This product has charges associated with it for hardening and maintenance. This Citadel VM is secured using 300+ open source security controls and validated using Citadel Audit.
This product has charges associated with it for hardening and maintenance. This Citadel Hardened VM is secured using 300+ security controls and validated using Citadel Audit. This AMI has been hardened by security professionals to meet the rigorous standards of the PCI DSS.
This AMI delivers a secure, stable, and high-performance environment, ideal for developing and running cloud and enterprise applications. Regularly updated and maintained, this Citadel VM stands at the forefront of reliability and efficiency.
Deploying this image, hardened with the latest open source security frameworks and verified by Citadel Audit, significantly enhances your operational security while reducing costs, time, and associated risks. Tailored to meet PCI compliance standards, it offers a robust foundation for securing sensitive data. However, we recommend customers conduct their own verification using their preferred tools to ensure full compliance.
We've meticulously configured our Citadel VM to incorporate the most effective security recommendations, ensuring maximum protection without compromising the technology's functionality or performance.
This is our recommended default Hardened AMI, backed by our commitment to providing continuous security and maintenance updates, ensuring your infrastructure remains secure and up-to-date with the latest standards.
Highlights
Current and Consistent: Citadel's hardened images are kept up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates, ensuring you always have the most recent advancements in security and technology at your fingertips.
Built on open source secure frameworks and validated by Citadel Audit, our solutions offer unparalleled security and reliability, widely accepted by governments and industries. Our community-driven approach safeguards critical infrastructure and sensitive data, proving our commitment to the highest cybersecurity standards. Essential for top-tier security defense.
AWS Marketplace now accepts line of credit payments through the PNC Vendor Finance program. This program is available to select AWS customers in the US, excluding NV, NC, ND, TN, & VT.
Pricing is based on actual usage, with charges varying according to how much you consume. Subscriptions have no end date and may be canceled any time. Alternatively, you can pay upfront for a contract, which typically covers your anticipated usage for the contract duration. Any usage beyond contract will incur additional usage-based costs.
Additional AWS infrastructure costs may apply. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate your infrastructure costs.
You pay by the hour for a hardened CentOS Stream 9 operating system image built for ARM-based processors. Pricing is not tiered. Instead, each dimension maps to a specific AWS EC2 instance type, and your rate follows the instance you run. Costs scale with the size and family you pick. Larger instances (such as 48xlarge and metal options) carry higher hourly rates than smaller ones (such as medium or large). You choose the instance that fits your compute, memory, or storage needs. Billing continues for each hour the instance runs. The software cost is separate from AWS infrastructure charges.
Top-of-mind questions for buyers
What does one billing unit represent for this software image?
One unit is one running EC2 instance measured per hour. Each instance you launch with this image accrues its own hourly software charge. The rate follows the instance type you select. Running multiple instances means each one bills separately for every hour it runs.
Am I charged the software fee when an instance is stopped or paused?
The software fee meters running hours only. A stopped or paused instance does not accrue this hourly software charge. However, AWS may still bill you separately for underlying storage or other infrastructure while the instance is stopped. Those AWS charges are separate from the software cost.
What is included in this image, and what stays my responsibility after deployment?
The image provides a hardened CentOS Stream 9 operating system baseline verified against PCI DSS 4.0.1 at the packaged release. Your applications, cloud account configuration, and any changes made after deployment fall outside this image-level scope and remain your responsibility.
assets.citadelpci.com
Helpful?
Vendor refund policy
At present, Citadel does not provide refunds. Billing will be only for the actual duration of instance use. Just like other Citadel offerings, our primary objective is to ensure complete satisfaction for all our customers. Should you need further assistance, please reach out to our team directly at support@citadelelement.com.
How can we make this page better?
Tell us how we can improve this page, or report an issue with this product.
Give us feedbackReport a problem with this product or seller
Legal
Vendor terms and conditions
Upon subscribing to this product, you must acknowledge and agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the vendor's End User License Agreement (EULA).
Content disclaimer
Vendors are responsible for their product descriptions and other product content. AWS does not warrant that vendors' product descriptions or other product content are accurate, complete, reliable, current, or error-free.
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
Security patches and package updates (August 2026)
Additional details
Usage instructions
Connect over SSH using the key pair selected at launch. The default user is shown above. See the listing's usage instructions for full details.
Support is part of what you get with a Citadel image, and it comes from a US-based team that works on these builds every day. Email support@citadelpci.com with anything - choosing the right image, how the hardening behaves, patching and releases, evidence for a PCI DSS review, or a question you are not sure who else to ask. We read every message, and we would much rather you ask than guess. More about how we work with customers:
AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.
This product has charges associated with it for hardening and maintenance. This Citadel VM is secured using 300+ open source security controls and validated using Citadel Audit.
This product has charges associated with it for hardening and maintenance. This Citadel VM is secured using 300+ open source security controls and validated using Citadel Audit.
This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for baseline security hardening, kernel performance tuning, weekly automated patch integrations, versatile storage support (Standard & LVM), and pre-integrated AWS cloud utilities.
This is a repackaged open source software product wherein additional charges apply for baseline security hardening, kernel performance tuning, weekly automated patch integrations, versatile storage support (Standard & LVM), and pre-integrated AWS cloud utilities.
Be the first to review this product. We've partnered with PeerSpot to gather customer feedback. You can share your experience by writing or recording a review, or scheduling a call with a PeerSpot analyst.