OpenCanary honeypot on a hardened Ubuntu 22.04 LTS AMI. Run low-interaction decoy services such as SSH, FTP, HTTP, RDP and MySQL inside your VPC and get alerted when anything connects to them. Maintained by AdvanceCo with US-based email support.
OpenCanary is an open-source, low-interaction honeypot from Thinkst Applied Research. It runs decoy network services that look real to an attacker but serve no legitimate purpose, so any connection to them is a strong signal of reconnaissance or lateral movement. This AMI from AdvanceCo packages OpenCanary on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS so you can place decoys in your AWS environment in minutes.
What is included
OpenCanary installed and ready to configure
A default configuration file at /etc/opencanaryd/opencanary.conf
A systemd service that starts OpenCanary at boot
A hardened image with no SSH keys or shell history carried over from the build
Decoy services you can enable
SSH, FTP, Telnet, HTTP and HTTPS, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, RDP, VNC, SNMP, SIP, TFTP, NTP, Redis, Git and port-scan detection. Choose which services to emulate and how they identify themselves so each decoy blends into your network.
Alerting
OpenCanary writes a structured JSON event for every interaction. Send events to syslog or to a log file shipped to Amazon CloudWatch Logs or your SIEM, or configure OpenCanary's built-in email and webhook handlers.
Common uses
Detect lateral movement and internal reconnaissance after an initial compromise
Spot compromised credentials or misused accounts probing internal services
Add a low-cost, low-noise detection layer alongside network monitoring and endpoint tools
Maintenance and support
AdvanceCo publishes updated versions of this AMI with current Ubuntu security patches and OpenCanary releases. Included support is by email during US business hours from our US-based team. Paid support with Slack, phone and response-time commitments is available on request.
Getting started
Launch the AMI in the subnet you want to monitor and connect over SSH as the ubuntu user. Edit /etc/opencanaryd/opencanary.conf to enable decoy services and an alert destination, then restart the opencanary service. Open only the decoy service ports in the instance security group.
Highlights
Low-interaction decoys: emulate SSH, FTP, HTTP, MySQL, RDP, SNMP and more without exposing real services or data.
High-signal alerting: legitimate users have no reason to touch a decoy, so alerts are rare and actionable. JSON events work with syslog, CloudWatch Logs or your SIEM.
Maintained by AdvanceCo: hardened Ubuntu 22.04 LTS image with OpenCanary running as a systemd service, plus US-based email support.
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Try this product free for 5 days according to the free trial terms set by the vendor. Usage-based pricing is in effect for usage beyond the free trial terms. Your free trial gets automatically converted to a paid subscription when the trial ends, but may be canceled any time before that.
OpenCanary Honeypot on Ubuntu (Annual Subscription) by AdvanceCo
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.
If you are an AWS Free Tier customer with a free plan, you are eligible to subscribe to this offer. You can use free credits to cover the cost of eligible AWS infrastructure. See AWS Free Tier for more details. If you created an AWS account before July 15th, 2025, and qualify for the Legacy AWS Free Tier, Amazon EC2 charges for Micro instances are free for up to 750 hours per month. See Legacy AWS Free Tier for more details.
You pay by the hour for the EC2 instance you run OpenCanary on. Each dimension maps to a specific instance type, so your rate depends on the size and family you choose. Options span burstable t2 and t3 types for light use, general-purpose m4, m5, m6i, and m7 families, and current m8i, m8id, and m8i-flex families. Larger sizes (from large up to 96xlarge and metal) cost more per hour because they provide more compute. This software runs under an annual subscription, while the instance charge accrues based on running hours.
Top-of-mind questions for buyers
What does one billing unit represent for OpenCanary Honeypot?
One unit is one hour that a single EC2 instance runs the software. Your chosen instance type sets the hourly rate. If you run several instances, each one meters its own hours separately and adds to your bill.
Am I charged when the instance is stopped or paused?
Software charges accrue only while the instance runs. A stopped or fully powered-off instance stops accruing the hourly software charge. Note that underlying AWS storage fees for the instance may still apply separately, independent of this software charge.
How do I move from a small instance to a bigger one, and does cost change automatically?
You resize the EC2 instance yourself; the change is not automatic. Each dimension maps to a specific instance type, so switching to a larger family or size applies that type's hourly rate. Your charge follows whichever instance type is actually running.
Request a private offer to receive a custom quote.
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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.
Included support: email support from AdvanceCo's US-based engineering team during US business hours at secproductsupport@advancecoinc.com.
Paid support options, including Slack, phone and response-time commitments, are available on request.
More information:
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.
OpenCanary honeypot on a hardened Ubuntu 22.04 LTS AMI. Run low-interaction decoy services such as SSH, FTP, HTTP, RDP and MySQL inside your VPC and get alerted when anything connects to them. Maintained by AdvanceCo with US-based email support.
OpenCanary honeypot on a hardened Ubuntu 22.04 LTS AMI. Run low-interaction decoy services such as SSH, FTP, HTTP, RDP and MySQL inside your VPC and get alerted when anything connects to them. Maintained by AdvanceCo with US-based email support.
Suricata 8 network intrusion detection and prevention on a hardened, fully patched Ubuntu 24.04 LTS AMI. Inspect traffic from Amazon VPC Traffic Mirroring or inline, send EVE JSON events to your SIEM, and manage rules with suricata-update. Maintained by AdvanceCo with US-based email support.
Suricata 8 network intrusion detection and prevention on a hardened, fully patched Ubuntu 24.04 LTS AMI. Inspect traffic from Amazon VPC Traffic Mirroring or inline, send EVE JSON events to your SIEM, and manage rules with suricata-update. Maintained by AdvanceCo with US-based email support.
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