Security Protocol to connect AWS SES
Tags: aws, ses, security, emailsecurity
Published: 2024-05-30 18:25:51

Lets take a look on another AWS services know as Amazon SES and understand the security protocol around that. This could be useful when you send email to receiver and how we can securely deliver it.

Lets learn about Amazon SES service first with some basic details:-

**What is Amazon SES**

Amazon SES stands for Simple Email Service. It is one of the cost-effective, scalable, reliable email service designed to help the organization, application developers, digital marketers to send notification, and transactional emails. It is one of the powerful service for all kinds of business to integrate with various others AWS services to provide a robust platform for managing and optimizing the organization's email communications.

Integrating Amazon SES into your applications, whether via the **<u>API</u>** or **<u>SMTP interface</u>**, requires strict adherence to security protocols to ensure email delivery integrity and protect the data. Here are detailed best practices for securing your Amazon SES integration:-

**<u>1) Amazon SES API Integration Security</u>** - When using Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) to send emails via the API, it's essential to utilize Transport Layer Security (TLS) to encrypt your data and protect it from potential threats.

**Transport Layer Security** (TLS) is a well known cryptographic protocol designed to provide secure communication over a computer network. Its a critical protocol that provides and ensures integrity, data security, and authentication between your application and the Amazon SES service.

**Steps to Securely Use Amazon SES API with TLS**

- **Use IAM Policies** - Use below IAM policies to make sure that IAM user has enough permission to send email using amazon SES.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/j7b7bboh8qqjspnn2ez9.png)

- **AWS SDK and HTTPS** - We can utilize AWS SDK or HTTPS request to make API request to AWS SES. When you use the Amazon SES API over HTTPS, TLS encryption is automatically applied to all API requests.

- **HTTPS API Request** - We can use HTTPS endpoint to make sure that data is fully encrypted.

**Simple diagram created in text editor for TLS Encryption with Amazon SES API**

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/wib3qic5tehpjpcuuo2a.png)

**<u>2) Amazon SES SMTP Interface Security</u>** - For securing the communication channel, there are two primary methods are required such as **STARTTLS** and **TLS Wrapper**.

**STARTTLS** - It is a command used to upgrade an existing plaintext connection to a secure, encrypted connection using Transport Layer Security (TLS).

**Lets understand how STARTTLS Works:**

- The client connects to SMTP server over plaintext connection.

- Send STARTTLS command to the server.

- Server send the response and initiate TLS handshake.

- Communication is encrypted between client and server once TLS handshake is complete.

**TLS Wrapper** - This is also known as SMTPS or "SMTP over TLS," establishes an encrypted connection from the outset.

**Lets understand how TLS Wrapper Works:**
- The client connects to the SMTP server using a specific dedicated port 465 for TLS.

- The TLS handshake occurs immediately upon connection, before any SMTP commands are exchanged.

- Communication from the start is encrypted and provide robust security.

**Simple diagram created in text editor with STARTTLS and TLS wrapper with Amazon SES API**

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ocic9nk0txp4mdbl4ukm.png)

**Conclusion**

Overall, Its crucial to implementing these security protocols when using Amazon SES, whether through the API or SMTP interface to maintaining the integrity, security and confidentiality of your communications.

**Happy Learning!!**