Amazon Redshift clusters should not use the default Admin username

Severity: Medium

Resource Types: AWS::Redshift::Cluster

Description

This control checks whether a Amazon Redshift cluster has changed the admin username from its default value. This control will fail if the admin username for a Redshift cluster is set to awsuser.

When creating a Redshift cluster, you should change the default admin username to a unique value. Default usernames are public knowledge and should be changed upon configuration. Changing the default usernames reduces the risk of unintended access.

Remediation

You cannot change the admin username for your Amazon Redshift cluster after it is created. To create a new cluster, follow the instructions here.