Packer Ubuntu 24.04 Hardened AMI

CIS Level 1 Hardened Ubuntu 24.04 AMI

A Packer template that builds a security-hardened Ubuntu 24.04 AMI following CIS Benchmark Level 1 controls, with AWS agents pre-installed and smoke tested. Ready to use as your organization's golden base image.

What's Included

• CIS Level 1 hardening: filesystem config, kernel parameters, SSH hardening, service restrictions
• CloudWatch agent pre-installed and configured for log and metrics forwarding
• SSM agent installed and enabled for Systems Manager access without SSH
• fail2ban configured to block brute-force SSH attempts
• Custom MOTD showing instance metadata and last login info
• Builds in under 10 minutes using a t3.micro spot instance

What You Get

• ubuntu-24.04-hardened.pkr.hcl — main Packer template
• scripts/ — hardening scripts called during provisioning
• files/ — CloudWatch agent config, MOTD template, sshd_config
• README.md — build instructions and CIS control reference

Requirements

• Packer 1.9+ installed locally or in CI
• AWS credentials with EC2 and AMI permissions
• Default VPC or subnet ID in target region