I'm curious about how major cloud providers like AWS, GCP, and Azure manage to keep their IP addresses from being labeled as 'malicious' by various security tools like firewalls and Web Application Firewalls (WAFs). Given the number of users—including some who engage in malicious activities—how do these companies ensure their IPs remain usable for businesses? If bad actors use AWS IPs, won't that damage the reputation of all their other customers?
4 Answers
From what I've experienced, some sites block or require logins when accessed from AWS IPs. This trend shows that many platforms are becoming cautious and have started actively blocking these IPs, which can make it tough for regular users trying to browse. AWS seems to respond to abuse complaints, but it often feels like a game of whack-a-mole with all the accounts they have to manage.
AWS communicates with global network operators to address issues that arise, leveraging long-standing industry relationships. They act on a lot of complaints from users about bad actors, and they try to keep the IP space clean by closing accounts tied to malicious activity, which reassures other legitimate users.
AWS takes abuse reports seriously and has good relationships with major security tool providers that help them manage their IP reputation. They act quickly on reports of abuse and have automated systems to flag and respond to this behavior. This helps them maintain a clean IP space and ensure that their services aren't overwhelmed by malicious users.
It's common for AWS's EC2 IP addresses to have a bad rep, but many organizations can't block them completely because so many services depend on them. AWS categorizes their IPs for different services and keeps the IPs for services like email (SES) particularly clean. They even publish their IP ranges, making it easier for users to decide which ranges to block if needed.
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