CIS Apple macOS 12 Monterey Level 1 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 Apple macOS 12 Monterey Level 1 is pre-hardened to CIS Benchmarks guidance and patched monthly. This image is hardened against the corresponding Level 1 profile which is intended to be practical and prudent, provide a clear security benefit, and not inhibit the utility of the technology beyond acceptable means. No packages 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 Apple macOS 12 Monterey Level 1 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)
  
  
• basevm.txt - this provides a list of the packages resident on the instance prior to any change being 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 configuration of those recommendations may inhibit use of this image in this CSP, require environment-specific expertise, or hinder integration of this image with CSP services or extensions.
  
  
• afterhardening.txt - this provides a list of packages resident on the instance after the corresponding CIS Benchmark was applied to the image.