OS Hardening as Code

A 6-episode series on declarative OS hardening — from why default cloud AMIs are insecure by design to running an automated compliance gate in your CI/CD pipeline.

Who it’s for: Linux administrators, DevOps engineers, and platform teams who build or maintain cloud infrastructure and need every deployed instance to be hardened, verified, and auditable by default.

# Declare your baseline
vim ubuntu22-cis-l1.yaml          # HardeningBlueprint

# Build it
stratum build --blueprint ubuntu22-cis-l1.yaml --provider aws

# Verify it
stratum scan --instance i-0abc123 --benchmark cis-l1

# Gate on it in CI/CD
POST /api/pipeline/scan            # fails the build if grade < B

By EP05, hardened images are a pipeline constraint — an unhardened image cannot reach production.

Published Episodes

EP	Title
EP01	Cloud AMI Security Risks: Why Custom OS Images Are Non-Negotiable
EP02	Linux Hardening as Code: Declare Your OS Baseline in YAML
EP03	One Blueprint, Six Clouds — Multi-Provider OS Image Builds

Coming Up

EP	Title	Publishes
EP04	Compliance Grading — Automated OpenSCAP with A-F Scores Before Deployment	May 15
EP05	The Pipeline Gate — Hardened Images as a CI/CD Build Constraint	May 23
EP06	Stratum — OS Hardening as a Platform	May 31

Start with EP01: Cloud AMI Security Risks →

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