Amazon S3 has long been a powerful tool for scalable storage, but it’s not without its challenges.
Unexpected costs — especially from empty buckets or unauthorized requests — have caught many users off guard. The good news? AWS is listening and evolving, with significant updates in 2024 to reduce unnecessary charges and improve customer experience.
The Good News: No More Charges for Unauthorized Requests
As of May 13, 2024, AWS has stopped charging customers for certain failed S3 requests, particularly those resulting in HTTP 403 (Access Denied) errors. Here’s what you need to know:
No Cost for Unauthorized Requests: If an external entity (outside your AWS account or organization) tries to access your bucket and receives a 403 response, you won’t be billed for request or bandwidth charges.
Automatic Benefit: This change is automatic — no action is required on your part.
Customer-Driven Improvement: This update addresses a long-standing issue where customers faced high bills due to failed, unauthorized access attempts caused by misconfigured tools or malicious actors.
The Billing Shock Incident: A $1,300 Lesson
A recent case highlights why this change is critical:
A user created a private S3 bucket but inadvertently faced a $1,300 bill.
Cause: A popular open-source tool was misconfigured to attempt storing backups in their bucket. These failed attempts, though unauthorized, resulted in request charges.
Analogy: Imagine receiving packages addressed to someone else and being charged for every failed delivery — AWS’s previous billing model operated similarly.
This incident underscores the importance of cost visibility and security best practices.
Amazon S3 announced some good news in 2024 as years ends, I would lille to remind about it which adds lots of value for customers when it comes to cost, security and operational excellence. AWS stopped charging customers for certain types of S3 failed requests, specifically when unauthorized people try to access your storage. When it comes to AWS S3 billing S3 bucket costs, Unauthorized S3 requests remains challenge for “AWS cost optimization” and this content addresses and explains how to add one more “S3 security best practices” to your kitty. This is particularly important because there was a recent incident where someone discovered a pretty serious billing problem. Here is the blog: https://medium.com/@maciej.pocwierz/how-an-empty-s3-bucket-can-make-your-aws-bill-explode-934a383cb8b1
How to Protect Yourself Further
AWS has made significant strides, but users should remain proactive in minimizing costs and securing their S3 buckets. Here are actionable measures:
1. Audit Regularly
Review all S3 buckets, including empty or unused ones.
Delete buckets no longer in use to eliminate metadata and configuration storage costs.
2. Monitor Usage
Use tools like AWS Cost Explorer, CloudTrail, and S3 Storage Lens to detect anomalies in bucket usage and request patterns.
Set up alerts for unusual activity.
3. Disable Unnecessary Features
Turn off versioning, logging, or cross-region replication if they are not needed.
4. Implement Lifecycle Policies
Configure lifecycle rules to automatically delete unused objects and even buckets.
5. Analyze Requests
Limit unnecessary operations, such as frequent object listing in empty buckets.
Use intelligent rate limiting via tools like Amazon CloudFront or API Gateway.
6. Enhance Security
Enable S3 Server Access Logging to monitor access patterns.
Add random suffixes to bucket names to reduce the risk of brute force or misconfiguration.
Regularly update IAM policies to restrict access.
Rate Limiting and Proactive Measures
While AWS doesn’t yet have direct rate limiting for unauthorized requests, you can achieve similar results using:
Amazon CloudFront: Implement throttling for content delivery.
AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall): Set rules to block repeated unauthorized attempts.
Custom Monitoring: Use CloudWatch to trigger alarms when access patterns deviate from the norm.
Conclusion
AWS’s update in 2024 to stop charging for unauthorized S3 requests is a win for customers, reducing unnecessary costs and reinforcing security. However, staying vigilant is essential:
Regularly audit and monitor buckets.
Implement best practices for bucket security and naming.
Leverage AWS tools to gain insights into usage and cost patterns.
By combining AWS’s new policies with proactive management, you can optimize costs, enhance security, and ensure operational excellence in your cloud storage strategy.
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