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Eric Rodríguez
Eric Rodríguez

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Automated Vulnerability Scanning for AWS Lambda with Amazon Inspector

Writing secure code is only half the battle. Modern software is built on giants' shoulders (dependencies), and sometimes those giants stumble. On Day 38, I added Amazon Inspector to my architecture to automatically detect vulnerabilities in my Python dependencies.

The Risk: Supply Chain Attacks

My Finance Agent uses a Lambda Layer with the plaid-python SDK. If a vulnerability is found in urllib3 (a common dependency), my function could be exploited to leak data. Manually checking pip list every day is impossible.

Implementing Amazon Inspector

Setting this up was surprisingly simple (ClickOps friendly):

Activate: Enabled Amazon Inspector in the console (30-day free trial).

Scope: Ensured "Lambda Standard Scanning" was toggled ON.

Result: Within minutes, Inspector analyzed the application package and the associated Lambda Layers.

Findings & Remediation

The dashboard provides a "Risk Score" for each function. If Inspector finds a "High" severity issue, it links directly to the CVE details and recommends the patch version (e.g., "Upgrade requests from 2.25 to 2.26").

Bonus: Log Hygiene

While securing the code, I also secured my wallet. I updated my CloudWatch Log Retention policies from "Never Expire" to "30 Days." Storing gigabytes of logs forever is a common hidden cost in AWS.

Conclusion: Security is not a feature you build once; it's a process you automate.

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