VPN

Rationale

VPN  (Virtual Private Network) is the cloud-based  solution for virtual private networks  we use. The main reasons why we chose it over other alternatives are the following:

• It allows us to connect to our client private networks in a decentralized manner.
• It directly connects to our AWS VPC , allowing other AWS services like AWS Batch  to reach our client private networks.
• Resources can be written as code  using Terraform .
• It supports AWS Client VPN , which allows our hackers to reach both our AWS VPC  and client private networks from their local machines.
• It supports SAML authentication  using Okta .
• It supports DNS resolving  using AWS Route53 .

Alternatives

• On-premise router: Before using VPN , we used to connect all our client virtual networks to our Medellín office router. Such approach had several disadvantages, being lack of accessibility, scalability and reproducibility some of the biggest.
• OpenVPN Cloud : It is a SaaS  VPN solution. It didn’t have a Terraform  module, which impacted reproducibility and traceability. Overall complexity was also higher as it required to integrate our AWS VPC  using stateful EC2  runners, plus also connecting all our client endpoints to it.

Usage

We use VPN  for

• using AWS Batch  to connect to our clients’ private networks in order to access their source code repositories;
• allowing hackers to connect to our clients’ private environments for executing DAST ;
• allowing developers to connect to our AWS VPC  for debugging and development purposes.

Guidelines

Accessing the VPN

You can connect to the VPN  and gain access to our AWS VPC  and clients’ private networks. In order to do so, you need to:

1. Go to the VPN Self-Service portal :
   • Log in with your Okta  credentials.
   • If you do not have enough permissions, please contact help@fluidattacks.com.
2. From the portal:
   • Download the VPN  client configuration.
   • Download and install the AWS Client VPN for your operating system.
3. Open the AWS Client VPN and import the downloaded configuration.
4. Connect to the VPN.