CIS Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Level 2 Hardened Image is a pre-configured image built by the Center for Internet Security (CIS) for use on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). It is built to offer an image secured to industry-recognized security guidance running on Amazon EC2.

This image of Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Level 2 is pre-hardened to CIS Benchmarks guidance and patched monthly according to the security updates released on Microsoft Patch Tuesday. This image is hardened against the corresponding Level 2 profile which is intended for environments or use cases where security is paramount, acts as a defense in depth measure, and may negatively inhibit the utility or performance of the technology. No components are installed on or removed from this image outside of those already present on the base image or as recommended in alignment with the corresponding CIS Benchmark recommendations.

To demonstrate conformance to the CIS Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Level 2 Benchmark, industry-recognized hardening guidance, each image includes an HTML report from CIS Configuration Assessment Tool (CIS-CAT Pro). Each CIS Hardened Image contains the following files:

• Base_CIS-CAT_Report.html - this provides a report of CIS-CAT Pro run against the instance before any change is made by CIS (e.g., software updates, CIS hardening).
  
  
• CIS-CAT_Report.html - this provides a report of CIS-CAT Pro run against the instance after the corresponding CIS Benchmark was applied to the image.
  
  
• Exceptions.txt - this provides a list of recommendations that are not applied because the configuration of those recommendations may inhibit the use of this image in this CSP, require environment-specific expertise, or hinder the integration of this image with CSP services or extensions.
  
  

These reports are located in C:\CIS Hardening Reports.

If this instance is used in a domain environment where policies are managed globally, the majority of the security settings will be changed and managed by domain policies.

To speak with us about additional pricing options and private offers, please contact us at cloudsecurity@cisecurity.org.

To learn more or access the corresponding CIS Benchmark, please visit https://www.cisecurity.org/cis-benchmarks or sign up for a free account on our community platform, CIS WorkBench, https://workbench.cisecurity.org/.

Amazon EC2 running Microsoft Windows Server is a fast and dependable environment for deploying applications using the Microsoft Web Platform. Amazon EC2 enables you to run any compatible Windows-based solution on AWS' high-performance, reliable, cost-effective, cloud computing platform. Common Windows use cases include Enterprise Windows-based application hosting, website and web-service hosting, data processing, media transcoding, distributed testing, ASP.NET application hosting, and any other application requiring Windows software.