Amazon Inspector Finding Forwarder

The Amazon Inspector Finding Forwarder addresses the challenge of managing and notifying teams about security findings in AWS environments, particularly when the volume of alerts from Amazon Inspector becomes overwhelming. This tool is built as a Python script designed to run within AWS Lambda, leveraging the serverless architecture to process findings efficiently.

The technical architecture involves the script receiving JSON-formatted security issue notifications from Amazon Inspector via Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS). Once received, the script formats these findings and forwards them to a specified email address. This approach ensures that critical security alerts are promptly delivered to the relevant teams, enhancing response times and reducing the risk of oversight.

Key operational considerations include the necessity to configure the DEST_EMAIL_ADDR variable within the script to ensure proper forwarding of notifications. Additionally, since this script is designed exclusively for AWS Lambda, it will not function in other environments. The use of AWS Lambda also means that the script benefits from automatic scaling and event-driven execution, but it may be subject to Lambda's execution time limits and concurrency limits, which need to be monitored to avoid potential bottlenecks.

From a technical standpoint, the script relies on standard AWS services and protocols, ensuring integration with existing AWS security workflows. However, the reliance on email for notification may introduce latency and could be less effective in high-volume or real-time response scenarios, highlighting the need for additional notification channels or integrations with other alerting systems.