Amazon Linux 2027 enters public preview: kernel 7.1, SELinux enforcing, AWS-LC crypto

AWS has opened a public preview of Amazon Linux 2027 (AL2027), the successor to AL2023 and the OS most EC2 fleets will eventually standardise on. The preview ships Linux kernel 7.1+, turns on SELinux in enforcing mode by default, and pairs OpenSSL 3.5 with AWS-LC for faster TLS and crypto. Toolchains are current out of the box (GCC 16.2 plus maintained Python, Java, Node.js, Go and Rust runtimes), and AWS Neuron drivers are included for Trainium and Inferentia workloads. Preview AMIs are available in every commercial Region for both x86-64 and Graviton (aarch64), with container base images on ECR Public; once GA, AL2027 carries five years of standard support at no licence cost. For teams still on AL2 or mid-migration to AL2023, the practical takeaway is to start validating builds now: enforcing SELinux and a newer OpenSSL are the changes most likely to surface application issues, and the preview exists precisely so that feedback lands before GA. Issues and feature requests go through the AL2027 GitHub repository.

This is a summary by our content curator. Read the original at AWS What's New: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/09/announcing-amazon-linux-2027/.