DynamoDB Table Uses AWS-Owned Encryption Key

What this rule checks

Detects AWS::DynamoDB::Table resources without SSESpecification.SSEEnabled=true. DynamoDB always encrypts at rest, but the default AWS-owned key cannot be inspected, audited, or rotated by the customer — inadequate for HIPAA / PCI-DSS / FedRAMP workloads.

How to fix it

1. 1Set SSESpecification.SSEEnabled to true on the table
2. 2Provide SSESpecification.KMSMasterKeyId pointing at a customer-managed KMS key
3. 3Verify the KMS key has rotation enabled (kms-key-rotation-disabled covers this)

import { Stack, App } from 'aws-cdk-lib';
import { Construct } from 'constructs';
import * as dynamodb from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-dynamodb';

new dynamodb.Table(this, 'Table', {
  partitionKey: { name: 'id', type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
});

import { Stack, App } from 'aws-cdk-lib';
import { Construct } from 'constructs';
import * as dynamodb from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-dynamodb';
import * as kms from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-kms';

new dynamodb.Table(this, 'Table', {
  partitionKey: { name: 'id', type: dynamodb.AttributeType.STRING },
  encryption: dynamodb.TableEncryption.CUSTOMER_MANAGED,
  encryptionKey: new kms.Key(this, 'TableKey'),
});

CDK Insights pinpoints the exact file and line in your CDK source for every finding, so you can jump straight to the fix.

Affected resource types

Intentional? Suppress this finding

Sometimes a flag is deliberate — a genuinely public endpoint, say. You can dismiss dynamodb-encryption-aws-owned-key and the reason is kept in the report, not silently hidden.

In .cdk-insights.json:

{
  "ignoreRules": [
    { "id": "dynamodb-encryption-aws-owned-key", "reason": "Why this is intentional" }
  ]
}

Or inline in your CDK code:

Validations.of(scope).acknowledge({
  id: 'cdk-insights::dynamodb-encryption-aws-owned-key',
  reason: 'Why this is intentional',
});

Use the rule ID dynamodb-encryption-aws-owned-key shown above — not the CDK-* ID from SARIF / GitHub code scanning. To dismiss every finding on one construct instead, use ignorePaths. Suppression docs →

More DynamoDB rules