For AI agents: A markdown version of this page is available at https://docs.datadoghq.com/security/code_security/iac_security/iac_rules/cloudformation-aws-elb-with-security-group-without-outbound-rules.md. A documentation index is available at /llms.txt.

ELB with security group without outbound rules

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Metadata

Id: cloudformation-aws-elb-with-security-group-without-outbound-rules

Provider: AWS

Platform: CloudFormation

Severity: Medium

Category: Networking and Firewall

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Description

Load balancers that are attached to security groups with no outbound rules, or without explicitly defined egress, may be unable to reach backend targets, perform health checks, or connect to logging and monitoring services. This can cause availability and operational failures.

For load balancer resources (AWS::ElasticLoadBalancing::LoadBalancer and AWS::ElasticLoadBalancingV2::LoadBalancer), examine each security group referenced in the resource’s SecurityGroups list and validate the corresponding AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup defines the SecurityGroupEgress property. Resources missing SecurityGroupEgress or with SecurityGroupEgress set to an empty list will be flagged. The SecurityGroupEgress list must contain at least one egress rule that permits the required outbound traffic and should use narrow CIDRs, ports, or security-group destinations rather than broad 0.0.0.0/0 when possible.

Secure example with an explicit outbound rule allowing HTTPS egress:

MySecurityGroup:
  Type: AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup
  Properties:
    GroupDescription: Allow load balancer outbound HTTPS to targets
    VpcId: vpc-01234567
    SecurityGroupEgress:
      - IpProtocol: tcp
        FromPort: 443
        ToPort: 443
        CidrIp: 10.0.0.0/16

Compliant Code Examples

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Resources:
    sgwithegress:
        Type: AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup
        Properties:
            GroupDescription: Limits security group egress traffic
            SecurityGroupEgress:
            -   IpProtocol: tcp
                FromPort: 80
                ToPort: 80
                CidrIp: 0.0.0.0/0
    MyLoadBalancer:
        Type: AWS::ElasticLoadBalancing::LoadBalancer
        Properties:
            SecurityGroups:
            -   sgwithegress

{
  "AWSTemplateFormatVersion": "2010-09-09T00:00:00Z",
  "Resources": {
    "sgwithegress": {
      "Properties": {
        "GroupDescription": "Limits security group egress traffic",
        "SecurityGroupEgress": [
          {
            "IpProtocol": "tcp",
            "FromPort": 80,
            "ToPort": 80,
            "CidrIp": "0.0.0.0/0"
          }
        ]
      },
      "Type": "AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup"
    },
    "MyLoadBalancer": {
      "Type": "AWS::ElasticLoadBalancing::LoadBalancer",
      "Properties": {
        "SecurityGroups": [
          "sgwithegress"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}

Non-Compliant Code Examples

AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Resources:
    sgwithoutegress:
        Type: AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup
        Properties:
            GroupDescription: Limits security group egress traffic
    MyLoadBalancer:
        Type: AWS::ElasticLoadBalancing::LoadBalancer
        Properties:
            SecurityGroups:
            -   sgwithoutegress

{
  "AWSTemplateFormatVersion": "2010-09-09T00:00:00Z",
  "Resources": {
    "sgwithoutegress": {
      "Type": "AWS::EC2::SecurityGroup",
      "Properties": {
        "GroupDescription": "Limits security group egress traffic"
      }
    },
    "MyLoadBalancer": {
      "Type": "AWS::ElasticLoadBalancing::LoadBalancer",
      "Properties": {
        "SecurityGroups": [
          "sgwithoutegress"
        ]
      }
    }
  }
}