Resource Explorer indexes exist

Check ID: resourceexplorer2_indexes_found
Provider: AWS
Service: resourceexplorer2
Severity: LOW
Categories: forensics-ready
Resource type: Other

Risk

Absent indexes reduce asset visibility, creating blind spots where misconfigured or orphaned resources go unnoticed. This degrades confidentiality (unseen public exposure), integrity (unauthorized changes undetected), and availability (slower containment and recovery), prolonging incident response and enabling lateral movement.

Recommendation

Create Resource Explorer indexes in all active Regions and designate an aggregator index for cross-Region search. Apply least-privilege access to views, align with tagging standards, and routinely verify indexing status. This improves inventory accuracy, supports defense-in-depth, and speeds detection and remediation.

Remediation

CLI
Terraform
Native IaC
Dashboard steps

aws resource-explorer-2 create-index —region <REGION>

resource "aws_resourceexplorer2_index" "<example_resource_name>" {
  type = "LOCAL"  # Critical: creates a local index so the check passes
}

Resources:
  <example_resource_name>:
    Type: AWS::ResourceExplorer2::Index
    Properties:
      Type: LOCAL  # Critical: creates a local index in this Region so the check finds at least one index

Where this check fires

This check runs on every scheduled scan against your AWS account. Findings appear at Cloud Security → Findings filterable by Check ID = resourceexplorer2_indexes_found. To re-evaluate after a fix, hit Run now on the account’s schedule under Cloud Security → Schedules — the next scan re-checks this control and marks the finding fixed or keeps it persistent.

Resource Explorer indexes exist

What this check verifies

Risk

Recommendation

Remediation

References

Where this check fires

​What this check verifies

​Risk

​Recommendation

​Remediation

​References

​Where this check fires

What this check verifies

Risk

Recommendation

Remediation

References

Where this check fires