README.md

In this in-class exercise, you will create an S3 bucket and upload a file to it and alter its permissions to toggle public/private access using Terraform. This exercise consists of 3 parts: Setting up S3 manually, Setting up S3 using Terraform, and Altering S3 permissions using Terraform.

Part I: Setting up S3 manually

Step 1: Create an S3 Bucket

You will need an AWS access key and secret key to create an S3 bucket. We will provide one you can use during class. Please do not share this key with anyone. Once you have the credentials, place it in ~/.aws/credentials file.

Go to the AWS Management Console and search for S3. Click on the S3 service and create a new bucket. Your bucket name should be org.cis1912.<pennkey>. For example, if your PennKey is esinx, your bucket name should be org.cis1912.esinx.

Disable "Block all public access" and acknowledge that the bucket will be public. You want your bucket to be accessible to the public so that we can view the file you upload!

Once your done creating the bucket, you will need to add a new bucket policy. The policy should look like this:

{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": "*",
            "Action": "s3:GetObject",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::org.cis1912.<pennkey>/*"
        }
    ]
}

This will allow anyone to access the objects in your bucket.

Step 2: Upload a file to the bucket

Upload a picture of yourself to the bucket. You can use any picture you like! Place it under the key profile.jpg.

Now, try navigating to https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/org.pennlabs.<pennkey>/profile.jpg. You should be able to see the picture you uploaded!

Step 3: Alter the permissions of the file

Now you will try to make the bucket private by modifying the bucket policy and altering the bucket properties. Remove the bucket policy you added in Step 1 and try to access the file again. You should not be able to access the file anymore.

For additional security, alter the bucket properties to block all public access.

Part II: Setting up S3 using Terraform

Step 0: Install Terraform

Follow steps on Terraform's official website to install Terraform on your machine.

Step 1: Setup Terraform with AWS

Create a new directory and create a new file called main.tf. This file will contain the Terraform code to create an S3 bucket.

provider "aws" {
  region = "us-east-1"
}

This code will tell Terraform to use the AWS provider in the us-east-1 region.

Now, run terraform init to initialize Terraform. This will install all the relevant provider modules for AWS.

Step 2: Create an S3 bucket

Add the following code to main.tf:

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "cis1912_bucket" {
  bucket = "org.cis1912.<pennkey>"
  acl    = "public-read"
}

This code will create an S3 bucket with the name org.cis1912.<pennkey> and set the bucket to be public.

While the bucket has been created, it is not accessible to the public yet. You will need to add a bucket policy to allow public access.

resource "aws_s3_bucket_policy" "cis1912_bucket_policy" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.cis1912_bucket.bucket
  policy = jsonencode({
    Version = "2012-10-17"
    Statement = [
      {
        Effect    = "Allow"
        Principal = "*"
        Action    = "s3:GetObject"
        Resource  = aws_s3_bucket.cis1912_bucket.arn
      }
    ]
  })
}

This code will add a bucket policy to the bucket you created in the previous step. The policy will allow anyone to access the objects in the bucket.

Run terraform apply to create the bucket and the bucket policy.

Step 3: Upload a file to the bucket

But how would you upload a file to the bucket? You can use the aws_s3_bucket_object resource to upload a file to the bucket.

resource "aws_s3_bucket_object" "profile_picture" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.cis1912_bucket.bucket
  key    = "profile.jpg"
  source = "path/to/your/picture.jpg"
}

This code will upload a file to the bucket you created in the previous step. Replace path/to/your/picture.jpg with the path to the picture you want to upload.

Run terraform apply to upload the file to the bucket.

Step 4: Getting the object URL

You can get the URL of the object you uploaded using the aws_s3_bucket_object resource.

output "object_url" {
  value = aws_s3_bucket_object.profile_picture.id
}

Run terraform apply to get the URL of the object you uploaded. You should be able to access the object using the URL.

Part III: Altering S3 permissions using Terraform

Step 1: Make the bucket private

Now that you have created the bucket and uploaded a file to it, you will try to make the bucket private by modifying the bucket policy and altering the bucket properties, all within Terraform.

We will alter the bucket properties to block all public access.

resource "aws_s3_bucket_public_access_block" "cis1912_bucket_block" {
  bucket = aws_s3_bucket.cis1912_bucket.bucket
  block_public_acls       = true
  block_public_policy     = true
  ignore_public_acls      = true
  restrict_public_buckets = true
}

And delete all the bucket policies you added in the previous steps.

Run terraform apply to make the bucket private. You should not be able to access the file anymore.