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Security group or NACL, when which

Security groups are stateful and per-resource. NACLs are stateless and per-subnet.

Try this first

  1. 1Default workflow: everything via security groups, NACLs as extra layer only
  2. 2NACLs help to block entire IP ranges at subnet level
  3. 3Remember: NACL is stateless, allow inbound and outbound separately
  4. 4Don't test changes in production, NACL deny is hard to debug

When to bring us in

For strict segmentation, look at AWS Network Firewall or Security Groups for Pods (EKS).

See also

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