Overview
This is a repackaged software product wherein additional charges apply for hardening, security configuration, and support.
WHAT IS KONG GATEWAY
Kong Gateway (OSS) is a cloud-native API gateway and reverse proxy built on OpenResty (NGINX + LuaJIT). It routes, secures, and observes API traffic with bundled plugins for key-auth, JWT, ACL, rate-limiting, request and response transformation, CORS, Prometheus metrics, and OpenTelemetry. API consumers connect to the proxy data plane, while operators manage configuration through the Admin API using the deck CLI or a declarative YAML file. This image runs in DB-less mode: configuration lives in a single declarative /etc/kong/kong.yml, so there is no database to deploy, secure, or operate. Apache-2.0 license, no per-API fees, no vendor lock-in. The Enterprise-only Kong Manager web console, RBAC, and OIDC are not part of this OSS build - management is via the Admin API.
WHAT THIS AMI ADDS
Security hardening:
- DB-less mode - declarative /etc/kong/kong.yml, no database to deploy or expose
- Admin API bound to 127.0.0.1 only; remote management via an Nginx TLS + HTTP Basic Auth perimeter, with a single admin credential generated at first boot
- Proxy data plane on ports 8000 (HTTP) and 8443 (HTTPS)
- Anonymous usage reporting disabled
- UFW firewall - ports 22, 8000, 8443, 443
- 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
- auditd, SSH hardening, Kernel hardening, IMDSv2 enforced
Compliance artifacts:
- SBOM - CycloneDX 1.6 at /etc/lynxroute/sbom.json
- CIS Conformance Report at /etc/lynxroute/cis-report.html
- CIS Tailored Profile at /usr/share/doc/lynxroute/CIS_TAILORED_PROFILE.md
Highlights
- Kong Gateway security baked in: DB-less declarative config (no database to operate), the Admin API locked to localhost behind a TLS + HTTP Basic Auth perimeter, a single admin credential generated at first boot, and anonymous telemetry off - unlike bare Kong AMIs that expose the Admin API on every interface and ship no control-plane authentication.
- CIS Level 1 hardened Ubuntu 24.04 LTS: auditd, fail2ban, AppArmor, SSH key-only, IMDSv2 enforced. CVE-scanned before every release. SBOM (CycloneDX) and CIS Conformance Report included.
- Cloud-native API gateway on OpenResty: routing, key-auth, JWT, ACL, rate-limiting, request and response transformation, Prometheus and OpenTelemetry - managed via the Admin API and the deck CLI. Apache-2.0 license - fully auditable, no vendor lock-in.
Details
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Pricing
Free trial
Dimension | Cost/hour |
|---|---|
t3.medium Recommended | $0.02 |
t3.large | $0.03 |
t3.small | $0.02 |
m6i.xlarge | $0.05 |
m6i.large | $0.03 |
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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Delivery details
64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
Amazon Machine Image (AMI)
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
Kong Gateway 3.9.2 - Initial release (June 2026)
- Kong Gateway (OSS) 3.9.2 on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS
- CIS Level 1 hardening applied (ansible-lockdown/UBUNTU24-CIS)
- CVE-scanned before every release
- DB-less mode - declarative /etc/kong/kong.yml, no database to operate
- Admin API bound to 127.0.0.1; remote management via an Nginx TLS + HTTP Basic Auth perimeter, single admin credential generated at first boot
- Proxy data plane on ports 8000 (HTTP) and 8443 (HTTPS)
- Anonymous usage reporting disabled
- UFW firewall pre-configured (ports 22, 8000, 8443, 443)
- fail2ban, auditd, AppArmor pre-configured
- SBOM (CycloneDX 1.6) at /etc/lynxroute/sbom.json
- CIS Conformance Report (OpenSCAP) at /etc/lynxroute/cis-report.html
- IMDSv2 enforced
Additional details
Usage instructions
- Launch instance (t3.medium recommended; t3.small minimum)
- Open Security Group - allow TCP 8000, 8443 and 443 from your API clients, and TCP 22 from your IP
- SSH: ssh -i key.pem ubuntu@<PUBLIC_IP>
- Read credentials: sudo cat /root/kong-credentials.txt
- Manage Kong through the Admin API over TLS + HTTP Basic Auth: curl -k -u admin:<password> https://<PUBLIC_IP>/
- Add a Service and Route. Kong runs DB-less, so edit the declarative config and reload: sudo nano /etc/kong/kong.yml # add a service + route (an example is included) sudo kong reload ...or push a full configuration remotely with the deck CLI against https://<PUBLIC_IP>/
- Send API traffic through the proxy data plane: http://<PUBLIC_IP>:8000/<your-route> (HTTP) https://<PUBLIC_IP>:8443/<your-route> (HTTPS)
The admin password is generated at first boot and saved to /root/kong-credentials.txt. This is the OSS gateway in DB-less mode - there is no web console (Kong Manager is an Enterprise feature). Manage Kong via the Admin API (deck CLI) or the declarative /etc/kong/kong.yml file. The raw Admin API stays bound to 127.0.0.1; the only remote management path is the TLS + HTTP Basic Auth perimeter on port 443. Replace the self-signed TLS certificate with a CA-signed certificate for production use.
Resources
Vendor resources
Support
Vendor support
Visit us online: https://lynxroute.com
For Kong Gateway documentation: https://docs.konghq.com/gateway/latest/ For Kong Gateway upstream issues:
AWS infrastructure support
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