Hardened Node.js+Nginx and MySQL 8.4 on CentOS Stream 9

Charges for this image cover the security hardening, optimization, and pre-integration work Hanwei performs on top of the upstream Node.js, Nginx and MySQL 8.4 and CentOS Stream 9 projects. Three components start with the instance: Node.js 24 LTS with npm, Nginx as the front-end web server, and MySQL 8.4 LTS with its data directory initialized. A subscriber launches the instance and has a runtime, a web server and a database already running. The operating system underneath carries the same hardened and tuned baseline used across this catalogue.

What Hanwei Adds to Upstream Node.js, Nginx and MySQL 8.4

• Component sources: Node.js 24 LTS with npm and Nginx 1.26 come from the distribution module streams, MySQL 8.4 LTS from the vendor repository.
• Component versions advanced: the previous image carried Node.js 20 and MySQL 8.0; both move to the current long-term support series.
• Transparent huge pages disabled at boot: a oneshot unit sets them to never before the database starts, following the vendor's guidance. This is not the distribution default, where the tuned virtual-guest profile leaves them enabled.
• TLS material generated per instance, not baked into the image: the MySQL certificate, CA and RSA key pair are removed before sealing and regenerated on first boot, so no two subscribers share a private key.
• Tuning baseline applied identically across the catalogue: the file descriptor limit goes from 1024 to 65536 and the memory-map ceiling from 65530 to 262144; the device receive backlog goes from 1000 to 16384 and the TCP SYN backlog from 128 to 8192, so bursts queue instead of being dropped; socket buffer maxima reach 16 MB for larger autotuned windows; connections keep their congestion window across idle periods; and the journal is capped at 500 MB. The profile raises ceilings only and does not alter protocol semantics or application behaviour.
• Applied hardening beyond the distribution default: SSH is limited to a vetted cipher, key exchange and MAC list, X11 forwarding is off, the login grace period is shortened and verbose authentication logging is on; auditd runs a base rule set for privileged command execution; the kernel drops ICMP redirects on IPv4 and IPv6, logs martian packets, filters reverse paths in loose mode, restricts dmesg, disables setuid core dumps and turns off sysrq.
• AWS operational integration: the SSM Agent is installed and enabled for Session Manager and Patch Manager without an inbound SSH rule; chrony points at the Amazon Time Sync Service; and the root filesystem extends at boot when the volume exceeds the image default.
• Patch level and repeatable build: packages come from official upstream repositories at the newest level published when the image was built, and each version is launched and exercised on EC2 before release.

Access and Security Posture

• SELinux runs in enforcing mode and auditd records activity against a base rule set.
• Sign in as 'ec2-user' with the key pair selected at launch, then use 'sudo su -' for a root shell. Session Manager is available as an alternative that needs no inbound port.
• Direct root login over SSH is disabled and password authentication is not accepted.
• No authorized keys and no SSH private keys are embedded in the image.

Operational Impact on EC2

• Launch-to-serving time is reduced to a single boot cycle for all three components.
• Every instance starts from an identical configuration, removing drift between development, staging and production hosts.
• Network services need no per-host limit or backlog adjustment before handling load.
• Clock accuracy comes from the Amazon Time Sync Service, which matters for log correlation and request signing.
• Post-launch patching effort is lower because the package set is current at release.

Where This Image Fits

• Web applications needing a runtime, a reverse proxy and a database on one instance.
• Prototypes and internal tools where separating the tiers is not yet warranted.
• Development and demonstration environments reproducible from an image.
• Small production workloads where a single host is a deliberate cost decision.

About Node.js, Nginx and MySQL 8.4 and CentOS Stream 9

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime on the V8 engine, using an event loop and non-blocking I/O to serve many concurrent connections from one process; version 24 is an LTS release maintained through April 2028. Nginx sits in front of it, handling TLS, compression and request routing. MySQL 8.4 LTS provides the relational store, supported to 2032.

CentOS Stream 9 is a Linux distribution that tracks the development stream of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9. Packages land in CentOS Stream before they appear in a RHEL minor release, so it stays close to the RHEL package set and toolchain while remaining freely redistributable. It uses dnf, systemd and SELinux, which makes it a predictable base for server workloads that need RHEL compatibility.