AWS Security Groups vs NACLs: Key Differences Explained Simply

In AWS networking, both Security Groups and Network ACLs (NACLs) are used to control network traffic, but they operate at different levels. A Security Group acts as a firewall at the EC2 instance level, controlling which traffic is allowed to reach a specific virtual machine. A NACL, or Network Access Control List, works at the subnet level, filtering traffic for all resources within that subnet. For example, a Security Group on a web server might allow only HTTP (port 80), HTTPS (port 443), and SSH (port 22) traffic. Understanding this instance-versus-subnet distinction is considered the foundational concept for managing AWS VPC network security.
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