Amazon Certificate Manager controls
These controls are related to ACM resources.
These controls may not be available in all Amazon Web Services Regions. For more information, see Availability of controls by Region.
[ACM.1] Imported and ACM-issued certificates should be renewed after a specified time period
Related requirements: NIST.800-53.r5 SC-28(3), NIST.800-53.r5 SC-7(16)
Category: Protect > Data protection > Encryption of data in transit
Severity: Medium
Resource type:
AWS::ACM::Certificate
Amazon Config rule:
acm-certificate-expiration-check
Schedule type: Change triggered and periodic
Parameters:
| Parameter | Description | Type | Allowed custom values | Security Hub default value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Number of days within which the ACM certificate must be renewed |
Integer |
|
|
This control checks whether an Amazon Certificate Manager (ACM) certificate is renewed within the specified time period. It checks both imported certificates and certificates provided by ACM. The control fails if the certificate isn't renewed within the specified time period. Unless you provide a custom parameter value for the renewal period, Security Hub uses a default value of 30 days.
ACM can automatically renew certificates that use DNS validation. For certificates that use email validation, you must respond to a domain validation email. ACM doesn't automatically renew certificates that you import. You must renew imported certificates manually.
Remediation
ACM provides managed renewal for your SSL/TLS certificates issued by Amazon. This means that ACM either renews your certificates automatically (if you use DNS validation), or it sends you email notices when the certificate expiration approaches. These services are provided for both public and private ACM certificates.
- For domains validated by email
-
When a certificate is 45 days from expiration, ACM sends to the domain owner an email for each domain name. To validate the domains and complete the renewal, you must respond to the email notifications.
For more information, see Renewal for domains validated by email in the Amazon Certificate Manager User Guide.
- For domains validated by DNS
-
ACM automatically renews certificates that use DNS validation. 60 days before the expiration, ACM verifies that the certificate can be renewed.
If it cannot validate a domain name, then ACM sends a notification that manual validation is required. It sends these notifications 45 days, 30 days, 7 days, and 1 day before the expiration.
For more information, see Renewal for domains validated by DNS in the Amazon Certificate Manager User Guide.
[ACM.2] RSA certificates managed by ACM should use a key length of at least 2,048 bits
Category: Identify > Inventory > Inventory services
Severity: High
Resource type:
AWS::ACM::Certificate
Amazon Config rule:
acm-certificate-rsa-check
Schedule type: Change triggered
Parameters: None
This control checks whether RSA certificates managed by Amazon Certificate Manager use a key length of at least 2,048 bits. The control fails if the key length is smaller than 2,048 bits.
The strength of encryption directly correlates with key size. We recommend key lengths of at least 2,048 bits to protect your Amazon resources as computing power becomes less expensive and servers become more advanced.
Remediation
The minimum key length for RSA certificates issued by ACM is already 2,048 bits. For instructions on issuing new RSA certificates with ACM, see Issuing and managing certificates in the Amazon Certificate Manager User Guide.
While ACM allows you to import certificates with shorter key lengths, you must use keys of at least 2,048 bits to pass this control. You can't change the key length after importing a certificate. Instead, you must delete certificates with a key length smaller than 2,048 bits. For more information about importing certificates into ACM, see Prerequisites for importing certificates in the Amazon Certificate Manager User Guide.
[ACM.3] ACM certificates should be tagged
Category: Identify > Inventory > Tagging
Severity: Low
Resource type:
AWS::ACM::Certificate
Amazon Config rule: tagged-acm-certificate (custom Security Hub rule)
Schedule type: Change triggered
Parameters:
| Parameter | Description | Type | Allowed custom values | Security Hub default value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
requiredTagKeys
|
List of non-system tag keys that the evaluated resource must contain. Tag keys are case sensitive. | StringList | List of tags that meet Amazon requirements | No default value |
This control checks whether an Amazon Certificate Manager (ACM) certificate has tags with the specific keys defined in the parameter
requiredTagKeys. The control fails if the certificate doesn’t have any tag keys or if it doesn’t have all the keys specified in the
parameter requiredTagKeys. If the parameter requiredTagKeys isn't provided, the control only checks for the existence
of a tag key and fails if the certificate isn't tagged with any key. System tags, which are automatically applied and begin with aws:,
are ignored.
A tag is a label that you assign to an Amazon resource, and it consists of a key and an optional value. You can create tags to categorize resources by purpose, owner, environment, or other criteria. Tags can help you identify, organize, search for, and filter resources. Tagging also helps you track accountable resource owners for actions and notifications. When you use tagging, you can implement attribute-based access control (ABAC) as an authorization strategy, which defines permissions based on tags. You can attach tags to IAM entities (users or roles) and to Amazon resources. You can create a single ABAC policy or a separate set of policies for your IAM principals. You can design these ABAC policies to allow operations when the principal's tag matches the resource tag. For more information, see What is ABAC for Amazon? in the IAM User Guide.
Note
Don’t add personally identifiable information (PII) or other confidential or sensitive information in tags. Tags are accessible to many Amazon Web Services, including Amazon Billing. For more tagging best practices, see Tagging your Amazon resources in the Amazon Web Services General Reference.
Remediation
To add tags to an ACM certificate, see Tagging Amazon Certificate Manager certificates in the Amazon Certificate Manager User Guide.