---
title: Cloudfront viewer protocol policy allows HTTP
description: Datadog, the leading service for cloud-scale monitoring.
breadcrumbs: >-
  Docs > Datadog Security > Code Security > Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
  Security > IaC Security Rules > Cloudfront viewer protocol policy allows HTTP
---

# Cloudfront viewer protocol policy allows HTTP

{% callout %}
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{% alert level="danger" %}
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## Metadata{% #metadata %}

**Id:** `terraform-aws-cloudfront-viewer-protocol-policy-allows-http` 

**Provider:** AWS

**Platform:** Terraform

**Severity:** Medium

**Category:** Encryption

#### Learn More{% #learn-more %}

- [Provider Reference](https://registry.terraform.io/providers/hashicorp/aws/latest/docs/resources/cloudfront_distribution)

### Description{% #description %}

This check ensures that the connection between Amazon CloudFront and the viewer is encrypted by verifying the `viewer_protocol_policy` attribute. If set to `allow-all` (for example, `viewer_protocol_policy = "allow-all"`), CloudFront can serve content over both HTTP and HTTPS, leaving data in transit vulnerable to interception or man-in-the-middle attacks. To address this, the attribute should be set to `https-only` in all cache behaviors (for example, `viewer_protocol_policy = "https-only"`), ensuring all communications between CloudFront and the end user are encrypted, thus preserving the confidentiality and integrity of the data.

## Compliant Code Examples{% #compliant-code-examples %}

```terraform
#this code is a correct code for which the query should not find any result
resource "aws_cloudfront_distribution" "negative1" {
  origin {
    domain_name = "mybucket"
    origin_id   = "myS3Origin"

    s3_origin_config {
      origin_access_identity = "origin-access-identity/cloudfront/ABCDEFG1234567"
    }
  }

  enabled = true

  default_cache_behavior {
    allowed_methods  = ["DELETE", "GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS", "PATCH", "POST", "PUT"]
    cached_methods   = ["GET", "HEAD"]
    target_origin_id = "myS3Origin"

    forwarded_values {
      query_string = false

      cookies {
        forward = "none"
      }
    }

    viewer_protocol_policy = "https-only"
    min_ttl                = 0
    default_ttl            = 3600
    max_ttl                = 86400
  }

  restrictions {
    geo_restriction {
      restriction_type = "whitelist"
      locations        = ["US", "CA", "GB", "DE"]
    }
  }

  viewer_certificate {
    cloudfront_default_certificate = false
    minimum_protocol_version = "SSLv3"
  }
}
```

## Non-Compliant Code Examples{% #non-compliant-code-examples %}

```terraform
#this is a problematic code where the query should report a result(s)
resource "aws_cloudfront_distribution" "positive1" {
  origin {
    domain_name = "mybucket"
    origin_id   = "myS3Origin"

    s3_origin_config {
      origin_access_identity = "origin-access-identity/cloudfront/ABCDEFG1234567"
    }
  }

  enabled = true

  default_cache_behavior {
    allowed_methods  = ["DELETE", "GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS", "PATCH", "POST", "PUT"]
    cached_methods   = ["GET", "HEAD"]
    target_origin_id = "myS3Origin"

    forwarded_values {
      query_string = false

      cookies {
        forward = "none"
      }
    }

    viewer_protocol_policy = "allow-all"
    min_ttl                = 0
    default_ttl            = 3600
    max_ttl                = 86400
  }

  restrictions {
    geo_restriction {
      restriction_type = "whitelist"
      locations        = ["US", "CA", "GB", "DE"]
    }
  }

  viewer_certificate {
    cloudfront_default_certificate = false
    minimum_protocol_version = "SSLv3"
  }
}

resource "aws_cloudfront_distribution" "positive2" {
  origin {
    domain_name = "mybucket"
    origin_id   = "myS3Origin"

    s3_origin_config {
      origin_access_identity = "origin-access-identity/cloudfront/ABCDEFG1234567"
    }
  }

  enabled = true

  default_cache_behavior {
    allowed_methods  = ["DELETE", "GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS", "PATCH", "POST", "PUT"]
    cached_methods   = ["GET", "HEAD"]
    target_origin_id = "myS3Origin"

    forwarded_values {
      query_string = false

      cookies {
        forward = "none"
      }
    }

    viewer_protocol_policy = "https-only"
    min_ttl                = 0
    default_ttl            = 3600
    max_ttl                = 86400
  }

  ordered_cache_behavior {
    path_pattern     = "/content/immutable/*"
    allowed_methods  = ["GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS"]
    cached_methods   = ["GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS"]
    target_origin_id = "myS3Origin"

    forwarded_values {
      query_string = false
      headers      = ["Origin"]

      cookies {
        forward = "none"
      }
    }

    min_ttl                = 0
    default_ttl            = 86400
    max_ttl                = 31536000
    compress               = true
    viewer_protocol_policy = "allow-all"
  }

  restrictions {
    geo_restriction {
      restriction_type = "whitelist"
      locations        = ["US", "CA", "GB", "DE"]
    }
  }

  viewer_certificate {
    cloudfront_default_certificate = false
    minimum_protocol_version = "SSLv3"
  }
}
```

```terraform
resource "aws_cloudfront_distribution" "positive3" {
  origin {
    domain_name = "mybucket"
    origin_id   = "myS3Origin"

    s3_origin_config {
      origin_access_identity = "origin-access-identity/cloudfront/ABCDEFG1234567"
    }
  }

  enabled = true

  default_cache_behavior {
    allowed_methods  = ["DELETE", "GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS", "PATCH", "POST", "PUT"]
    cached_methods   = ["GET", "HEAD"]
    target_origin_id = "myS3Origin"

    forwarded_values {
      query_string = false

      cookies {
        forward = "none"
      }
    }

    viewer_protocol_policy = "https-only"
    min_ttl                = 0
    default_ttl            = 3600
    max_ttl                = 86400
  }

  ordered_cache_behavior {
    path_pattern     = "/content/immutable/*"
    allowed_methods  = ["GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS"]
    cached_methods   = ["GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS"]
    target_origin_id = "myS3Origin"

    forwarded_values {
      query_string = false
      headers      = ["Origin"]

      cookies {
        forward = "none"
      }
    }

    min_ttl                = 0
    default_ttl            = 86400
    max_ttl                = 31536000
    compress               = true
    viewer_protocol_policy = "https-only"
  }

  ordered_cache_behavior {
    path_pattern     = "/content/*"
    allowed_methods  = ["GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS"]
    cached_methods   = ["GET", "HEAD", "OPTIONS"]
    target_origin_id = "myS3Origin"

    forwarded_values {
      query_string = false
      headers      = ["Origin"]

      cookies {
        forward = "none"
      }
    }

    min_ttl                = 0
    default_ttl            = 86400
    max_ttl                = 31536000
    compress               = true
    viewer_protocol_policy = "allow-all"
  }

  restrictions {
    geo_restriction {
      restriction_type = "whitelist"
      locations        = ["US", "CA", "GB", "DE"]
    }
  }

  viewer_certificate {
    cloudfront_default_certificate = false
    minimum_protocol_version = "SSLv3"
  }
}
```