Madarson IT Hardened Ubuntu 26.04 LTS AMI - Advanced Security

This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for security hardening, compliance alignment, and ongoing maintenance of this image.

Deploy production-ready, compliance-mapped Ubuntu 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon) instances on AWS EC2 with advanced security hardening already applied. Built on Linux kernel 7.0, this AMI eliminates weeks of manual hardening effort and delivers audit-ready infrastructure from first boot.

This AMI is designed for organizations with elevated compliance requirements and security-sensitive workloads:

• Healthcare SaaS providers deploying HIPAA-compliant application servers that must demonstrate technical safeguards during audits
• Financial services teams running PCI DSS-scoped infrastructure where hardened operating systems reduce remediation findings
• Enterprise security teams seeking pre-validated baselines that accelerate Authority to Operate (ATO) timelines

• Faster audit preparation - Hardening controls are pre-mapped to NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF), ISO 27000 series, PCI DSS, and HIPAA, reducing the time spent documenting technical controls
• Reduced attack surface - Advanced kernel hardening, strict PAM configuration, and expanded filesystem restrictions limit potential exploitation paths before your application code is even deployed
• Continuous visibility - Comprehensive auditd rule sets capture time changes, user and group modifications, privilege escalation attempts, file access events, network changes, and kernel module loads

• Comprehensive auditd rules covering 7+ event categories (time changes, user/group modifications, privilege escalation, file access, network changes, kernel module loads, and more)
• Stricter PAM configuration with enhanced password policies and session controls
• Enhanced kernel hardening parameters reducing exploitable kernel behavior
• Time synchronization controls ensuring accurate audit log timestamps
• Expanded filesystem restrictions limiting unauthorized mount and access patterns
• File integrity monitoring to detect unauthorized changes to critical system files

This hardened image has been validated with industry-standard security scanning tools and achieved a score exceeding 90%, with accepted exceptions documented for cloud infrastructure limitations. The hardening maps to multiple established standards and regulatory frameworks, providing evidence your infrastructure meets recognized security baselines:

• NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF)
• ISO 27000 series of standards
• PCI DSS
• HIPAA

1. Launch the AMI on your preferred EC2 instance type (compatible with general purpose, compute optimized, and memory optimized instance families)
2. Connect via SSH using your configured key pair
3. Verify hardening is active by reviewing auditd status and running the included validation script
4. Review audit logs at standard syslog locations to confirm event capture
5. Customize configurations as needed for your specific security requirements and risk profile

Madarson IT certified images are always up to date, secure, follow industry standards, and are built to work right out of the box. Every image is validated before publishing and regularly updated to incorporate the latest security patches.

• This image provides advanced-level hardening. Organizations may need to apply additional configurations based on their specific security requirements and risk profile.
• Application