceRotationSecret HostedRotationLambda: RotationType: MySQLSingleUser RotationLambdaName: SecretsManagerRotation VpcSecurityGroupIds: !GetAtt TestVPC.DefaultSecurityGroup VpcSubnetIds: Fn::Join: - "," - - Ref: TestSubnet01 - Ref: TestSubnet02 RotationRules: AutomaticallyAfterDays: 30
