CloudFormation - How to validate ACM SSL certificate
Table Of Contents
In this article I’ll show you, how to use CloudFormation custom resources to automate ACM SSL certificate validation using DNS.
Here’s the list of technologies to be used:
- Python 3
- boto3
- CloudFormation
Final version of CloudFormation template is available at GitHub.
Automation process
To start automating our task, we’ll need simple CloudFormation template with, which creates ACM Certitificate resource.
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: >
This CloudFormation template validates ACM certificate
using AWS Route53 DNS service.
Parameters:
Route53HostedZoneName:
Type: String
DomainName:
Type: String
Resources:
ACMCertificate:
Type: AWS::CertificateManager::Certificate
Properties:
DomainName: !Ref DomainName
SubjectAlternativeNames:
- !Sub "*.${DomainName}"
ValidationMethod: DNS
Outputs:
ACMCertificateArn:
Value: !Ref ACMCertificate
As soon as we try to create a stack from this template, we’ll immidiately see, that in Events section of our stack there’s a Status reason field for ACMCertificate resource, which contains the following message:
Content of DNS Record is: {Name: _8c764e0f4e100a01c2d710674388e7d7.awsam.hands-on.cloud.,Type: CNAME,Value: _f10faf50b877f1c7d80cf6c26535acd8.kirrbxfjtw.acm-validations.aws.}
This message can be used to automate Route53 records creation during stack deployment. And CloudFormation custom resources will help us at this part.
To solve the problem in general, we need the following information:
- Stack name - we’ll use Python boto3 library to get access to CloudFormation stack events to parse for required DNS record
- Route53 Hosted Zone name - we’ll use Python boto3 library to create necessary DNS records in our Hosted Zone
Let’s extend our template with required resources:
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: >
This CloudFormation template validates ACM certificate
using AWS Route53 DNS service.
Parameters:
Route53HostedZoneName:
Type: String
DomainName:
Type: String
Resources:
ACMCertificate:
Type: AWS::CertificateManager::Certificate
Properties:
DomainName: !Ref DomainName
SubjectAlternativeNames:
- !Sub "*.${DomainName}"
ValidationMethod: DNS
ACMCertificateValidationResource:
Type: Custom::ACMCertificateValidation
Properties:
ServiceToken: !GetAtt ACMLambdaFunction.Arn
Route53HostedZoneName: !Ref Route53HostedZoneName
StackName: !Ref 'AWS::StackName'
ACMLambdaFunctionRole:
Type: AWS::IAM::Role
Properties:
AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
Version: '2012-10-17'
Statement:
- Effect: Allow
Principal:
Service:
- lambda.amazonaws.com
Action:
- sts:AssumeRole
Path: "/"
Policies:
- PolicyName: root
PolicyDocument:
Version: '2012-10-17'
Statement:
- Effect: Allow
Action:
- logs:CreateLogGroup
- logs:CreateLogStream
- logs:PutLogEvents
Resource: '*'
- Effect: Allow
Action:
- route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets
- route53:ListHostedZonesByName
- cloudformation:DescribeStackEvents
Resource: '*'
ACMLambdaFunction:
Type: AWS::Lambda::Function
Properties:
Runtime: python3.7
Timeout: '300'
Handler: index.handler
Role: !GetAtt ACMLambdaFunctionRole.Arn
Code:
ZipFile:
!Sub
- |-
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import cfnresponse
import boto3
import logging
import traceback
CFN_CLIENT = boto3.client('cloudformation')
LOGGER = logging.getLogger()
LOGGER.setLevel(logging.INFO)
def handler(event, context):
try:
LOGGER.info('Event structure: %s', event)
except Exception as e:
LOGGER.error(e)
traceback.print_exc()
finally:
cfnresponse.send(event, context, cfnresponse.SUCCESS, {})
-
stack_name: !Ref 'AWS::StackName'
acm_certificate_resource_arn: !Ref ACMCertificate
Outputs:
ACMCertificateArn:
Value: !Ref ACMCertificate
Creating CloudFormation Stack from this template will create a custom resource ACMCertificateValidationResource backed by ACMLambdaFunction, which right now has very basic logic - instantiate required libraries, CloudFormation boto3 client and print us event object, which handles parameters passed to ACMLambdaFunction.
{
"RequestType": "Create",
"ServiceToken": "arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:819962779546:function:cfm-r53-test-ACMLambdaFunction-NI4EAH0T5OUM",
"ResponseURL": "https://cloudformation-custom-resource-response-useast1.s3.amazonaws.com/arn%3Aaws%3Acloudformation%3Aus-east-1%3A819962779546%3Astack/cfm-r53-test/14c784d0-1631-11ea-adc9-0ed2247e0ea9%7CACMCertificateValidationResource%7Cbd5a9206-7029-4608-9083-724a292bc51a?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Date=20191204T005812Z&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Expires=7200&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA6L7Q4OWT5LA3SVU2%2F20191204%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Signature=37dbeb173ca5d32c899371aaf13da19cb73a2ec4a9f5945820b7bf64f265357c",
"StackId": "arn:aws:cloudformation:us-east-1:819962779546:stack/cfm-r53-test/14c784d0-1631-11ea-adc9-0ed2247e0ea9",
"RequestId": "bd5a9206-7029-4608-9083-724a292bc51a",
"LogicalResourceId": "ACMCertificateValidationResource",
"ResourceType": "Custom::ACMCertificateValidation",
"ResourceProperties": {
"ServiceToken": "arn:aws:lambda:us-east-1:819962779546:function:cfm-r53-test-ACMLambdaFunction-NI4EAH0T5OUM",
"Route53HostedZoneName": "awsam.hands-on.cloud",
"StackName": "cfm-r53-test"
}
}
You may take a look on your own Event object at CloudWatch Logs.
Every single time ACMCertificateValidationResource resource is created, our Lambda function is called. So, all we need to do now, is to automate Route53 DNS record creation.
Let’s get access to CloudFormation stack event and grab Route53 DNS records information:
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: >
This CloudFormation template validates ACM certificate
using AWS Route53 DNS service.
Parameters:
Route53HostedZoneName:
Type: String
DomainName:
Type: String
Resources:
ACMCertificate:
Type: AWS::CertificateManager::Certificate
Properties:
DomainName: !Ref DomainName
SubjectAlternativeNames:
- !Sub "*.${DomainName}"
ValidationMethod: DNS
ACMCertificateValidationResource:
Type: Custom::ACMCertificateValidation
Properties:
ServiceToken: !GetAtt ACMLambdaFunction.Arn
Route53HostedZoneName: !Ref Route53HostedZoneName
StackName: !Ref 'AWS::StackName'
ACMLambdaFunctionRole:
Type: AWS::IAM::Role
Properties:
AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
Version: '2012-10-17'
Statement:
- Effect: Allow
Principal:
Service:
- lambda.amazonaws.com
Action:
- sts:AssumeRole
Path: "/"
Policies:
- PolicyName: root
PolicyDocument:
Version: '2012-10-17'
Statement:
- Effect: Allow
Action:
- logs:CreateLogGroup
- logs:CreateLogStream
- logs:PutLogEvents
Resource: '*'
- Effect: Allow
Action:
- route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets
- route53:ListHostedZonesByName
- cloudformation:DescribeStackEvents
Resource: '*'
ACMLambdaFunction:
Type: AWS::Lambda::Function
Properties:
Runtime: python3.7
Timeout: '300'
Handler: index.handler
Role: !GetAtt ACMLambdaFunctionRole.Arn
Code:
ZipFile:
!Sub
- |-
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import cfnresponse
import boto3
import logging
import traceback
CFN_CLIENT = boto3.client('cloudformation')
LOGGER = logging.getLogger()
LOGGER.setLevel(logging.INFO)
def get_route53_record_from_stack_events():
status_reason_text = ''
params = {'StackName': '${stack_name}'}
while True:
cfn_response = CFN_CLIENT.describe_stack_events(**params)
LOGGER.info('Stack events: %s', cfn_response)
for event in cfn_response['StackEvents']:
if (
event['ResourceType'] == 'AWS::CertificateManager::Certificate' and
event['ResourceStatus'] == 'CREATE_IN_PROGRESS' and
'ResourceStatusReason' in event and
'Content of DNS Record' in event['ResourceStatusReason']
):
status_reason_text = event['ResourceStatusReason']
if 'NextToken' in cfn_response:
params['NextToken'] = cfn_response['NextToken']
if status_reason_text != '':
break
_dns_request_text=status_reason_text[status_reason_text.find("{")+1:status_reason_text.find("}")]
_name_text = _dns_request_text.split(',')[0]
_type_text = _dns_request_text.split(',')[1]
_value_text = _dns_request_text.split(',')[2]
return {
'Name': _name_text.split(': ')[1],
'Type': _type_text.split(': ')[1],
'Value': _value_text.split(': ')[1]
}
def handler(event, context):
try:
LOGGER.info('Event structure: %s', event)
LOGGER.info('Route 53 record: %s', get_route53_record_from_stack_events())
except Exception as e:
LOGGER.error(e)
traceback.print_exc()
finally:
cfnresponse.send(event, context, cfnresponse.SUCCESS, {})
-
stack_name: !Ref 'AWS::StackName'
Outputs:
ACMCertificateArn:
Value: !Ref ACMCertificate
Here we used describe_stack_events() call to get all events from our stack, looped through all of them till we find the right one, which contains Content of DNS Record. Next we parsed the event string and form the following dict:
{
"Name": "_8c764e0f4e100a01c2d710674388e7d7.awsam.hands-on.cloud.",
"Type": "CNAME",
"Value": "_f10faf50b877f1c7d80cf6c26535acd8.kirrbxfjtw.acm-validations.aws."
}
At this point of time, you should see the following line at CloudWatch logs of your Lambda function:
Route 53 record: {‘Name’: ‘_8c764e0f4e100a01c2d710674388e7d7.awsam.hands-on.cloud.’, ‘Type’: ‘CNAME’, ‘Value’: ‘_f10faf50b877f1c7d80cf6c26535acd8.kirrbxfjtw.acm-validations.aws.'}
Now, all we have to do, is to modify our lambda function and create a Route53 record:
AWSTemplateFormatVersion: 2010-09-09
Description: >
This CloudFormation template validates ACM certificate using AWS Route53 DNS
service.
Parameters:
Route53HostedZoneName:
Type: String
DomainName:
Type: String
Resources:
ACMCertificate:
Type: 'AWS::CertificateManager::Certificate'
Properties:
DomainName: !Ref DomainName
SubjectAlternativeNames:
- !Sub '*.${DomainName}'
ValidationMethod: DNS
ACMCertificateValidationResource:
Type: 'Custom::ACMCertificateValidation'
Properties:
ServiceToken: !GetAtt ACMLambdaFunction.Arn
Route53HostedZoneName: !Ref Route53HostedZoneName
StackName: !Ref 'AWS::StackName'
ACMLambdaFunctionRole:
Type: 'AWS::IAM::Role'
Properties:
AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
Version: 2012-10-17
Statement:
- Effect: Allow
Principal:
Service:
- lambda.amazonaws.com
Action:
- 'sts:AssumeRole'
Path: /
Policies:
- PolicyName: root
PolicyDocument:
Version: 2012-10-17
Statement:
- Effect: Allow
Action:
- 'logs:CreateLogGroup'
- 'logs:CreateLogStream'
- 'logs:PutLogEvents'
Resource: '*'
- Effect: Allow
Action:
- 'route53:ChangeResourceRecordSets'
- 'route53:ListHostedZonesByName'
- 'cloudformation:DescribeStackEvents'
Resource: '*'
ACMLambdaFunction:
Type: 'AWS::Lambda::Function'
Properties:
Runtime: python3.7
Timeout: '300'
Handler: index.handler
Role: !GetAtt ACMLambdaFunctionRole.Arn
Code:
ZipFile: !Sub
- |-
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import cfnresponse
import boto3
import logging
import traceback
CFN_CLIENT = boto3.client('cloudformation')
ROUTE53_CLIENT = boto3.client('route53')
LOGGER = logging.getLogger()
LOGGER.setLevel(logging.INFO)
def get_route53_record_from_stack_events(stack_name):
status_reason_text = ''
params = {'StackName': stack_name}
while True:
cfn_response = CFN_CLIENT.describe_stack_events(**params)
LOGGER.info('Stack events: %s', cfn_response)
for event in cfn_response['StackEvents']:
if (
event['ResourceType'] == 'AWS::CertificateManager::Certificate' and
event['ResourceStatus'] == 'CREATE_IN_PROGRESS' and
'ResourceStatusReason' in event and
'Content of DNS Record' in event['ResourceStatusReason']
):
status_reason_text = event['ResourceStatusReason']
if 'NextToken' in cfn_response:
params['NextToken'] = cfn_response['NextToken']
if status_reason_text != '':
break
_dns_request_text=status_reason_text[status_reason_text.find("{")+1:status_reason_text.find("}")]
_name_text = _dns_request_text.split(',')[0]
_type_text = _dns_request_text.split(',')[1]
_value_text = _dns_request_text.split(',')[2]
return {
'Name': _name_text.split(': ')[1],
'Type': _type_text.split(': ')[1],
'Value': _value_text.split(': ')[1]
}
def handler(event, context):
try:
LOGGER.info('Event structure: %s', event)
if event['RequestType'] == 'Create':
stack_name = event['ResourceProperties']['StackName']
hosted_zone_name = event['ResourceProperties']['Route53HostedZoneName']
route53_record = get_route53_record_from_stack_events(stack_name)
LOGGER.info('Route 53 record: %s', route53_record)
route53_response = ROUTE53_CLIENT.list_hosted_zones_by_name(DNSName=hosted_zone_name)
hosted_zone_id = route53_response['HostedZones'][0]['Id']
route53_request_params = {
'HostedZoneId': hosted_zone_id,
'ChangeBatch': {
'Changes': [
{
'Action': 'UPSERT',
'ResourceRecordSet': {
'Name': route53_record['Name'],
'Type': route53_record['Type'],
'TTL': 60,
'ResourceRecords': [
{
'Value': route53_record['Value']
}
]
}
}
]
}
}
LOGGER.info('Route 53 request params: %s', route53_request_params)
ROUTE53_CLIENT.change_resource_record_sets(**route53_request_params)
except Exception as e:
LOGGER.error(e)
traceback.print_exc()
finally:
cfnresponse.send(event, context, cfnresponse.SUCCESS, {})
- stack_name: !Ref 'AWS::StackName'
Outputs:
ACMCertificateArn:
Value: !Ref ACMCertificate
And finally, we added boto3 Route53 client, which allowed us to use change_resource_record_sets(**params) call to create and/or modify
Conclusion
In this article we walked through step-by-step process of ACM certificate automation in CloudFomation template using custom resource.
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