Mastering AWS Security Specialty — Post 6: AWS Security Hub – Unified Monitoring and Remediation

What is AWS Security Hub?

AWS Security Hub is a cloud security posture management (CSPM) service that gives you a comprehensive view of your security state in AWS. It aggregates, organizes, and prioritizes security findings from various AWS services and partner tools.

Think of it as your security control tower — watching over services like:

• Amazon GuardDuty

• AWS Config

• Amazon Inspector

• Macie

• Third-party security tools (like Trend Micro, Palo Alto, etc.)

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Architecture – How It Works

1. Data Sources Feed into Security Hub

Security Hub collects findings from multiple sources:

• AWS Services like GuardDuty (threat detection), Inspector (vulnerability scans), Macie (sensitive data detection), and AWS Config (compliance).

• Third-party integrations such as Palo Alto, Trend Micro, Splunk, and others via AWS Marketplace or custom APIs.

• Custom sources using the BatchImportFindings API.

All findings are normalized into a consistent format called AWS Security Finding Format (ASFF).

2. Security Hub Normalizes and Analyzes Findings

Once data arrives:

• Security Hub deduplicates, normalizes, and correlates the findings.

• It evaluates them against enabled security standards (e.g., CIS, AWS Best Practices).

• Insights help identify patterns or high-priority risks (like repeated open S3 buckets or unpatched EC2s).

This forms a unified security posture view across your AWS accounts and regions.

3. Findings Trigger Automated Responses (via EventBridge)

Every new or updated finding emits an event to Amazon EventBridge, which you can route to:

• AWS Lambda for automated remediation (e.g., isolate EC2, revoke access).

• SNS to send alerts via email or chat.

• Ticketing systems or SIEM tools via integrations.

This enables real-time, scalable automated security operations without manual intervention.

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Key Concepts

1. Findings

Findings are security alerts from AWS and third-party tools, formatted in a standard JSON structure (ASFF). They help identify risks like misconfigurations, threats, or vulnerabilities in your AWS environment.

2. Insights

Insights are pre-built or custom groupings of related findings based on defined filters like severity or resource type. Think of them as saved searches or dashboards that help prioritize recurring security issues and focus remediation efforts effectively.

3. Standards

Security standards in AWS Security Hub are predefined collections of controls mapped to widely accepted compliance frameworks like CIS Benchmarks and AWS Foundational Security Best Practices.. These standards run automated checks and highlight compliance gaps in your AWS accounts.

4. Integrations

Security Hub integrates with AWS services (e.g., GuardDuty, Macie) and third-party tools to collect findings centrally, offering unified security visibility and control.

5. Automation via EventBridge

Each finding generates an EventBridge event, allowing automated responses like sending alerts, tagging resources, or triggering Lambda functions for remediation.

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Security Standards and Covered Services

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Getting Started with AWS Security Hub

1. Enable Security Hub in your AWS Account

aws securityhub enable-security-hub

Tip: Enable it in all regions you use, or automate multi-region setup using a script.

2. Enable Security Standards

aws securityhub batch-enable-standards --standards-subscription-requests '[{
  "StandardsArn": "arn:aws:securityhub:::ruleset/cis-aws-foundations-benchmark/v/1.2.0"
}, {
  "StandardsArn": "arn:aws:securityhub:::ruleset/aws-foundational-security-best-practices/v/1.0.0"
}]'

3. Multi-Account and Multi-Region Strategy

Use AWS Organizations integration to manage security posture across accounts:

Delegate Administrator

aws organizations register-delegated-administrator \
  --account-id <SecurityAdminAccountId> \
  --service-principal securityhub.amazonaws.com

Then in the delegated account

aws securityhub enable-organization-admin-account \
  --admin-account-id <SecurityAdminAccountId>

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Understanding Findings

Each finding in Security Hub is in the AWS Security Finding Format (ASFF) — a JSON document with standard fields such as:

• Title

• Description

• Severity

• ProductArn

• Remediation

• Resources

Example: List All High Severity Findings

aws securityhub get-findings \
  --filters '{"SeverityLabel":[{"Value":"HIGH","Comparison":"EQUALS"}]}'

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Using Insights to Visualize Risk

Security Hub provides managed insights and allows you to create custom insights.

Example: Create a Custom Insight for Open Security Groups

aws securityhub create-insight \
  --name "Open Security Groups" \
  --filters '{"Title":[{"Value":"Security group allows unrestricted access", "Comparison":"EQUALS"}]}' \
  --group-by-attribute "ResourceId"

Tip: Use insights to create executive dashboards or compliance reports.

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Integration with Other AWS Services

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Automating Response with EventBridge and Lambda

Security Hub emits events when new findings arrive. You can create an EventBridge rule to trigger actions — such as tagging, isolating, or notifying.

Example: Event Rule to Trigger Lambda on Critical Finding

aws events put-rule \
  --name "SecurityHub-Critical-Finding" \
  --event-pattern '{
    "source": ["aws.securityhub"],
    "detail-type": ["Security Hub Findings - Imported"],
    "detail": {
      "findings": {
        "Severity": {
          "Label": ["CRITICAL"]
        }
      }
    }
  }'

Then attach a Lambda function to this rule using:

aws events put-targets \
  --rule "SecurityHub-Critical-Finding" \
  --targets "Id"="1","Arn"="arn:aws:lambda:REGION:ACCOUNT:function:yourSecurityFunction"

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Best Practices

1. Enable in all regions. Threats can emerge from unexpected places.

2. Automate remediation. Use EventBridge + Lambda for quick response.

3. Integrate with third-party tools. Use partner integrations for advanced insights.

4. Review insights weekly. Monitor trends and recurring misconfigurations.

5. Continuously improve. Use Security Hub as a feedback loop to tighten security.

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Final Words

Whether you're managing one AWS account or a hundred, AWS Security Hub is your central nervous system for security visibility. Mastering it means you're serious about building secure, auditable, and automated cloud environments.

Use the CLI, automate your responses, and let Security Hub evolve from a dashboard to a defense system.

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