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After removing a firewall from an AWS VPC, verify two separate things: what paths the current network configuration permits, and what traffic or configuration changes were actually recorded. Reachability Analyzer and Network Access Analyzer model configured paths; VPC Flow Logs and CloudTrail provide recorded activity. An analyzer finding is not proof that packets traversed the path.
Start with the flows the audit must verify
Before running an analyzer, record the intended network design and define the flows that should work or remain blocked. Include the firewall or firewalls removed, affected VPCs and Regions, relevant subnets and route tables, and the time window around the change.
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For each flow, capture the source, destination, direction, protocol and port, expected outcome, and relevant intermediate components. Depending on the topology, those components may include transit gateways, VPC peering, NAT gateways, internet gateways, load balancers, VPC endpoints, or VPNs. The right route targets and destination prefixes depend on your approved design; AWS documentation cannot determine your environment’s intended values.
| Flow to audit | What to record |
|---|---|
| Expected to work | Source and destination; direction; protocol and port; expected allow outcome; intended route and intermediate components. |
| Expected to remain blocked | Source and destination; direction; protocol and port; expected block outcome; the route or control expected to prevent access. |
| Potential bypass | Any path that may now avoid the removed firewall, including its destination prefix and current route target. |
Inspect route tables and network attachments
Review the route tables associated with the affected subnets and check the targets for the prefixes used by the expected and forbidden flows. Compare the current configuration with the approved design and, if available, the pre-removal state.
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Look for routes that now bypass the deleted firewall path or point to an unintended gateway, NAT gateway, transit gateway, peering connection, or endpoint. A route-table review establishes configuration, not whether traffic used a route. Keep this distinction in mind when comparing it with flow-log evidence later.
Test individual flows with Reachability Analyzer
Use Reachability Analyzer when you need to know whether a particular modeled source-to-destination flow is reachable through the current network configuration and which components determine its path. Select the actual source and destination resources and specify the relevant protocol and ports. Optional packet-header constraints can narrow the analysis. See AWS’s Reachability Analyzer documentation and getting-started guide.
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- Create or run an analysis for a representative flow using its source, destination, protocol, and ports.
- For a reachable result, inspect the hop-by-hop path and compare its route and network components with the intended design.
- For an unreachable result, inspect the reported blocking component, then check for other possible blockers before treating that component as the only issue.
- Repeat for flows expected to work and flows expected to remain blocked. Include paths that should bypass the removed firewall and paths that must not gain unintended access.
- After correcting routes or other network configuration, rerun the same analyses so that before-and-after results are comparable.
Reachability Analyzer is configuration analysis: it does not send packets or analyze data-plane traffic. AWS says it displays the shortest path when multiple reachable paths exist, so one displayed path does not establish that no other reachable path exists. A successful result is not evidence that packets actually traversed that path.
Search for broader paths with Network Access Analyzer
Use Network Access Analyzer to find configured paths matching a Network Access Scope, rather than testing only one source-to-destination pair. You can run relevant AWS-created ingress or egress scopes, or create a custom scope with match and exclusion conditions. Its examples cover paths involving internet gateways, VPC endpoints, VPNs, peering, and transit gateways. See the Network Access Analyzer documentation.
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Inspect each finding and its resource details against the intended policy. Keep the tool’s limits in view: an analysis covers only the account and Region where it runs, reports unidirectional paths, and uses IPv4 over TCP or UDP. It does not analyze Network Firewall rules or consider target health. If a finding includes a firewall, firewall rules may still block the traffic; the finding alone does not show that the rules permit packets.
Check recorded traffic and configuration changes
Use traffic and change records to answer questions the analyzers cannot: whether traffic was recorded on interfaces in the affected scope and whether VPC API changes occurred around the firewall removal.
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- VPC Flow Logs: Inspect traffic information for the network interfaces and time window in scope. Flow Logs provide recorded traffic evidence, but do not by themselves establish the complete intended route or prove that every relevant path is safe.
- CloudTrail: Review VPC API activity around the transition. Records can show what call occurred, who made it, the source IP, and when it occurred; use them to investigate firewall removal and route changes.
- Traffic Mirroring: If packet copies for out-of-band inspection are warranted, consider Traffic Mirroring as a separate option. It is not a substitute for route analysis or the traffic and change records above.
Compare observations with the modeled paths. A configured path can exist even if no traffic was sent during the observation window. Conversely, a traffic record does not, on its own, establish that the full route matches the intended security design. AWS describes these monitoring options in its VPC monitoring documentation.
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| Tool or record | Question it helps answer | Key scope or limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Reachability Analyzer | Is this modeled source-to-destination flow reachable, and what configured components determine the path or block it? | Configuration analysis, not packet transmission or data-plane inspection. Check documented topology and rule support for your path. |
| Network Access Analyzer | What configured paths match this access scope? | Limited to the analysis account and Region; unidirectional; IPv4 over TCP or UDP; does not analyze Network Firewall rules. |
| VPC Flow Logs | What traffic information was recorded for interfaces in the selected scope and time window? | Traffic observations do not establish the entire intended path. |
| CloudTrail | What VPC API calls were recorded, by whom, from which source IP, and when? | API-change history, not a substitute for traffic or path analysis. |
| Traffic Mirroring | Should interface traffic be copied to an out-of-band inspection appliance? | A separate packet-copy option; use when that inspection is needed. |
Account for analyzer support and evidence retention
Check the current AWS documentation against your topology before treating an analyzer result as complete. Reachability Analyzer’s documented analysis includes IPv4; for TCP through a transit gateway route table it analyzes forward traffic only. It does not consider target health, support transit gateway policy tables, or support every Network Firewall rule type. Network Access Analyzer also does not consider target health and has additional unsupported configurations beyond its account, Region, direction, and protocol limits described above.
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Reachability Analyzer analyses are automatically deleted 120 days after creation, according to AWS documentation. Retain results and related audit evidence separately if you need them beyond that period. Reachability Analyzer is charged per analysis run; consult the current Amazon VPC pricing page for applicable charges rather than relying on an assumed price.
Record findings and retest changes
Keep an audit record for each expected or forbidden flow. Include the expected outcome, analyzer and scope used, result, observed route or path components, relevant Flow Log observations, and CloudTrail changes associated with the transition. Note applicable account, Region, address-family, direction, or unsupported-component limits so readers of the record know what was and was not checked.
When a path is unexpected, correct the responsible route or network control, then rerun the same representative analyses. Preserve the new results alongside the traffic observations and change history; the three evidence types answer different questions and are most useful when interpreted together.
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