This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for hardening, security configuration, and setup support.
Ghost is an open-source professional publishing platform that runs on Node.js - a modern editor, themes, built-in memberships and email newsletters, and a full content and admin REST API. This Lynxroute build is hardened and ready out of the box: a unique database password at first boot, TLS terminated at nginx with the application bound to loopback only, a bundled MySQL 8.0 bound to 127.0.0.1, update-check telemetry disabled, UFW firewall pre-configured, and a CIS Level 1 hardened Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base.
MIT license - fully auditable, no vendor lock-in.
This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for hardening, security configuration, and setup support.
WHAT IS GHOST
Ghost is an open-source professional publishing platform from the Ghost Foundation, built as a Node.js application. It provides a clean writing and editing experience, customizable themes and templating, native membership and subscription management, email newsletters, SEO controls, and a full Content API and Admin API plus webhooks for integrations. Content, settings, and members are persisted in a MySQL 8.0 database; images and themes live on the local filesystem. Ghost is a self-hosted alternative to hosted publishing and newsletter services, with no per-seat fees and no vendor lock-in. This image runs Ghost on Node.js 22 with a bundled MySQL 8.0 database. MIT license. Ghost is a trademark of the Ghost Foundation; this independently hardened AMI is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Ghost Foundation.
WHAT THIS AMI ADDS
Security hardening:
Unique MySQL database password generated per instance at first boot
TLS terminated at nginx on 443; Ghost bound to 127.0.0.1:2368 only - never exposed directly
Bundled MySQL 8.0 bound to 127.0.0.1 only
Owner account created on first visit to the admin panel - you choose the email and password; no pre-seeded administrator credential is shipped
Update-check telemetry disabled
UFW firewall - ports 22 (SSH), 80 (HTTP redirect plus certificate validation), and 443 (HTTPS) only
fail2ban, AppArmor
CVE scan - every image is scanned for vulnerabilities before release
OS hardening (CIS Level 1):
CIS Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Level 1 benchmark applied via ansible-lockdown
CIS Conformance Report at /etc/lynxroute/cis-report.html
CIS Tailored Profile at /usr/share/doc/lynxroute/CIS_TAILORED_PROFILE.md
Highlights
Security baked in: a unique database password at first boot, TLS terminated at nginx with the application bound to loopback only, and a bundled MySQL 8.0 bound to 127.0.0.1. The site owner account is created by you on first visit; no admin credential is baked into the image.
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Try this product free for 5 days according to the free trial terms set by the vendor. Usage-based pricing is in effect for usage beyond the free trial terms. Your free trial gets automatically converted to a paid subscription when the trial ends, but may be canceled any time before that.
You pay by the hour for the EC2 instance size you choose. The four options are compute sizes for the same hardened publishing image. The t3.small, t3.medium, and t3.large are burstable instances, scaling in capacity from small to large. The m6i.large is a general-purpose instance. Pricing rises with the size and capacity of the instance you select. Hourly billing means you pay only for the time each instance runs, with no upfront commitment. Pick the size that matches your workload and adjust as your needs change.
Top-of-mind questions for buyers
What resources come with each hourly instance size?
Each option maps to an AWS EC2 instance type. The t3.small, t3.medium, and t3.large are burstable instances with rising CPU and memory as size increases. The m6i.large is a general-purpose instance with fixed compute. All run the same hardened publishing image.
Am I charged when the instance is stopped or paused?
Hourly software charges apply only while the instance runs. Stopping the instance halts the per-hour software charge. Note that stopped instances may still incur underlying AWS storage fees for attached volumes, which are billed separately by AWS, not by this software listing.
Can I switch between instance sizes as my needs change?
Yes. Since billing is per hour with no upfront commitment, you can stop one instance size and launch another. Each running instance is metered separately by the hour, so you pay only for the size and time actually in use.
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Vendor refund policy
We do not offer refunds for this product. AWS infrastructure charges (EC2, EBS, data transfer) are billed separately by AWS and are not refundable by us.
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An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.
Version release notes
Ghost 6.63.0
Ghost 6.63.0 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Node.js 22 + bundled MySQL 8.0) - version update from 6.62.0. MIT unchanged
Bundled Source theme refreshed to 1.7.4; Casper stays at 5.12.3
Node.js 24 added to the supported engines range, so the image is ready for a future runtime move - Node.js 22 remains fully supported
Fixes Portal reporting a refused plan change as a successful one, and account preferences failing to save for some members
Fixes tag results in admin search not opening the tag, LinkedIn company and school URLs with underscores being rejected, and focus handling when adding a filter
Rebuilt on the current CIS Level 1 hardened Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base for the latest Ubuntu security updates
Open Security Group - allow TCP 443 (and TCP 80 for Let's Encrypt) from your IP
SSH: ssh -i key.pem ubuntu@<PUBLIC_IP>
Open https://<PUBLIC_IP>/ghost/ in your browser - accept the self-signed certificate warning - and complete the one-time setup screen. The FIRST account you create becomes the site Owner (administrator); you choose the email and password. There is no pre-seeded admin login.
Your public site is live at https://<PUBLIC_IP>/ ; write and manage from the admin panel at /ghost/
Operators: the bundled database credentials are at: sudo cat /root/ghost-credentials.txt
Replace the self-signed TLS certificate with a CA-signed one (certbot is pre-installed) and point Ghost at your domain:
sudo certbot --nginx -d yourdomain.com
cd /var/www/ghost && sudo -u ghost ghost config url https://yourdomain.com
sudo systemctl restart ghost
Ghost listens on 127.0.0.1:2368 only; nginx terminates TLS on 443 and reverse-proxies to it. Do not expose 2368 directly. The bundled MySQL 8.0 is bound to 127.0.0.1.
Staff device verification is disabled by default because the image ships with no outbound mail server. To enable it (emailed login codes), configure SMTP in /var/www/ghost/config.production.json and re-enable it, then restart Ghost.
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