EC2 Virtual Machine User
Rotating AWS EC2 Virtual Machine accounts with Keeper
In this guide, you will learn how to rotate AWS EC2 Virtual Machine (VM) Accounts on your AWS Environment using Keeper Rotation. The EC2 VM is an AWS managed resource where the EC2 VM Admin Credentials are defined in the PAM Machine record type and the configurations of the EC2 VM Users are defined in the PAM User record type.
For EC2 VM Accounts, the AWS SDK is not used to rotate the password. Instead, the normal operating system commands are used to change the password. Keeper will connect to the target machine and send command-line commands to change the password. For a high-level overview on the rotation process in the AWS Environment, visit this page.
Prerequisites
This guide assumes the following tasks have already taken place:
Keeper Secrets Manager is enabled for your enterprise and your role
Keeper Rotation is enabled for your role
A Keeper Secrets Manager application has been created.
A Keeper Rotation gateway is already installed, running, and is able to communicate via SSH or WinRM with your target AWS Virtual Machine(s).
Your AWS environment is configured per our documentation
1. Set up PAM Machine Records
Keeper can rotate any local user account on either the Gateway machine or any other machine on the network. A PAM Machine record should be created for every machine. This PAM Machine record should contain an administrative credential that has the rights to change passwords for users on the machine.
Once a PAM Machine record is created for every machine, a PAM User record needs to be created for each local user account that will be rotated. The PAM Machine record itself can also be rotated.
Keeper will use the referenced admin credential to rotate the password or SSH key of AWS Virtual Machine users in your AWS environment. These admin credentials need to have the sufficient permissions in order to successfully change the credentials of these user accounts.
If you are running a rotation on a PAM Machine record which also happens to be the same machine running the Keeper Gateway, Keeper will attempt to rotate the password or SSH key for the account using the keeper-gw user. Assuming that keeper-gw has sudoers privilege, it will be able to perform rotations on the local Gateway machine.
The following table lists all the required fields on the PAM Machine record:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
Title | Name of the Record i.e |
Hostname or IP Address | Machine hostname or IP as accessed by the Gateway |
Port | Typically 5985 or 5986 for WinRM, 22 for SSH. |
Login | Username of the Admin account |
Password | Required for WinRM Optional for SSH if your admin user logs in with a password, otherwise the PEM key is utilized.
Note: The following chars are restricted: |
Private PEM Key | Required for SSH if not using a password |
Operating System | The VM Operating System, i.e |
SSL Verification | For WinRM, if selected, will use SSL mode port 5986. Ignored for SSH. |
This PAM Machine Record with the admin credential needs to be in a shared folder that is shared to the KSM application created in the prerequisites. Only the KSM application needs access to this privileged account, it does not need to be shared with any users.
The PAM Machine record can also be set up for rotation.
2. Set up PAM Configuration
If you already have a PAM Configuration for your AWS environment, you can simply add the additional Resource Credentials required for rotating machine users to the existing PAM Configuration.
Make sure the following items are completed first:
A Keeper Secrets Manager application has been created
A Keeper Rotation gateway is already installed, running, and is provisioned in the Keeper Secrets Manager application you created.
PAM Machine records have been created for each target machine
If you are creating a new PAM Configuration, login to the Keeper Vault and select "Secrets Manager", then select the "PAM Configurations" tab, and click on "New Configuration". The following table lists all the required fields that needs to be filled on the PAM Configuration.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
Title | Configuration name, example: |
Environment | Select: |
Gateway | Select the Gateway that is configured on the Keeper Secrets Manager application and has network access to your Active Directory server from the prerequisites |
Application Folder | Select the Shared folder that contains the PAM Machine record in Step 1 |
Admin Credentials Record | Select the PAM Machine record created in Step 1 This is the record with the admin credentials and sufficient permissions to rotate the directory user account's credentials |
AWS ID | A unique ID for this instance of AWS. This is for your reference and can be anything, but its recommended to be kept short
Ex: |
Access Key ID | Set this field to |
Secret Access Key | Set this field to |
For more details on all the configurable fields in the PAM Network Configuration record, visit this page.
Add all of the Administrative Resource Credentials to your PAM Configuration required for performing rotation on the target machines. For example, if you are rotating 3 different PAM Machines, those needed to be added as Resource Credentials on the PAM Configuration.
3. Set up PAM User Records
Keeper will use the credentials in the PAM Machine record to rotate the PAM User records in your AWS environment. The PAM User credential needs to be in a shared folder that is shared to the KSM application created in the prerequisites.
The following table lists all the required fields that need to be filled on the PAM User record:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
Title | Keeper record title i.e. |
Login | Case sensitive username of the user account being rotated, e.g. |
Password | This is only required if the user logs in with a password. If the password is left blank, performing a rotation will set one. |
Private PEM Key | This is only required if you are planning to rotate the PEM key instead of rotating a password. |
4. Configure Rotation on the Record - AWS VM User
Select the PAM User record(s) from Step 3, edit the record and open the "Password Rotation Settings".
Select the desired schedule and password complexity.
The "Rotation Settings" should use the PAM Configuration setup previously.
The "Resource Credential" field should select the PAM Machine credential setup from Step 1.
Upon saving, the rotation button will be enabled and available to rotate on demand, or via the selected schedule.
Any user with edit rights to a PAM User record has the ability to setup rotation for that record.
If the desired Admin Credential is not showing in the rotation settings screen, go to Secrets Manager > PAM Configuration > and add the necessary resource credentials.
5. Configure Rotation on PAM Machine Record
If rotation of the PAM Machine credential is desired, select the PAM Machine record from Step 1, edit the record and open the "Password Rotation Settings".
Select the desired schedule and password complexity.
The "Rotation Settings" should use the PAM Configuration setup previously.
The "Resource Credential" field should select the PAM Machine credential setup from Step 1.
Upon saving, the rotation button will be enabled and available to rotate on demand, or via the selected schedule.
SSH Key Rotation Notes
When rotating the private PEM Key credential on a target machine or user, Keeper will update the authorized_keys file on the machine with the new public key. The first time that a rotation occurs, the old public key is left intact in order to prevent system lockout. The second public key added to the file contains a comment that serves as an identifier for future rotations. For example:
If the first rotation is successful, you can optionally delete the old public key entry in the authorized_keys file. On subsequent rotations, Keeper will update the line which contains the "keeper-security-xxx" comment.
Troubleshooting
For Linux user rotations, password-encrypted PEM files are not currently supported.
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