Blog
HADESS
Cyber Security Magic

AWS Fargate Security: Serverless Container Hardening

AWS Fargate Security: Serverless Container Hardening

Part of the Cybersecurity Skills Guide — This article is one deep-dive in our complete guide series.

By HADESS Team | February 28, 2026 | Updated: February 28, 2026 | 5 min read

Fargate removes the need to manage EC2 instances for your containers, but it does not remove the need to think about security. You still own the container image, the task configuration, the IAM permissions, and the network design. What changes is the boundary — you lose access to the underlying host, which is both a security advantage and a constraint.

Task IAM Roles

Every Fargate task should have its own IAM task role with the minimum permissions required. Do not reuse roles across services. A payment processing task and a log aggregator have different permission needs, and sharing a role between them violates least privilege.

The task execution role is separate from the task role. The execution role is what ECS uses to pull images from ECR and send logs to CloudWatch. The task role is what your application code uses to interact with AWS services. Keep them distinct and scope each tightly.

Use IAM policy conditions to restrict access by source. For example, add aws:SourceVpc or aws:VpcSourceIp conditions so your task role can only be used from within your VPC, not from stolen credentials used externally.

Network Configuration

Fargate tasks in awsvpc mode get their own ENI and private IP address. Place tasks in private subnets and route outbound traffic through a NAT gateway or VPC endpoints. There is no reason for most Fargate tasks to have public IPs.

Use security groups on Fargate tasks the same way you would on EC2 instances. Restrict ingress to only the ports your application listens on and only from the load balancer security group. Restrict egress to the specific endpoints your application needs.

Runtime Monitoring

Since you cannot install agents on the host, runtime monitoring for Fargate requires different approaches. GuardDuty for ECS Fargate monitors VPC flow logs and DNS queries to detect suspicious network behavior. Enable it across all your ECS clusters.

For application-level monitoring, instrument your containers with a sidecar pattern. A sidecar container running a lightweight security agent can monitor process execution and file system changes within the task.

Image Security

Everything about image security applies doubly to Fargate because you cannot compensate for a bad image with host-level controls. Scan images in ECR with enhanced scanning enabled. Use minimal base images — scratch or distroless — to reduce the vulnerability surface. Run as a non-root user in your Dockerfile.

Secrets Management

Never bake secrets into container images or environment variables. Use ECS integration with Secrets Manager or Parameter Store to inject secrets at task startup. Reference secrets in your task definition using valueFrom instead of value:

json "secrets": [ { "name": "DB_PASSWORD", "valueFrom": "arn:aws:secretsmanager:us-east-1:123456789:secret:prod/db-password" } ] `

This keeps secrets out of your task definition, container image, and CloudWatch logs.

Logging

Send container logs to CloudWatch Logs using the awslogs` driver. Enable log encryption with a KMS key. Set retention policies so you are not paying to store logs forever, but keep at least 90 days for incident investigation purposes.

Next Steps

  • Browse container and serverless security topics in the skills library
  • Identify your skill gaps with a skills assessment
  • Use the workspace to practice Fargate task configuration and security hardening

Related Guides in This Series

Take the Next Step

Browse 80+ skills on HADESS. Go to the browse 80+ skills on hadess on HADESS.

See your certification roadmap. Check out the see your certification roadmap.

Get started freeCreate your HADESS account and access all career tools.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to learn this skill?

Most practitioners build working proficiency in 4-8 weeks of dedicated study with hands-on practice. Mastery takes longer and comes primarily through on-the-job experience.

Do I need certifications for this skill?

Certifications validate your knowledge to employers but are not strictly required. Hands-on experience and portfolio projects often carry more weight in technical interviews. Check the certification roadmap for relevant options.

What career paths use this skill?

Explore the career path explorer to see which roles require this skill and how it fits into different cybersecurity specializations.

HADESS Team consists of cybersecurity practitioners, hiring managers, and career strategists who have collectively spent 50+ years in the field.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *