Validate and Remediate AWS Network Firewall Policies and Rule Groups

Overview

Clean up and standardize your AWS Network Firewall policies so that none are left without meaningful protection. This plan identifies firewall policies that have no associated rule groups, guides you through deciding whether to remove or remediate them, then applies the chosen configuration and validates the outcome. By the end, all in-scope Network Firewall policies will either have appropriate stateless/stateful rule groups attached or be safely deleted, with clear documentation and audit-ready records.

Execution Details

Assessment

Inventory Network Firewall policies and rule groups

First, the plan builds a complete inventory of Network Firewall policies and their usage across your in-scope accounts and regions. It:

• Enumerates all Network Firewall policies and captures key attributes such as name, ARN, ID, description, region, and status.
• Retrieves each policy definition and parses it to list all referenced stateless and stateful rule groups, including their ARNs/IDs, types, and priorities.
• Enumerates all Network Firewalls and records which firewall policy each one references to understand deployment scope and potential impact.
• Stores this information in a structured format (e.g., a table or dataset) for later analysis and decision-making.

Identify policies without rule groups

Using the inventory, the plan then focuses on policies that may be ineffective:

• Evaluates each firewall policy to determine whether it has any stateless or stateful rule groups attached.
• Identifies policies that have no rule groups of any type and flags them as candidates for remediation or deletion.
• Notes policies that rely only on default or pass-through actions without explicit rule groups, marking them as potentially under-protective.
• Compiles a consolidated list of these policies, including metadata such as account, region, description, status, and any referencing firewalls, prepared for user review.

User review of policies and required actions

Next, you are guided through deciding what to do with each candidate policy:

• Presents the list of policies without rule groups, along with their context (account, region, usage, and any associated firewalls).
• Helps you consider each policy’s intended purpose and whether it is still needed.
• Allows you to mark policies as:
  • Approved for deletion.
  • To be retained and updated with specific rule groups.
  • To be retained as-is.
  • Requiring further investigation, with owners and follow-up timelines.
• For policies to be updated, captures which rule groups to attach (stateless/stateful, ARNs/IDs, and desired priorities/order).
• Produces a structured decision record that documents the chosen action and any configuration details for each policy.

Configuration

Attach rule groups to policies to be retained

For policies you chose to keep and improve, the plan updates their configurations:

• Reads the decision record to identify policies that should have rule groups attached.
• Retrieves the latest version of each policy to ensure it is up to date before changes.
• Confirms that the specified rule groups exist, are in a valid state, and are usable in the relevant account and region.
• Updates each policy definition to include the desired stateless and/or stateful rule groups with the correct priorities, preserving key settings such as default actions and logging configuration.
• Verifies that each policy update is successfully applied and that the policy is in a healthy state.
• Generates a summary of the configuration changes, including which rule groups were attached and any priority/order adjustments.

Delete policies marked for removal

For policies you approved for deletion, the plan removes them safely:

• Filters the decision record to the set of policies marked for deletion.
• Re-checks each policy to see whether any active firewalls still reference it, and excludes or defers those until dependencies are resolved as per your direction.
• Verifies that each policy is still present and deletable.
• Initiates deletion of eligible policies in their respective accounts and regions.
• Logs any failures with detailed context if a policy cannot be deleted due to dependencies, permissions, or service issues.
• Re-enumerates Network Firewall policies to confirm that successfully deleted policies no longer appear.
• Produces a configuration summary that lists deleted policies, policies that could not be deleted (with reasons), and any that were skipped due to remaining dependencies.

Validation

Validate policies have rule groups or were removed

Finally, the plan confirms that the environment reflects your intended state and documents the results:

• Combines the final decision record with the configuration summaries for updates and deletions.
• Re-enumerates all Network Firewall policies in the in-scope accounts and regions.
• Confirms that policies marked for deletion no longer exist.
• Verifies that policies marked for retention and update now contain the expected stateless and/or stateful rule groups with the right priorities.
• Ensures that no remaining policies are left without rule groups, except for any explicitly documented exceptions.
• Re-enumerates Network Firewalls to ensure each firewall references a policy that either has the intended rule groups attached or was not targeted for deletion.
• Documents any discrepancies—such as policies that still exist when they should be deleted, retained policies missing rule groups, or firewalls referencing unexpected policies—along with recommended remediation steps.
• Produces a structured validation report summarizing, by account and region, how many policies were deleted, how many were updated with rule groups, any remaining exceptions, and any issues needing follow-up.