aws-cli-fips

What is AWS CLI FIPS?

The AWS CLI image packages version 2 of the AWS Command Line Interface, the unified tool for managing Amazon Web Services from a terminal or script. It lets teams interact with services such as S3, EC2, IAM, ECR, EKS, and Lambda through commands that wrap the AWS APIs, handle credential resolution, and support profiles, assume-role flows, and output formats like JSON and YAML. The container image is widely used as a CI/CD job image, as a build step for pushing artifacts and deploying infrastructure, and as a portable, version-pinned toolbox for operators. It is used by DevOps, platform, and cloud engineering teams that automate work in AWS.

The AWS CLI FIPS image is Echo's FIPS variant of AWS CLI: the same cloud automation CLI, built to run on FIPS 140-3 validated cryptography. It is designed for organizations that sell to or operate for the US government — FedRAMP-authorized services, federal contractors, and regulated industries — where a cloud automation CLI that calls AWS APIs with credentials that can create, change, or delete infrastructure must use cryptographic modules with an active NIST CMVP certificate, not merely FIPS-enabled libraries.

What is Echo's AWS CLI FIPS image?

Echo's AWS CLI FIPS image is a hardened, FIPS-validated build of AWS CLI on Echo's hardened base. Cryptography on this image is routed through the Echo FIPS Provider for OpenSSL, a software module validated under FIPS 140-3 (NIST CMVP certificate #5560, Level 1, active). Echo images are designed to be a drop-in replacement: swap the image reference in your Dockerfile or deployment manifest for the aws-cli-fips image and CVEs go to zero without disrupting your AWS profiles, role assumptions, region settings, and the scripts and pipeline steps that call the CLI. Every image is tested across clouds, image use cases, and deployment targets. Echo ships every image in two variants:

• Distroless variant — optimized for runtime use, with the smallest possible attack surface
• Default variant — includes essential build tools, package managers, and shells for teams that need operational access

For production AWS CLI deployments, the distroless variant keeps all runtime operations — API calls to AWS services, credential resolution, pagination, and output formatting — fully intact while minimizing exposure; the default variant suits DevOps and cloud engineering teams that need shell access for debugging IAM permissions, testing commands, or inspecting resources interactively.

What is the difference between Echo's AWS CLI FIPS image and the public AWS CLI image?

Public AWS CLI images ship on general-purpose bases whose cryptographic libraries have not been validated under FIPS 140-3, and FIPS-enabled is not the same as FIPS-validated — auditors for FedRAMP and other federal frameworks flag the gap. Those bases also include OS-level tooling convenient for development but which contribute CVEs that accumulate on a cloud automation CLI used in production. AWS CLI images run inside CI pipelines and operational jobs with access to AWS access keys, session tokens, and assumed-role credentials with permissions across cloud accounts. OS-level CVEs in the base image — particularly in libraries such as openssl, zlib, and libc, along with python and glibc dependencies — create exploitable paths in an environment that application-level controls never see. Because tooling images are pulled and executed constantly across pipelines, they are also a steady source of scanner noise — every package in the base becomes a finding your security team must triage, even when none of it is exercised by the job. Echo's FIPS build retains everything AWS CLI needs for API calls to AWS services, credential resolution, pagination, and output formatting while routing cryptography through a validated module and removing the packages that don't belong in a production AWS CLI cloud automation CLI. As we covered in our post on how to protect your company from software supply chain attacks, build and automation images that run with access to source code, credentials, and deployment targets are a high-value path into everything downstream. Echo commits to a 7-day SLA for critical and high severity vulnerabilities, and 10 days for medium, low, and unknown — with vulnerabilities triaged within 24 hours. Echo FIPS images are STIG-hardened, ship with SBOMs in SPDX and CycloneDX formats and signed provenance, and are recognized by all major scanners and mirrored to all major registries, so they fit into existing pipelines without changing your registry, scanner, or runtime tooling.

FAQ

Can I replace my AWS CLI image with Echo's AWS CLI FIPS image?

Yes. Echo's AWS CLI FIPS image is a drop-in replacement. Update the FROM line in your Dockerfile to the aws-cli-fips image and your workloads keep running. AWS CLI commands, profiles, assume-role configuration, credential resolution, and output formats all continue to work without changes to your scripts or pipeline definitions. Because FIPS mode disallows non-approved algorithms, anything that depends on legacy ciphers or hashes such as MD5-based signatures needs to move to approved algorithms.

Is Echo's AWS CLI FIPS image FIPS-validated?

Yes. Echo's FIPS images use CMVP-validated cryptographic modules, operating in a configuration consistent with the module's FIPS 140-3 security policy. Cryptography on this image is routed through the Echo FIPS Provider for OpenSSL, a software module validated under FIPS 140-3 (NIST CMVP certificate #5560, Level 1, active). That makes the image fit for federal use — unlike FIPS-enabled or FIPS-compliant images whose cryptographic libraries have never been validated. This matters for teams running AWS CLI inside FedRAMP boundaries, where a cloud automation CLI that calls AWS APIs with credentials that can create, change, or delete infrastructure must meet cryptographic requirements across the full stack. Echo also provides a FIPS runtime tester that executes approved and unapproved algorithms to show how the image behaves at runtime.

What is Echo's vulnerability management SLA on the AWS CLI FIPS image?

Echo commits to a 7-day SLA for critical and high severity vulnerabilities, and 10 days for medium, low, and unknown — with vulnerabilities triaged within 24 hours. Patches are mirrored automatically into your private registry so you're always running a clean version — critical for a tooling image that is pulled and run constantly across pipelines with access to AWS access keys, session tokens, and assumed-role credentials with permissions across cloud accounts.

Is Echo's AWS CLI FIPS image distroless?

Echo ships every image in two variants: a distroless variant optimized for runtime use, and a default variant that includes essential build tools, package managers, and shells. For production AWS CLI deployments, the distroless variant is the leaner, more secure choice; for DevOps and cloud engineering teams that need shell access for debugging IAM permissions, testing commands, or inspecting resources interactively, the default variant is the right fit.

How does Echo achieve such a drastic CVE reduction in AWS CLI?

Echo's AWS CLI FIPS image is built from source with only the absolute essentials needed to run the AWS CLI cloud automation CLI, which significantly shrinks the attack surface. Echo also patches aggressively over time, with backports available so you can stay on the AWS CLI version your applications and their dependencies are certified against — avoiding a disruptive upgrade forced purely by OS-level vulnerabilities in the base image rather than by your own requirements.

Will Echo's AWS CLI FIPS image help us achieve FedRAMP?

Yes. The hard parts of FedRAMP — managing vulnerabilities, applying fixes, and using FIPS-validated cryptography — are baked into Echo images, including STIG-hardened configuration and ConMon/POA&M-ready reporting. For DevOps and cloud engineering teams running AWS CLI under an ATO — whether that's deploying to AWS from CI, managing S3 data, or running infrastructure scripts in regulated cloud accounts — Echo's FIPS-validated AWS CLI image keeps the cloud automation CLI layer in-boundary and compliant without requiring custom hardening scripts or manual base image patching between compliance cycles.

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