Implementing AWS Security Hub

When to Use

• When establishing a centralized security findings dashboard across multiple AWS accounts
• When enabling automated compliance checks against CIS, PCI-DSS, NIST, or AWS Foundational Security Best Practices
• When integrating findings from GuardDuty, Inspector, Macie, and third-party security tools
• When building automated remediation workflows for recurring security misconfigurations
• When preparing compliance evidence for auditors requiring continuous posture monitoring

Do not use for real-time threat detection (see detecting-cloud-threats-with-guardduty), for Azure compliance monitoring (see securing-azure-with-microsoft-defender), or for deep vulnerability scanning of container images (see securing-container-registry).

Prerequisites

• AWS Organization with a designated security administrator account
• AWS Config enabled in all target accounts and regions
• GuardDuty, Inspector, and Macie activated for finding integration
• IAM permissions for securityhub:* and config:* in the administrator account

Workflow

Step 1: Enable Security Hub with Standards

Activate Security Hub in the delegated administrator account and enable security standards. AWS Security Hub CSPM supports CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark v5.0, AWS Foundational Security Best Practices, PCI DSS v3.2.1, and NIST SP 800-53.

# Enable Security Hub with standards
aws securityhub enable-security-hub \
  --enable-default-standards \
  --tags '{"Environment":"production","ManagedBy":"security-team"}'

# Enable CIS AWS Foundations Benchmark v5.0
aws securityhub batch-enable-standards \
  --standards-subscription-requests '[
    {"StandardsArn": "arn:aws:securityhub:::ruleset/cis-aws-foundations-benchmark/v/5.0.0"},
    {"StandardsArn": "arn:aws:securityhub:us-east-1::standards/aws-foundational-security-best-practices/v/1.0.0"},
    {"StandardsArn": "arn:aws:securityhub:us-east-1::standards/pci-dss/v/3.2.1"}
  ]'

# Verify enabled standards
aws securityhub get-enabled-standards \
  --query 'StandardsSubscriptions[*].[StandardsArn,StandardsStatus]' --output table

Step 2: Configure Multi-Account Aggregation

Designate a Security Hub administrator and automatically enroll all organization member accounts. Configure cross-region aggregation to consolidate findings into a single region.

# Designate delegated admin
aws securityhub enable-organization-admin-account \
  --admin-account-id 111122223333

# Auto-enable for all org members
aws securityhub update-organization-configuration \
  --auto-enable \
  --organization-configuration '{"ConfigurationType": "CENTRAL"}'

# Enable cross-region aggregation
aws securityhub create-finding-aggregator \
  --region-linking-mode ALL_REGIONS

Step 3: Integrate Security Services and Third-Party Tools

Configure product integrations to receive findings from AWS services and partner security tools. Map third-party findings to AWS Security Finding Format (ASFF).

# List available product integrations
aws securityhub describe-products \
  --query 'Products[*].[ProductName,CompanyName,ProductSubscriptionResourcePolicy]' --output table

# Enable specific integrations
aws securityhub enable-import-findings-for-product \
  --product-arn "arn:aws:securityhub:us-east-1::product/aws/guardduty"

aws securityhub enable-import-findings-for-product \
  --product-arn "arn:aws:securityhub:us-east-1::product/aws/inspector"

# Import custom findings using ASFF format
aws securityhub batch-import-findings --findings '[{
  "SchemaVersion": "2018-10-08",
  "Id": "custom-finding-001",
  "ProductArn": "arn:aws:securityhub:us-east-1:123456789012:product/123456789012/default",
  "GeneratorId": "custom-scanner",
  "AwsAccountId": "123456789012",
  "Types": ["Software and Configuration Checks/Vulnerabilities/CVE"],
  "Title": "Unpatched OpenSSL in production ALB backend",
  "Description": "CVE-2024-12345 detected on backend instances",
  "Severity": {"Label": "HIGH"},
  "Resources": [{"Type": "AwsEc2Instance", "Id": "arn:aws:ec2:us-east-1:123456789012:instance/i-0abc123"}]
}]'

Step 4: Build Automated Remediation

Create Security Hub custom actions linked to EventBridge rules and Lambda functions for one-click or fully automated remediation of common findings.

# Create a custom action for remediation
aws securityhub create-action-target \
  --name "IsolateInstance" \

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