Question about VPC endpoints

[Levan Gharibashvili]

I’m confused about this answer. The public and private subnets are in the same VPC, so wouldn’t they have connection to each other by default? The answer doesn’t mention restricting access to the private subnet via NACL. What does having a VPC endpoint from ECS to RDS achieve in this case if connection between them is already possible?

• This discussion was modified 1 month ago by  Levan Gharibashvili. Reason: Added tags

[Nikee-TutorialsDojo]

Hello Levan,

Thank you for your feedback. I understand the confusion and am happy to clarify why Option 1 is the best choice for securing access to your RDS for MySQL database and S3 bucket.

Yes, you are correct that instances within the same VPC can communicate with each other by default. VPC endpoints provide additional security and control beyond the basic VPC subnet connectivity. VPC endpoints ensure that traffic between your ECS tasks and AWS services, such as RDS and S3, remains within the AWS network, reducing exposure to potential external threats and preventing data from traversing the public internet. This isolation is crucial for protecting sensitive data and ensuring tightly controlled access.

Moreover, VPC endpoints allow you to enforce more specific access policies. By configuring a VPC endpoint for RDS, you can restrict access to the database so that only ECS tasks within the VPC can connect to it. Similarly, setting up a VPC endpoint for S3 and applying a bucket policy ensures that only requests from the specified VPC endpoint can access the S3 bucket, effectively blocking unauthorized access.

Network Access Control Lists (NACLs) provide another layer of security, but they are generally used for broader network traffic control and may not offer the same level of granularity for resource-specific access as VPC endpoints and bucket policies. In summary, Option 1 is correct because it leverages VPC endpoints to create a secure and controlled environment, ensuring that only your ECS cluster can access both the RDS database and the S3 bucket, which is in line with your compliance requirements.

I hope this clarifies the answer! Let me know if you have any further questions.

Regards,

Nikee @ Tutorials Dojo