Hardened NVIDIA CUDA on Ubuntu 24.04

This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for a hardened, AWS-optimized image with verifiable provenance evidence and maintenance. NVIDIA CUDA 13.2 runs on an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS base tuned for Amazon EC2, with a documented set of security settings applied on top and a complete provenance evidence pack including a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM).

NVIDIA CUDA 13.2 Deployment:

1. Complete GPU Toolchain: The full CUDA Toolkit is installed at /usr/local/cuda-13.2 with nvcc and the GPU math and profiling libraries on PATH, so CUDA C++ and custom kernel extensions compile out of the box.

2. Containers and Fabric Included: Docker with the NVIDIA Container Toolkit, the EFA stack with libfabric and the NCCL OFI plugin, OpenMPI for multi-node collectives, and NVIDIA DCGM for telemetry.

3. Framework-Neutral by Design: No deep learning framework is bundled, so you pick the framework and version rather than uninstalling somebody else's defaults.

Comprehensive Evidence Pack:

Every AMI carries an 8-file provenance evidence pack under /opt/optimization-report/:

• Tuning_Parameters.txt: Every tuning change, shown against its base-image value, with the reasoning and how to reverse it.
• Security_Parameters.txt: All 31 security settings in the same format; the 10 already at the wanted value are marked unchanged rather than presented as improvements.
• package_changes.txt: Packages upgraded, installed and removed versus the base image.
• sbom.spdx.json: Software Bill of Materials in SPDX format, generated from the dpkg database.
• cve_scan.txt / cve_scan_full.txt.gz: Vulnerability scan grouped by whether an upstream fix exists, with the GPU stack pinning explained.
• key_files.sha256: SHA-256 checksums of all 7 files this image changed, so the delivered state can be verified in one command.
• README.txt: Index of artifact contents and operational guidance.

Security & Attack Surface:

1. Kernel Network Hardening: 19 network-related kernel parameters are fixed in /etc/sysctl.d/99-security.conf: ICMP redirects are neither accepted nor sent, source-routed packets are rejected, and the rest are pinned at safe values so they cannot drift.

2. Unused Kernel Modules Disabled: 12 rarely used filesystem and network protocol modules are blocked from loading. No NVIDIA, EFA or container module is affected, and squashfs stays available so snap-packaged agents keep working.

3. SSH Login Window Tightened: LoginGraceTime is reduced from 120 to 60 seconds. Root login policy, authentication retries and forwarding are left as the base image ships them.

4. No Outstanding Upstream Fixes: Every package outside the GPU pins was upgraded to the newest version its distribution offers, including updates Ubuntu was still phasing in. The scan reports zero findings that have a fix available and not installed.

GPU Stack Left Intact:

1. Driver and Toolkit Untouched: The NVIDIA driver, CUDA toolkit, EFA stack and container runtime are not modified. After a reboot nvidia-smi reports the same driver, every NVIDIA kernel module loads, and the kernel command line is byte for byte identical to the base image - verified on a GPU instance.

2. Version Pinning Respected: The kernel and GPU stack are held at fixed versions because the driver is built against one specific kernel. That pinning predates this release and is documented in the evidence pack, not silently overridden.

AWS Network & Kernel Tuning:

1. Network Stack: TCP BBR congestion control with fair queueing, increased connection backlogs, raised socket buffer ceilings, and MTU probing enabled. Ceilings are only ever raised, never lowered.

2. System Tuning: tuned daemon active with an aws-optimized profile whose bootloader section is deliberately empty, so the network interface keeps its original name after a reboot.

3. Reliability: The systemd journal is capped at 200 MB so logs cannot fill the root filesystem.

Operational Tools:

1. Preinstalled Tools: AWS SSM Agent active, CloudWatch Agent installed (disabled by default).

Maintenance:

1. Maintenance Specifications: Rebuilt and updated bi-weekly to monthly incorporating upstream Ubuntu 24.04 security updates, with artifact documentation refreshed per release.

About NVIDIA CUDA

A framework-neutral GPU compute base in which the driver, CUDA Toolkit, container runtime and fabric libraries are assembled and validated together, so accelerated workloads run immediately instead of requiring hours of reconciling versions. It suits AI and HPC stacks built on CUDA, PyTorch, TensorFlow, Docker and Kubernetes.

About Ubuntu 24.04 LTS

The most widely deployed Linux distribution in the cloud, built on the Debian foundation, with a five-year maintenance window for LTS releases and broad compatibility across AI and container tooling.