Setup Security Agent

by aws7bde20faede4No license2.8K starsListed Oct 8, 2026Updated Oct 8, 2026Repository updated today

Configure AWS Security Agent for the current workspace — provision or reuse an agent space, IAM service role, and S3 bucket. Use when the user asks to "set up security agent", "configure security scanner", "is security agent configured", or on first-time use before any scan or pentest.

Instructions onlySecurityDevOps & Cloud
AI-generated overview

Configures an AWS Security Agent workspace by provisioning an agent space, IAM service role, and S3 bucket.

What it does
This skill sets up the AWS Security Agent prerequisites for a workspace: it checks or creates an agent space, ensures an IAM service role named SecurityAgentScanRole with the correct trust and permissions policies, and ensures an S3 bucket for scan uploads with public access blocked and a 30-day lifecycle. It then registers the role and bucket on the agent space and writes minimal state to .security-agent/config.json plus a .gitignore. It produces a configured workspace ready for separate scan and pentest skills.
When to use it
Use when the user asks to set up or configure a security agent or scanner, asks whether a security agent is already configured, or on first-time use before running any scan or pentest.
Requirements
Requires the AWS CLI with credentials that can call STS, IAM, S3, and the securityagent service, plus network access to AWS. It ships no scripts; it is instructions only and runs shell commands inline.

AWS Security Agent — Setup

This skill handles ONE thing: making sure the workspace has a working agent space, IAM service role, and S3 bucket linked together. Scans and pentests live in separate skills and assume this is done.


Local state convention

All Security Agent skills share workspace-local state at .security-agent/:

  • config.json — { "agent_space_id": "as-...", "region": "us-east-1", "code_reviews": { "<abs_path>": "cr-..." } }. Account ID, role ARN, and bucket name are derived by convention. The code_reviews map lets scans reuse the same CodeReview for a workspace.
  • scans.json — array of { scan_id, code_review_id, job_id, agent_space_id, scan_type, title, started_at, status, path } (keep last 50)
  • pentests.json — same shape, for pentest jobs
  • .gitignore — contents * so this directory stays untracked
  • findings-{scan_id}.md — written by the scan skill after each scan completes

This skill's job is to populate config.json and create .gitignore.

Derived values (convention over config)

Other skills compute these on each invocation rather than reading them from config.json:

ValueConvention
ACCOUNTaws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text
REGIONconfig.region (default us-east-1)
service_role_arnarn:aws:iam::${ACCOUNT}:role/SecurityAgentScanRole
s3_bucketsecurity-agent-scans-${ACCOUNT}-${REGION}

Why minimal config: the role name and bucket name are deterministic, so storing them adds drift risk (a user re-creating a role manually would silently use a stale path). Only agent_space_id is stored because users may have multiple agent spaces and we don't want to ask which one every session.


Workflow

  1. Check existing state: read .security-agent/config.json if it exists.

  2. Caller identity + region:

    bash
    export ACCOUNT=$(aws sts get-caller-identity --query Account --output text)export REGION="${AWS_REGION:-us-east-1}"
  3. Agent space:

    • If config.agent_space_id is set, verify with:

      bash
      aws securityagent batch-get-agent-spaces --agent-space-ids <id>

      If the response shows it doesn't exist, treat as missing.

    • If missing, list existing:

      bash
      aws securityagent list-agent-spaces
      • If any exist → show them to the user with name + id and ask: "Would you like to reuse one of these, or should I create a new one?" Wait for the answer. Do not auto-select.

      • If user picks one, use that agentSpaceId.

      • If user wants new, or none exist:

        bash
        aws securityagent create-agent-space --name security-scans

        Capture returned agentSpaceId.

  4. Service role (SecurityAgentScanRole, ARN arn:aws:iam::$ACCOUNT:role/SecurityAgentScanRole):

    • Probe:

      bash
      aws iam get-role --role-name SecurityAgentScanRole
    • If NoSuchEntity is returned, create the role. Idempotency note: create-role will fail with EntityAlreadyExists if the role already exists. If that happens, fall through to update-assume-role-policy to ensure the trust policy is correct.

      bash
      # Trust policy — includes aws:SourceAccount confused-deputy guardcat > /tmp/sa-trust.json <<EOF{"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[{"Effect":"Allow","Principal":{"Service":"securityagent.amazonaws.com"},"Action":"sts:AssumeRole","Condition":{"StringEquals":{"aws:SourceAccount":"${ACCOUNT}"}}}]}EOF# Permissions policy (S3 + CloudWatch Logs)cat > /tmp/sa-perms.json <<EOF{"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[  {"Effect":"Allow","Action":["s3:GetObject","s3:GetObjectVersion","s3:ListBucket"],"Resource":["arn:aws:s3:::security-agent-scans-${ACCOUNT}-${REGION}","arn:aws:s3:::security-agent-scans-${ACCOUNT}-${REGION}/*"]},  {"Effect":"Allow","Action":["logs:CreateLogGroup","logs:CreateLogStream","logs:PutLogEvents"],"Resource":"arn:aws:logs:*:${ACCOUNT}:log-group:/aws/securityagent/*"}]}EOF
      aws iam create-role --role-name SecurityAgentScanRole --assume-role-policy-document file:///tmp/sa-trust.json# if EntityAlreadyExists:aws iam update-assume-role-policy --role-name SecurityAgentScanRole --policy-document file:///tmp/sa-trust.json# always (re)apply permissions:aws iam put-role-policy --role-name SecurityAgentScanRole --policy-name SecurityAgentCodeReviewAccess --policy-document file:///tmp/sa-perms.json
  5. S3 bucket (security-agent-scans-$ACCOUNT-$REGION):

    Bucket-ownership enforcement (required). The bucket name is derived from the caller's AWS account ID and region — both non-secret and publicly derivable from ARNs / ECR URIs — so any third party can pre-register ("squat") the predictable name in their own account. Every S3 call MUST pass --expected-bucket-owner "$ACCOUNT" so the operation fails closed if the bucket is owned by someone else. A 403 Forbidden on a bucket that exists but is foreign-owned is fatal — abort setup and never upload.

    • Probe (asserts ownership):

      bash
      BUCKET="security-agent-scans-${ACCOUNT}-${REGION}"NEED_CREATE=0if aws s3api head-bucket --bucket "$BUCKET" --expected-bucket-owner "$ACCOUNT" 2>/tmp/sa-head.err; then  : # bucket exists and is owned by this account — safe to reuseelif grep -q '404' /tmp/sa-head.err; then  NEED_CREATE=1elif grep -Eq '403|Forbidden' /tmp/sa-head.err; then  echo "FATAL: bucket $BUCKET exists but is owned by another account (403). Possible bucket-squatting — aborting. Nothing was uploaded." >&2  exit 1else  cat /tmp/sa-head.err >&2; exit 1fi
    • If not found, create it. A BucketAlreadyExists error means another account already holds the global name — treat it as fatal and distinct from BucketAlreadyOwnedByYou (which is a safe no-op). Re-assert ownership after creation before any further use:

      bash
      if [ "$NEED_CREATE" = "1" ]; then  if [ "$REGION" = "us-east-1" ]; then    # us-east-1: no LocationConstraint    aws s3api create-bucket --bucket "$BUCKET" 2>/tmp/sa-create.err || true  else    # other regions:    aws s3api create-bucket --bucket "$BUCKET" \      --create-bucket-configuration LocationConstraint="$REGION" 2>/tmp/sa-create.err || true  fi  if grep -q 'BucketAlreadyExists' /tmp/sa-create.err; then    echo "FATAL: bucket name $BUCKET is already owned by another account (BucketAlreadyExists). Possible bucket-squatting — aborting." >&2    exit 1  elif [ -s /tmp/sa-create.err ] && ! grep -q 'BucketAlreadyOwnedByYou' /tmp/sa-create.err; then    cat /tmp/sa-create.err >&2; exit 1  fi  # Confirm ownership of the freshly created bucket before using it.  aws s3api head-bucket --bucket "$BUCKET" --expected-bucket-owner "$ACCOUNT"fi
    • Always (re)apply public access block + 30-day lifecycle:

      bash
      aws s3api put-public-access-block --bucket "$BUCKET" \  --public-access-block-configuration BlockPublicAcls=true,IgnorePublicAcls=true,BlockPublicPolicy=true,RestrictPublicBuckets=true
      cat > /tmp/sa-lifecycle.json <<'EOF'{"Rules":[{"ID":"AutoDeleteUploads","Status":"Enabled","Filter":{"Prefix":""},"Expiration":{"Days":30}}]}EOFaws s3api put-bucket-lifecycle-configuration --bucket "$BUCKET" --lifecycle-configuration file:///tmp/sa-lifecycle.json
  6. Register role + bucket on the agent space (idempotent):

    • Read existing resources:

      bash
      aws securityagent batch-get-agent-spaces --agent-space-ids <id>

      Look at agentSpaces[0].awsResources.iamRoles and awsResources.s3Buckets.

    • If the role ARN or the bucket name is missing from those lists, merge and update:

      bash
      aws securityagent update-agent-space --agent-space-id <id> --name <existing-name> \  --aws-resources iamRoles=[<arn1>,<arn2>...],s3Buckets=[<bucket1>,<bucket2>...]
  7. Persist to .security-agent/config.json (minimal — account/role/bucket are derived):

    json
    {  "agent_space_id": "as-xxxxx",  "region": "us-east-1"}
  8. Create gitignore if missing:

    bash
    mkdir -p .security-agentecho '*' > .security-agent/.gitignore
  9. Confirm to user: "Setup complete. You can run security scans or pentests now."


Rules

  • Never auto-select an agent space when multiple exist — always ask the user
  • Never disable safety protections (the public-access-block stays on)
  • Every S3 call against the derived bucket MUST pass --expected-bucket-owner "$ACCOUNT". The bucket name is derived from a non-secret account ID, so a third party can pre-register it; a 403/BucketAlreadyExists on a foreign-owned bucket is fatal — abort and never upload.
  • Trust policy must allow securityagent.amazonaws.com (production service principal) and include the aws:SourceAccount confused-deputy guard
  • If the user provides their own role name or bucket name (different from the conventional defaults), tell them: this plugin uses convention-based defaults (SecurityAgentScanRole / security-agent-scans-${ACCOUNT}-${REGION}). Either accept those defaults or extend the skill — the other skills derive these names rather than reading them from config.
  • The scan and pentest skills can call this skill inline if config.json is missing — first-time users don't need to run setup separately.

Troubleshooting

  • AccessDenied calling iam:CreateRole → user lacks IAM permissions. Ask them to run setup with their own role ARN, or to grant iam:CreateRole + iam:PutRolePolicy.
  • AccessDenied on s3api create-bucket → either the bucket name is taken globally, or the user lacks s3:CreateBucket. Suggest using an existing bucket they own and pass it explicitly.
  • 403 Forbidden / BucketAlreadyExists on the derived bucket → the predictable name is owned by a different account (bucket-squatting). This is fatal by design — do not upload. Have the user pick a bucket name they own (or run from the expected account/region) and re-run setup.
  • Role exists but trust policy is wrong → update-assume-role-policy (step 4 fallback). If they don't want that role updated, ask them for a different role ARN.
  • Agent space exists but in a different region → tell the user; suggest using the right region or creating a new space in the current region.

Source and attribution

Source:aws/agent-toolkit-for-awsinplugins/aws-agents-for-devsecops/skills/setup-security-agentat commit7bde20f

License: No license

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