What Amazon Inspector Actually Evaluates | Deep Dive.

Intro:

A deep dive into what Amazon Inspector Evaluates.

Focus:

•        How Amazon Inspector discovers resources,
•        How Amazon Inspector assesses them,
•        How Amazon Inspector integrates with AWS Security Hub and other tools.

Breakdown:

•       Overview,
•        Core Evaluation Categories,
•        Evaluation Workflow,
•        Architecture Layers (Visual Breakdown),
•       Key Metrics & Prioritization,
•       Integration with AWS Ecosystem,
•       Sample Inspector Evaluation Flow,
•       Summary Table.

 Overview

• Amazon Inspector is an automated vulnerability management service. 
• Amazon Inspector is a service continuously scans AWS workloads for software vulnerabilities (CVEs) and unintended network exposure.
  

Amazon Inspector primarily evaluates:

• EC2 instances
• Amazon ECR container images
• Lambda functions with dependencie

Amazon Inspector helps the security teams to maintain compliance and security posture by identifying vulnerabilities before exploitation.

 Core Evaluation Categories

1. Vulnerability Assessments (CVEs (Common Vulnerabilities & Exposures))

Amazon Inspector evaluates:

• Software packages and OS libraries for Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs).
• Vulnerability data sourced from:
• NVD (National Vulnerability Database).
• Vendor advisories (e.g., Ubuntu, Red Hat, Amazon Linux Security Bulletins).
• AWS internal security intelligence.

Each finding includes:

• CVE ID.
• CVSS base score.
• EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System).
• Remediation guidance (e.g., patch versions).

Targets

• EC2 instances using SSM Agent.
• ECR container images at build, push, or on-demand scan.

2. Network Exposure Analysis.

Inspector also identifies unintended network exposure by analyzing:

• Security group configurations.
• Network ACLs.
• Publicly accessible ports or services.
• Reachability to the Internet or VPC peers.

Targets

• EC2 instances.
• Lambda functions with public endpoints.

 Sample finding:

“EC2 instance i-0ab123xxxxx exposes port 22 to the internet (0.0.0.0/0).”

3. Package & Dependency Scanning.

Inspector performs deep software inventory analysis to detect:

• Vulnerable libraries (e.g., Log4j, OpenSSL).
• OS-level packages.
• Container dependencies from Dockerfiles or layers.

Targets

• ECR images.
• Lambda functions (Python, Node.js, Java, etc.).

4. Lambda Function Scanning.

Amazon Inspector evaluates Lambda functions for:

• Software vulnerabilities in dependencies (CVEs).
• Runtime environment vulnerabilities.
• Package metadata.
• Public accessibility (network exposure).

Scans occur:

• On deployment (new versions).
• On dependency updates.
• On-demand or continuous mode.

 Evaluation Workflow

 1. Resource Discovery.

Inspector auto-discovers resources using AWS Organizations and Resource Tagging:

• EC2 instances via Systems Manager Agent.
• ECR repositories.
• Lambda functions and layers.

 2. Assessment.

Inspector performs continuous, agent-based or agentless scans:

• Uses Inspector Assessment Targets and Assessment Templates.
• Collects software inventory and network reachability data.

 3. Finding Generation.

Inspector produces detailed findings including:

• Vulnerability ID and severity (Critical/High/Medium/Low).
• CVSS score and exploitability.
• Impacted resource ID.
• Recommended remediation.

4. Integration.

Findings are automatically integrated with:

• AWS Security Hub.
• AWS Organizations (multi-account).
• Amazon EventBridge
• AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager.

 Architecture Layers (Visual Breakdown).

1, Data Sources → 2, Detection Engine → 3, Findings & Integrations.

Layer	Description	Examples
Data Sources.	Software inventory, network configs, CVE databases.	SSM Agent, ECR API, Lambda metadata
Detection Engine.	Analyzes resources for vulnerabilities and exposures.	CVE scanner, network reachability analysis
Findings & Integrations.	Outputs to AWS tools for visibility and action.	Security Hub, EventBridge, SNS, Systems Manager

Key Metrics & Prioritization

Inspector uses:

• CVSS v3 base score.
• EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System).
• AWS-specific context (e.g., exposure level, resource importance).
• Aggregation by resource and account.

Sample:

• A critical CVE with active exploit (EPSS > 0.9) on a public EC2 instance is prioritized over a low-severity, internal vulnerability.

 Integration with AWS Ecosystem

Integration	Purpose
Security Hub.	Centralized visibility of Inspector findings
EventBridge.	Automated remediation workflows
Systems Manager Patch Manager.	Patching vulnerable instances
AWS Organizations.	Multi-account vulnerability management
AWS Config.	Compliance checks tied to configuration rules

 Sample Inspector Evaluation Flow

1. EC2 instance launched
2. SSM Agent collects OS + package info
3. Inspector compares software inventory against CVE databases
4. Finds CVE-2024-XXXX affecting OpenSSL ( a free Open-Source Software liblrary used for secure communication over computer networks. OpenSSL is a powerful cryptographic toolkit that implements the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols, with other cryptographic algorithms)
5. Checks if the instance is publicly reachable
6. Generates finding → Publishes to Security Hub and EventBridge
7. Triggered Lambda workflow patches instance automatically

 Summary Table

Evaluation Area	Purpose	Resources Covered
CVE Scanning.	Detect known vulnerabilities.	EC2, ECR, Lambda
Network Exposure.	Identify publicly accessible endpoints.	EC2, Lambda
Package & Dependency Analysis.	Detect library-level risks.	ECR, Lambda
Software Inventory.	Maintain asset visibility.	EC2
Integration Findings.	Centralize results for remediation.	Security Hub, EventBridge