AWS RDS/Aurora PostgreSQL Plugin

This plugin collects read-only evidence for Amazon RDS instances, Amazon Aurora clusters, and RDS snapshots, then evaluates configured CCF/Rego policy bundles against a normalized per-resource input document.

It implements the RunnerV2 plugin interface. During Init, it registers subject templates for:

• aws-rds-instance
• aws-rds-cluster
• aws-rds-snapshot

Account and region are recorded as labels and input context. They are not registered as standalone subjects.

Configuration

The CCF agent passes plugin config as flat string fields. Structured fields are JSON-encoded strings.

Key	Required	Description
accounts	No	JSON array of account targets. Empty means use the account from the configured AWS credential chain.
default_regions	No	JSON array of regions used when an account omits regions. Empty means use the AWS SDK default region.
lookback_days	No	Dynamic evidence trailing window in days. Default: 90. Maximum: 90 (due to CloudTrail LookupEvents limits).
policy_inputs	No	JSON object exposed to Rego as input.policy_inputs.
policy_labels	No	JSON string map merged into evidence labels.
max_concurrency	No	Maximum concurrent account/region collection workers. Default: 4.
api_timeout_seconds	No	Per-account/region collection timeout. Default: 60.

Each accounts entry supports:

Field	Required	Description
account_id	No	AWS account ID for labeling. If omitted, the plugin resolves it with STS.
regions	No	JSON array field inside the account object. Overrides default_regions.
role_arn	No	IAM role to assume before collection for this account.
external_id	No	External ID used with role_arn.
session_name	No	STS assume-role session name.
tags	No	String map copied into account labels and input context.

Example:

{
  "accounts": "[{\"account_id\":\"123456789012\",\"regions\":[\"us-east-1\",\"us-west-2\"],\"role_arn\":\"arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/rds-readonly\",\"external_id\":\"ccf\",\"session_name\":\"ccf-rds\",\"tags\":{\"environment\":\"prod\"}}]",
  "default_regions": "[\"us-east-1\"]",
  "lookback_days": "90",
  "policy_inputs": "{\"minimum_backup_retention_days\":7,\"approved_snapshot_accounts\":[\"111111111111\"]}",
  "policy_labels": "{\"team\":\"security\"}"
}

AWS Authentication

The plugin uses AWS SDK v2 native authentication. It supports the default credential chain, including environment variables, shared config profiles, SSO, web identity, ECS credentials, and instance metadata. When role_arn is configured for an account, the plugin uses STS AssumeRole on top of the default credential chain.

All collection calls are read-only. Fetch failures are accumulated and returned from Eval, but collection continues for other account/region/resource checks where possible.

Rego Input Schema

Each RDS instance, cluster, and snapshot is evaluated independently. Policies receive one input document per resource:

{
  "schema_version": "v1",
  "source": "aws-rds-aurora-psql",
  "account": {
    "account_id": "123456789012",
    "role_arn": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/rds-readonly",
    "tags": {
      "environment": "prod"
    }
  },
  "region": {
    "name": "us-east-1"
  },
  "resource": {
    "id": "database-1",
    "arn": "arn:aws:rds:us-east-1:123456789012:db:database-1",
    "type": "db-instance",
    "engine": "postgres",
    "engine_version": "15.4"
  },
  "config": {
    "storage_encrypted": true,
    "kms_key_id": "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:123456789012:key/example",
    "multi_az": true,
    "backup_retention_period": 7,
    "preferred_backup_window": "03:00-04:00",
    "latest_restorable_time": "2026-05-14T11:30:00Z",
    "deletion_protection": true,
    "publicly_accessible": false,
    "iam_database_authentication_enabled": true,
    "ca_certificate_identifier": "rds-ca-rsa2048-g1",
    "enabled_cloudwatch_logs_exports": ["postgresql"],
    "ssl_enforcement": {
      "default.postgres15": "1"
    }
  },
  "dynamic": {
    "cloudtrail_events": [],
    "account_cloudtrail_events": [],
    "rds_events": [],
    "cloudwatch_metrics": {}
  },
  "snapshots": [
    {
      "snapshot_identifier": "database-1-automated",
      "snapshot_type": "automated",
      "status": "available",
      "encrypted": true,
      "kms_key_id": "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:123456789012:key/example",
      "shared_accounts": [],
      "public": false
    }
  ],
  "tags": {
    "owner": "data-platform"
  },
  "collection": {
    "collected_at": "2026-05-14T12:00:00Z",
    "collector_version": "aws-rds-aurora-psql",
    "collection_type": "config_dynamic",
    "lookback_window": {
      "start": "2026-02-13T12:00:00Z",
      "end": "2026-05-14T12:00:00Z"
    },
    "raw_payload_hashes": {
      "primary": "sha256..."
    },
    "errors": []
  },
  "policy_inputs": {
    "minimum_backup_retention_days": 7,
    "approved_snapshot_accounts": ["111111111111"]
  }
}

collection.raw_payload_hashes is for traceability only. It is not used in identity labels or evidence-seeding labels.

Collection Coverage

CONFIG evidence includes:

• RDS instances via DescribeDBInstances
• Aurora/RDS clusters via DescribeDBClusters
• Snapshots via DescribeDBSnapshots, DescribeDBClusterSnapshots, and snapshot attribute APIs
• Tags via ListTagsForResource
• TLS enforcement via DB and cluster parameter groups
• RDS-boundary KMS posture: encryption enabled and KMS/CMK ID presence

DYNAMIC evidence uses the configured trailing window:

• CloudTrail LookupEvents for RDS management and access-removal events (note: IAM events are not collected since IAM is a global service and its CloudTrail events are recorded in us-east-1; the current implementation uses regional CloudTrail clients)
• RDS DescribeEvents for backup, restoration, and deletion categories (note: AWS RDS retains event history for approximately 14 days, so RDS event coverage may be shorter than the configured lookback_days)
• CloudWatch GetMetricData for CPUUtilization, DatabaseConnections, and FreeStorageSpace

dynamic.cloudtrail_events contains only events matched to the current resource. Account-scoped events that do not identify any RDS resource are exposed under dynamic.account_cloudtrail_events (events identifying a different RDS resource are dropped).

VPC/subnet/security-group deep posture and KMS key internals are intentionally out of scope for this plugin.