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Elastic Compute Service

Security

Security enhancement

ECS instances offer a security enhancement feature that provides real-time monitoring and analysis of system activities. It generates alerts for risks detected during file and process monitoring, as well as threats like abnormal logins, helping reduce host intrusion risks and safeguard your hosts.

Billing method

You are not charged for using the security enhancement feature of ECS.

Limits

When you create an instance by using a public image of Linux or Windows, security enhancement is enabled by default.

Security enhancement is disabled by default in the following scenarios. For information about how to enable security enhancement, see enable security enhancement in the Security Center console.

When you create an instance by using a custom image or switching to any other image, security enhancement is disabled by default.

When you change a public image of Linux or Windows to a custom image, security enhancement is disabled by default.

Procedure

Enable security enhancement when you create an instance

In the left-side navigation pane, select "Instances & Images > Instances".

In the top menu bar, select the region and project of the target instance.

Click the "Create instance" button.

In the "Image" section of the "Basic configuration" step, select "Security enhancement" (selected by default). The system automatically installs the security enhancement feature for new instances.

Configure the remaining parameters based on your business requirements. For more information, see Purchasing instances via wizard.

Enable security enhancement in the Security Center console

If you do not select "Security enhancement" when you create an instance, you can perform the following steps to enable security enhancement for the instance.

(Optional) The first time you use Security Center, you need to submit an application to activate the service.

On the application page, follow the console instructions to review and confirm the legal agreements, and then click the "Activate" button.

tip

After you activate Security Center, Security Center provides the Basic Edition service by default. For information about the features supported by the Basic Edition and Advanced Edition, see features.

After you activate Security Center, click "System Configuration > Installation and Uninstallation" in the left navigation tree, and then select the "Installation" tab. In the displayed list, you can search for the corresponding instance by instance name, private IP address, or EIP. Click the "Install and Enable" button in the "Actions" column of the instance to enable security enhancement.

Subsequent operations

View security status

The colors of the icons in the "Security" column on the Instances page indicate the security enhancement status of each instance. The following table describes the mappings between the icon colors and the status.

tip

When you hover the cursor over the icon, you can view the instance security score. You can also click the "Go to open" button to go to the Host Management page in the Security Center console. On the host asset details page, you can view and handle alerts or vulnerabilities.

If you are unable to navigate to the Host Management page, Security Center may not be enabled. In this case, enable Security Center by performing Step 2 in Enable security enhancement in the Security Center console.

Security enhancement	Icon	Description
Enabled		The instance security score is greater than or equal to 70, which indicates that the instance is secure.
			The instance security score is greater than or equal to 35 and less than 70, which indicates that the ECS instance has vulnerabilities or security alerts.
			The instance security score is less than 35, which indicates that the ECS instance has vulnerabilities or severe security alerts.
Disabled		Security enhancement is not enabled. You can enable security enhancement in the Security Center console.

Disable security enhancement

To disable security enhancement, go to the Security Center console, click "System Configuration > Installation and Uninstallation", and select the "Uninstallation" tab. Then, click the "Disable security enhancement" button in the "Actions" column of the corresponding instance.

tip

You cannot disable security enhancement in the ECS console.

Last updated: 2026.06.18 17:49:49