> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://cortex-docs.paloaltonetworks.com/appsec-rules/iac-security/public-exposure/appsec-aws-88.md).

# AWS EC2 instances with public IP and associated with security groups have Internet access misconfigu

## Rule Details

|                        |                                                                |
| ---------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Cortex AppSec Rule ID  | APPSEC\_AWS\_88                                                |
| Category - Subcategory | Public Exposure - VPC VCN VNet                                 |
| Provider               | AWS                                                            |
| Severity               | HIGH                                                           |
| Framework              | Ansible, CloudFormation, Serverless, Terraform, Terraform Plan |

## Impact

A public IP address is an IPv4 address that is reachable from the Internet. You can use public addresses for communication between your instances and the Internet. Each instance that receives a public IP address is also given an external DNS hostname. We recommend you control whether your instance receives a public IP address as required.

## How to Fix

## In this example, `assign_public_ip` is changed from `true` to `false`, removing the public IP address and DNS resolution. \[source,go]

* name: Launch an EC2 instance without a public IP amazon.aws.ec2\_instance: name: my\_secure\_ec2 image\_id: ami-123456 instance\_type: t2.micro network:
* ```
   assign_public_ip: true
  ```
* ```
   assign_public_ip: false
  ```

***


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