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How to Find AWS EC2 Instances are old

Problem​

Having old instances within your AWS account could increase the risk of having vulnerable software.

info

This security check is part of the CIS Amazon Web Services Benchmarks and is rated severity low.

Prerequisites​

This guide assumes that you have already installed and configured Resoto to collect your AWS cloud resources.

Directions​

  1. Execute the following search command in Resoto Shell or Resoto UI:

    > search is(aws_ec2_instance) and instance_status=running and age>180d
    ​kind=aws_ec2_instance, ..., region=resoto-poweruser
    ​kind=aws_ec2_instance, ..., account=poweruser-team

  2. Pipe the search command into the dump command:

    > search is(aws_ec2_instance) and instance_status=running and age>180d | dump
    ​reported:
    ​  id: /aws/ec2/123
    ​  name: some-name
    ​  ctime: '2022-12-05T22:53:14Z'
    ​  kind: aws_ec2_instance
    ​  age: 2mo28d

    The command output will list the details of all non-compliant aws_ec2_instance resources.

  3. Fix detected issues by following the remediation steps:

    • Check if software running in the instance is up-to-date and patched accordingly.
    • Consider migrating to an updated instance type.
    note

    Please refer to the AWS EC2 documentation for details.

Further Reading​