Overview

VPC Flow Logs record metadata about every accepted or rejected IP packet across:

  • VPC, subnet, and ENI (network interface) traffic
  • Source and destination IPs, ports, protocol, and bytes
  • Action (ACCEPT / REJECT) and security group decision

Atatus reads VPC flow logs that have been delivered to a CloudWatch log group.


Prerequisites

  • A VPC with flow logging enabled and configured to deliver to CloudWatch Logs.
  • IAM credentials with read access to that log group.

Step 1: Enable VPC Flow Logs (if not already)

  1. Open the AWS Console → VPC.
  2. Select the VPC, subnet, or ENI to monitor and choose Flow logs → Create flow log.
  3. Configure:
    • Filter: All (recommended) or Reject/Accept.
    • Destination: Send to CloudWatch Logs.
    • Log group: select an existing group or create one (for example, vpc-flow-logs-group).
    • IAM role: the role that allows VPC to publish to CloudWatch Logs.
  4. Click Create flow log.

Step 2: Create an IAM user with log read access

  1. Open IAM → Users → Create user, name it atatus-vpc-flow-reader.
  2. Attach an inline policy granting:
    • logs:DescribeLogGroups
    • logs:DescribeLogStreams
    • logs:GetLogEvents
    • logs:FilterLogEvents
  3. Scope the policy to the flow logs log group ARN.
  4. Create an access key under Security credentials → Create access key and copy both values.

Step 3: Connect AWS VPC Flow Logs in Atatus

  1. In Atatus, go to Security → Cloud SIEM → Integrations.
  2. Locate the AWS VPC Flow Logs card and click Connect.
  3. Fill in the form:
Field Description Example
AWS Access Key ID IAM user access key from Step 2. AKIA...
AWS Secret Access Key The matching secret key. ••••••••
AWS Region Region of the log group. us-east-1
CloudWatch Log Group Log group receiving the VPC flow logs. vpc-flow-logs-group
Poll Interval (minutes) How often to fetch new entries. 5
Enabled Turn collection on. true
  1. Click Connect.

Verification

  • The AWS VPC Flow Logs card shows Configured.
  • Flow records appear in Security → Cloud SIEM → Audit Logs → Events with source aws_vpc_flow_logs.