download the new version Road Defense: Outsiders

The existing instance metadata service (IMDSv1) is fully secure, and AWS will continue to support it. Today, AWS is making v2 of the EC2 Instance Metadata Service (IMDSv2) available.

While application security plays an important role in a layered defense, AWS also constantly evaluates where to add layers, even within the instance, to minimize the damage that can occur when these situations occur. When you run applications in the cloud, application security is as critical as instance security if the applications running on an instance have vulnerabilities or misconfigurations, there can be serious consequences. The IMDS also makes the AWS credentials available for any IAM role that is attached to the instance. For applications with access to IMDS, it makes available metadata about the instance, its network, and its storage. Attached locally to every EC2 instance, the IMDS runs on a special “link local” IP address of 169.254.169.254 that means only software running on the instance can access it. The IMDS solved a big security headache for cloud users by providing access to temporary, frequently rotated credentials, removing the need to hardcode or distribute sensitive credentials to instances manually or programatically. Since it first launched over 10 years ago, the Amazon EC2 Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) has helped customers build secure and scalable applications. July 27, 2021: We’ve updated the link to the 2019 re:Invent session on this topic.

Download the new version Road Defense: Outsiders