Bulk adding rules to a security group

Question

I need to add multiple rules to a new security group, around 130 rules to be specific, spread across 7 port ranges. These rules are already in IP ranges and ports are in ranges too, hence I cannot use prefix method. Is there any way I could bulk add the rules to security group/s?

I have heard it could be possible through CLI but wasn't able to get any guides to do the same for this process.

Answer

Hi,

I'd strongly suggest to use the AWS  version of Infra-as-Code, which is CloudFormation (CFN), to create such sophisticated  security group(s): https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-properties-ec2-security-group.html

When you have your definitions in your CFN template , you can re-use it in multiple stacks and accounts, with no effort.

Personally, I try to define 100% of my infra resources via CFN: it's an initial investment but you recoup it very rapidly when you need to recreate same definitions again and again.

Best,

Didier

Answer

Hello.

Yes, you can use the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI) to bulk add rules to an EC2 security group. To achieve this, you can use a combination of a script and the aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress command.

Create .csv file with all rules like

```
protocol,from_port,to_port,cidr
tcp,80,80,192.168.1.0/24
tcp,443,443,10.0.0.0/16
...
```
run script:

```
#!/bin/bash

SECURITY_GROUP_ID="YOUR_SECURITY_GROUP_ID"

while IFS=, read -r protocol from_port to_port cidr
do
    echo "Adding rule: Protocol: $protocol, From Port: $from_port, To Port: $to_port, CIDR: $cidr"
    aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress \
        --group-id $SECURITY_GROUP_ID \
        --protocol $protocol \
        --port $from_port-$to_port \
        --cidr $cidr
done < rules.csv
```
This script only handles inbound rules (authorize-security-group-ingress). If you also need to bulk add outbound rules, you'll need a similar script but use authorize-security-group-egress.

Best regards, Andrii

Bulk adding rules to a security group

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