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Tutorial: Landing Zone

This tutorial is work in progress!

Purpose: show you how to create secure landing zones for AWS in a simple step by step guide.

Terms:

  • Managed Account An AWS Account managed under this landing zone.
  • CFN shorthand for AWS CloudFormation

Create the Organization

Setup the Organization on the root account

  • select the "Root" Organizational Unit that's automatically created ("Organize Accounts" section) an enable "Service control policies" Policy type
  • attach the following policy to the root
    • FullAWSAccess (default policy supplied by AWS)
    • meshstack-aws-root: Root Policy for meshstack-managed AWS organizations

This policy "jails" member accounts in the organization

  • deny access to organizations API
  • deny access to CRUD IAM IdPs
  • todo: figure out how/if we can restrict modifications to the IAM OrganizationAccountAccessRole and to the user's own role
{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "DenyAllOrganizationsApis",
            "Effect": "Deny",
            "Action": [
                "organizations:*"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        },
        {
            "Sid": "DenyRestrictedIamOperations",
            "Effect": "Deny",
            "Action": [
                "iam:AddClientIDToOpenIDConnectProvider",
                "iam:CreateOpenIDConnectProvider",
                "iam:CreateSAMLProvider",
                "iam:DeleteOpenIDConnectProvider",
                "iam:DeleteSAMLProvider",
                "iam:GetOpenIDConnectProvider",
                "iam:GetSAMLProvider",
                "iam:ListOpenIDConnectProviders",
                "iam:ListSAMLProviders",
                "iam:RemoveClientIDFromOpenIDConnectProvider",
                "iam:UpdateOpenIDConnectProviderThumbprint",
                "iam:UpdateSAMLProvider"
            ],
            "Resource": [
                "*"
            ]
        }
    ]
}

Automation Account

Choose an automation account in which the Stack Sets will be placed. Setup these resources inside the Automation Account. Have a look at the subsequent CloudFormation Templates for a reference.

LZCFNStackSetAdministrationRole

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: Configure the LZCFNStackSetAdministrationRole to enable use of AWS CloudFormation StackSets. This role can be assumed by the CloudFormation Service and can in turn assume the StackSetExecutionRole in managed accounts.

Resources:
  AdministrationRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      RoleName: LZCFNStackSetAdministrationRole
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
        Version: 2012-10-17
        Statement:
          - Effect: Allow
            Principal:
              Service: cloudformation.amazonaws.com
            Action:
              - sts:AssumeRole
      Path: /
      Policies:
        - PolicyName: AssumeRole-AWSCloudFormationStackSetExecutionRole
          PolicyDocument:
            Version: 2012-10-17
            Statement:
              - Effect: Allow
                Action:
                  - sts:AssumeRole
                Resource:
                  - "arn:aws:iam::*:role/AWSCloudFormationStackSetExecutionRole"

LZStackSet

In the administration account create a StackSet with the template you later want to apply to the newly provisioned accounts. We need a created StackSet in order to have the ID. This might only work if you apply the template to a placeholder account which you can remove again afterwards as the AWS web interface does not allow to create a StackSet without an initial account to roll this out. After the creation the StackSetInstance can be removed again.

LZStackSetUser

consider renaming to LZStackSetAdmin

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: Configure a service user for meshStack to add managed accounts to the LZ StackSet

Resources:
  LZStackSetUser:
    Type: 'AWS::IAM::User'
    Properties:
        # configure credentials etc. here ...
  LZStackSetUserPolicy:
    Type: 'AWS::IAM::Policy'
    Properties:
      PolicyName: LZStackSetUserPolicy
      PolicyDocument:
        Statement:
          - Sid: AllowAccessToLZStackSet
            Effect: Allow
            Action:
              - 'cloudformation:Describe*'
              - 'cloudformation:List*'
              - 'cloudformation:Get*'
            Resource: '*' # tbd this may need to be more limited, but needs access on the LZ StackSet
        - Sid: AllowToPassLZCFNStackSetAdministrationRole
          Effect: Allow
          Action:
            - iam:GetRole
            - iam:PassRole
          Resource": "arn:aws:iam::*:role/LZCFNStackSetAdministrationRole"
      Users:
        - !Ref LZStackSetUser

Access Stack to boostrap Managed Accounts

Prepare a Template which will setup a AWSCloudFormationStackSetExecutionRole. This role must allow the adminstration account/CloudFormation to perform actions on behalf of the users. It must also allow access to all services you plan to use in your Cloud Formation Templates. A example role policy could look like this:

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: '2010-09-09'
Description: Configure the AWSCloudFormationStackSetExecutionRole to enable use of your account as a target account in AWS CloudFormation StackSets.

Resources:
ExecutionRole:
    Type: 'AWS::IAM::Role'
    Properties:
    RoleName: AWSCloudFormationStackSetExecutionRole
    AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
        Version: '2012-10-17'
        Statement:
        - Effect: Allow
            Principal:
            AWS:
                # Adapt this Account ID to the ID of your designated Stack Set admin account
                - arn:aws:iam::ADMIN_ACCOUNT_ID:root
            Action:
            - sts:AssumeRole
    Path: /
    Policies:
        - PolicyName: StackSetExecutionPolicy # Adapt the name if you want
        PolicyDocument:
            Version: '2012-10-17'
            Statement:
            - Effect: Allow
            Action:
            # According to the AWS Docs this is the minimal rights needed for StackSets to work. Please extend it with the specific rights needed
            # for your Stack Templates you wish to roll out.
            - cloudformation:*
            - s3:*
            - sns:*
            Resource: '*'

OrganizationAccountAccessRole

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: Configure the OrganizationAccountAccessRole

Resources:
  OrganizationAccountAccessRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      RoleName: OrganizationAccountAccessRole
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
        Version: 2012-10-17
        Statement:
          - Effect: Allow
            Principal:
              AWS:
                - arn:aws:iam::${RootAccountId}:root
            Action:
              - sts:AssumeRole
      Path: /
      ManagedPolicyArns:
        - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess
  MeshfedServiceAccessRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      RoleName: OrganizationAccountAccessRole # tbd check for collisions with existing roles
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
        Version: 2012-10-17
        Statement:
          - Effect: Allow
            Principal:
              AWS:
                - arn:aws:iam::${RootAccountId}:meshfed-service
            Action:
              - sts:AssumeRole
      Path: /
      PolicyDocument:
        Statement:
          - Sid: IamReadOnly
            Effect: Allow
            Action:
                - iam:GetRole
                - iam:ListSAMProviders
                - iam:ListRoles
                - iam:GetSAMLProvider
            Resource: '*' # tbd this may need to be more limited, but needs access on the LZ StackSet
          - Sid: IamUpdateSAMLProvider
            Effect: Allow
            Action:
                - iam:UpdateSAMProvider
            Resource: arn:aws:iam::*:saml-provider/meshstack-saml-idp

AWSCloudFormationStackSetExecutionRole

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: Configure the AWSCloudFormationStackSetExecutionRole to enable use of your account as a target account in AWS CloudFormation StackSets. For simplicity, this role receives full AdministratorAccess on the target account.

Resources:
  ExecutionRole:
    Type: AWS::IAM::Role
    Properties:
      RoleName: AWSCloudFormationStackSetExecutionRole
      AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
        Version: 2012-10-17
        Statement:
          - Effect: Allow
            Principal:
              AWS:
                - arn:aws:iam::${AutomationAccountId}:role/LZCFNStackSetAdministrationRole
            Action:
              - sts:AssumeRole
      Path: /
      ManagedPolicyArns:
        - arn:aws:iam::aws:policy/AdministratorAccess
  1. As a last step setup an AWS Landing Zone in meshStack. You need the URL of the above defined Permission Setup Template, the actual Stack Set template you wish to apply, the Account ID of the admin account which will contain the stack sets and the StackSet Admin Region (the region in which the StackSet in the Admin account is placed) as well as the StackInstance Deploy Region.

Please contact meshcloud for more details and reference configurations.

Last updated on 3/21/2023