Is It Possible to Copy an AWS Security Group?

Solution 1:

Doesn't look like you can copy security groups from the web interface. You can however use the AWS CLI to create security groups:

Command :

$ aws ec2 describe-security-groups --group-id MySecurityGroupID

Output :

{
    "securityGroupInfo": [
        {
            "ipPermissionsEgress": [],
            "groupId": "sg-903004f8",
            "ipPermissions": [],
            "groupName": "MySecurityGroup",
            "ownerId": "803981987763",
            "groupDescription": "AWS-CLI-Example"
        }
    ],
    "requestId": "afb680df-d7b1-4f6a-b1a7-344fdb1e3532"
}

And add rules using command :

aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id MySecurityGroupID --ip-protocol tcp --from-port 22 --to-port 22 --cidr-ip 0.0.0.0/0

Output:

{
    "return": "true",
    "requestId": "c24a1c93-150b-4a0a-b56b-b149c0e660d2"
}

From there you should be able to figure out how to simplify the creation of your security groups.

Solution 2:

AWS EC2 Console allows you to select the Security Group and perform the operation "Copy to new" in the UI now.

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Solution 3:

From AWS Creating a Security Group docs, you can copy a security group using the console.

1. Select the security group you want to copy
2. Choose Action
3. Copy to new

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Solution 4:

Here is the 'copy security groups' python/boto method from a custom library I wrote to make these kinds of things easier / automate them.. Ultimately this was the solution I came up with.

vpcId is the Virtual Private Cloud Id
keys is a dictionary with your AWS keys

The rest should be straight forward to figure out.

def copyEC2SecurityGroup(self, keys, region, securityGroupName, newSecurityGroupName = None, newRegion = None, vpcId = None):


newEc2Connection = None
print("Creating ec2Connection for source region: " + region)
ec2Connection = lib.getEc2Connection(region, keys)

if newRegion is None:
    newRegion = region
else:
    print("New Region Detected, creating for New region: " + newRegion)
    newEc2Connection = lib.getEc2Connection(newRegion, keys)
    newRegionInfo = newEc2Connection.region

print("new region is: %s" % newRegion)

if newSecurityGroupName is None:
    newSecurityGroupName = securityGroupName

print ("new security group is: %s" % newSecurityGroupName)

# if copying in the same region the new security group cannot have the same name.
if newRegion == region:
    if newSecurityGroupName == securityGroupName:
        print ("Old and new security groups cannot have the same name when copying to the same region.")
        exit(1)

groups = [group for group in ec2Connection.get_all_security_groups() if group.name == securityGroupName]
print"got groups count " + str(len(groups))
if groups:
    theOldGroup = groups[0]
    print theOldGroup.rules
else:
    print("Can't find security group by the name of: %s" % securityGroupName)
    exit(1)
print groups
pprint(theOldGroup)

if newEc2Connection is not None:
    print("Creating new security group in new region")
    sg = newEc2Connection.create_security_group(newSecurityGroupName, newSecurityGroupName, vpcId)
    sleep(5)
else:
    print("Creating new security group in current region")
    sg = ec2Connection.create_security_group(newSecurityGroupName, newSecurityGroupName, vpcId)
    sleep(5)

source_groups = []
for rule in theOldGroup.rules:
    for grant in rule.grants:
        strGrant = str(grant)
        print(strGrant)
        if strGrant.startswith("sg"):
            print("Cannot copy 'security group rule' (%s)... only cidr_ip's e.g. xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/yy." % strGrant)
            continue
        grant_nom = grant.name or grant.group_id
        if grant_nom:
            if grant_nom not in source_groups:
                source_groups.append(grant_nom)
                sg.authorize(rule.ip_protocol, rule.from_port, rule.to_port, grant)
        else:
            sg.authorize(rule.ip_protocol, rule.from_port, rule.to_port, grant.cidr_ip)
return sg 

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Solution 5:

Consider having a look at this blog. It might be useful for what you are looking at.

http://ry4an.org/unblog/post/ec2_security_group_tools/