Performing AWS Account Enumeration with ScoutSuite

Overview

ScoutSuite is an open-source multi-cloud security auditing tool developed by NCC Group that enables comprehensive security posture assessment of AWS environments. It queries AWS APIs to gather configuration data across all services, stores results locally, and generates interactive HTML reports highlighting high-risk areas. ScoutSuite is agentless and works by analyzing how cloud resources are configured, accessed, and monitored.

When to Use

• When conducting security assessments that involve performing aws account enumeration with scout suite
• When following incident response procedures for related security events
• When performing scheduled security testing or auditing activities
• When validating security controls through hands-on testing

Prerequisites

• Python 3.6+ installed
• AWS CLI configured with appropriate IAM credentials
• Read-only IAM permissions across target AWS services (SecurityAudit managed policy recommended)
• pip package manager for ScoutSuite installation
• Network access to AWS API endpoints

Installation and Setup

Install ScoutSuite

pip install scoutsuite

Verify installation

scout --version

Configure AWS credentials

aws configure
# Or use environment variables:
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=<your-key>
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=<your-secret>
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION=us-east-1

Required IAM Policy

Attach the AWS managed policy SecurityAudit and ViewOnlyAccess to the IAM user or role running ScoutSuite. For comprehensive scanning, a custom policy may be needed:

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "acm:Describe*",
        "acm:List*",
        "cloudformation:Describe*",
        "cloudformation:Get*",
        "cloudformation:List*",
        "cloudtrail:Describe*",
        "cloudtrail:Get*",
        "cloudtrail:List*",
        "cloudwatch:Describe*",
        "cloudwatch:Get*",
        "cloudwatch:List*",
        "config:Describe*",
        "config:Get*",
        "config:List*",
        "dynamodb:Describe*",
        "dynamodb:List*",
        "ec2:Describe*",
        "ec2:Get*",
        "elasticloadbalancing:Describe*",
        "iam:Generate*",
        "iam:Get*",
        "iam:List*",
        "iam:Simulate*",
        "kms:Describe*",
        "kms:Get*",
        "kms:List*",
        "lambda:Get*",
        "lambda:List*",
        "logs:Describe*",
        "logs:Get*",
        "rds:Describe*",
        "rds:List*",
        "redshift:Describe*",
        "route53:Get*",
        "route53:List*",
        "s3:Get*",
        "s3:List*",
        "ses:Get*",
        "ses:List*",
        "sns:Get*",
        "sns:List*",
        "sqs:Get*",
        "sqs:List*",
        "ssm:Describe*",
        "ssm:Get*",
        "ssm:List*"
      ],
      "Resource": "*"
    }
  ]
}

Running ScoutSuite

Full AWS scan

scout aws

Scan specific services only

scout aws --services s3 iam ec2 rds

Scan specific regions

scout aws --regions us-east-1 us-west-2 eu-west-1

Use an assumed role for cross-account scanning

scout aws --profile target-account-profile

Exclude specific services from scan

scout aws --skip iam ec2

Specify output directory

scout aws --report-dir /tmp/scoutsuite-reports/

Report Analysis

ScoutSuite generates an interactive HTML report stored locally. The report includes:

1. Dashboard: Overview of findings by severity (danger, warning, good)
2. Service-level findings: Grouped by AWS service (IAM, S3, EC2, RDS, etc.)
3. Rule-based checks: Each finding maps to a security best practice rule
4. Resource inventory: Complete listing of enumerated resources

Key areas to review in the report

Interpreting Findings

Severity Levels

…