Amazon Inspector
Amazon Inspector helps improve the security and compliance of applications by running automated security assessments for Amazon EC2 instances, containers, and Lambda functions. It checks applications for security vulnerabilities and deviations from security best practices, such as open access to EC2 instances and installations of vulnerable software versions.
Core Functionality​
Automated Assessments: Continuously scan your resources for vulnerabilities and security issues without requiring manual intervention or scheduled maintenance windows.
Multi-Resource Support: Assess security across EC2 instances, container images in Amazon ECR, and Lambda functions from a single service.
Vulnerability Database: Leverage constantly updated vulnerability databases including CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) and vendor-specific security advisories.
Risk Prioritization: Receive findings prioritized by severity level with contextual information about exploitability and impact.
Assessment Types​
EC2 Instance Assessments: Scan operating systems and applications running on EC2 instances for known vulnerabilities and security misconfigurations.
Container Image Assessments: Analyze container images stored in Amazon ECR for vulnerabilities in base images and installed packages.
Lambda Function Assessments: Evaluate Lambda function code and dependencies for vulnerabilities in third-party libraries and packages.
Network Reachability: Assess network paths and security group configurations to identify potentially risky network access.
Use Cases​
Continuous Security Monitoring​
Implement ongoing security assessments as part of your DevOps pipeline to catch vulnerabilities early in the development lifecycle.
Compliance Reporting​
Generate security assessment reports to demonstrate compliance with security standards and regulatory requirements.
Vulnerability Management​
Maintain an up-to-date inventory of security vulnerabilities across your infrastructure with prioritized remediation guidance.
Container Security​
Ensure container images are free from known vulnerabilities before deployment to production environments.
Connection to Other AWS Services​
Amazon EC2: Automatically discover and assess EC2 instances in your account, providing comprehensive coverage of your compute infrastructure.
Amazon ECR: Integrate with ECR to automatically scan container images when they are pushed to repositories.
AWS Lambda: Assess Lambda function code and dependencies for vulnerabilities in runtime environments and third-party packages.
AWS Security Hub: Send findings to Security Hub for centralized security monitoring and correlation with other security services.
Amazon EventBridge: Trigger automated workflows and notifications when new findings are discovered or when assessment status changes.
AWS Systems Manager: Integrate with Systems Manager Patch Manager to automate remediation of identified vulnerabilities.
AWS CloudFormation: Include Inspector assessments as part of infrastructure deployment templates for continuous security validation.
Key Features​
Detailed Findings: Each identified security issue includes a detailed description, severity rating, and specific recommendations for remediation.
API and Console Access: View findings through the AWS Management Console or retrieve them programmatically through APIs for integration with security tools.
Suppression Rules: Create rules to suppress findings that are not applicable to your environment or that you've accepted as acceptable risks.
Finding Filtering: Filter and search findings by severity, resource type, vulnerability type, and other criteria for efficient triage.
Historical Tracking: Track finding trends over time to measure security posture improvements and identify recurring issues.
Benefits​
Proactive Security: Identify vulnerabilities before they can be exploited by attackers, reducing security risk across your infrastructure.
Automated Discovery: Eliminate manual vulnerability scanning processes with continuous, automated assessments.
Expert Guidance: Receive specific, actionable remediation steps for each finding, reducing the time needed to address security issues.
Cost-Effective: Pay only for the assessments you run, with no upfront costs or long-term commitments.
Integration Ready: Seamlessly integrate with existing security workflows and tools through APIs and AWS service integrations.
Compliance Support: Help meet security assessment requirements for various compliance frameworks and standards.
Amazon Inspector provides essential vulnerability assessment capabilities that help organizations maintain strong security postures by identifying and addressing security issues before they can impact applications or data. The automated, continuous nature of Inspector