Hardening an EC2 instance in AWS isn't just about patching the OS. It’s about building layered defense into the very foundation of your infrastructure — before any workloads even land on the box.
In this article, I walk through a practical and detailed approach to hardening Amazon EC2 instances, aligned with AWS best practices and enriched with technical implementation examples. We’ll cover:
- 🔐 Identity and access controls
- 🛡️ OS-level security and configuration
- 📦 Package and service minimization
- 📊 Monitoring and audit trails
- 🔄 Secure metadata access via IMDSv2
- 🔒 Disk encryption, traffic filtering, and more
Whether you're operating EC2 in a production-grade environment or just want to learn how to build secure-by-default systems, this guide is for you.
👇 Table of Contents
- IAM roles and SSH access
- OS hardening: users, packages, and kernel settings
- Logging with CloudWatch and audit tools
- Enforcing IMDSv2 and disabling instance metadata abuse
- Network-layer protections (SGs, NACLs, VPC)
- EBS and filesystem encryption
- Long-term patching, automation, and compliance
🔐 Identity and Access Management
Before you even spin up your EC2 instance, control who can access it — both at the AWS level and the OS level.
Use IAM instance roles instead of embedding credentials. Lock down ec2:DescribeInstances, ssm:SendCommand, and similar privileges to only those who need them. Avoid using hardcoded SSH keys in favor of EC2 Instance Connect or Session Manager whenever possible.
Here's a deeper look at these IAM concerns in my article on IAM misconfigurations and how to fix them.
🛠️ Operating System Hardening
Once the instance is launched, start hardening from the inside out. Some key steps:
- Remove unused packages and users
- Disable root login and enforce key-based authentication
- Apply CIS Benchmarks (or AWS Inspector rules) where applicable
- Configure iptables or nftables for outbound controls
- Ensure auditd is enabled and logs are shipped externally
It’s worth automating these steps with user-data scripts, EC2 Image Builder, or a configuration tool like Ansible.
📖 Read the Full Guide
👉 I’ve written the full deep-dive article, with detailed configuration examples, command-line snippets, and AWS-specific security pitfalls to watch for.
🔗 Read the full article on The Hidden Port:
https://thehiddenport.dev/posts/aws-ec2-hardening/
Thanks for reading — feel free to leave a comment or let me know how you approach EC2 hardening!
Top comments (0)