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Lynis VS Ossec

Compare Lynis VS Ossec and see what are their differences

Lynis logo Lynis

Security auditing tool for systems running Linux, macOS, BSD, and other UNIX-based systems.

Ossec logo Ossec

OSSEC is an Open Source Host-based Intrusion Detection System.
  • Lynis Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-23
  • Ossec Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-23

Lynis features and specs

  • Comprehensive Security Auditing
    Lynis provides a thorough audit of Unix-based systems, helping to identify vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance issues.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source tool, Lynis offers transparency, community support, and the ability to customize and extend functionality according to specific needs.
  • Ease of Use
    Lynis is relatively easy to install and run, offering a straightforward command-line interface that doesn't require extensive configuration.
  • Regular Updates
    Lynis is frequently updated to cover the latest security guidelines and standards, ensuring that users have access to current best practices.
  • No Agents Required
    Lynis operates without the need for agent installation on the systems being audited, simplifying deployment and maintenance.

Possible disadvantages of Lynis

  • Unix-based Limitations
    Lynis is primarily designed for Unix and Unix-like systems, which limits its applicability for Windows environments.
  • Technical Knowledge Required
    Users need a certain level of technical expertise to interpret the results and implement recommended changes effectively.
  • Static Analysis
    Lynis focuses mainly on static analysis and configuration checks, which might miss dynamic behavior vulnerabilities detectable through runtime analysis.
  • No Real-time Monitoring
    Lynis does not provide real-time monitoring capabilities, which means it should be supplemented with other tools for continuous security oversight.
  • Manual Interventions Needed
    The tool may not automatically remediate issues, requiring manual intervention to address identified vulnerabilities and weaknesses.

Ossec features and specs

  • Open Source
    OSSEC is open-source, allowing users to access, modify, and distribute the source code. This flexibility enables customization and adaptability to fit various security needs.
  • Multi-Platform Support
    It supports multiple platforms, including Windows, Linux, macOS, and others, providing versatile security monitoring across different environments.
  • Active Community
    OSSEC has a strong, active community that contributes to continuous improvement, providing plugins, guides, and forums for support.
  • Comprehensive Security Features
    Offers features such as rootkit detection, real-time alerting, and compliance auditing, providing a robust security suite for intrusion detection.
  • Scalability
    Capable of handling large-scale deployments, making it suitable for both small and enterprise-level networks.

Possible disadvantages of Ossec

  • Complex Setup
    Initial setup and configuration of OSSEC can be complex, requiring a certain level of expertise and time to tailor effectively.
  • Limited GUI
    OSSEC lacks a native graphical user interface, which may pose challenges for users who prefer visual tools over command-line interfaces.
  • Performance Overhead
    High resource consumption can occur in large deployments, which may affect performance if the infrastructure is not adequately scaled.
  • Dependency on Security Knowledge
    Effective use of OSSEC requires a good understanding of security principles, meaning it's less accessible for beginners or IT staff without security expertise.
  • Alert Overwhelm
    Can generate a high volume of alerts, leading to potential alert fatigue or difficulty in distinguishing between critical and non-critical notifications.

Lynis videos

How to install and run the Lynis - Security auditing tool for Linux (Tutorial 2020 InfoSec Pat)

More videos:

  • Review - CentOS 8 Lynis Score and Thoughts

Ossec videos

Intrusion Detection System OSSEC | One Stop Cyber Security

More videos:

  • Review - OSSEC - Installation and configuration Step-By-Step

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Lynis and Ossec)
Cyber Security
54 54%
46% 46
Monitoring Tools
45 45%
55% 55
Security & Privacy
47 47%
53% 53
Security
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Lynis and Ossec

Lynis Reviews

We have no reviews of Lynis yet.
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Ossec Reviews

7 Best Free Open Source SIEM Tools
The OSSEC project is currently maintained by Atomicorp who stewards the free and open-source version and also offers an enhanced commercial version. However, the main pain point of this tool is that it lacks some of the core log management and analysis components of a typical SIEM. This limitation motivated other HIDS solutions like Wazuh to fork OSSEC in order to extend and...
8 Best Open Source SIEM Tools
Wazuh is an open-source SIEM system born from the OSSEC project that you can use for threat detection, prevention, and response. You can also use Wazuh to comply with industry standards and regulations such as PCI DSS, GPG 13, and GDPR. Wazuh ships with an integration with Kibana that makes for an excellent UI for data visualization and analytics. It also ships with an agent...
Source: www.logiq.ai
The Top 14 Free and Open Source SIEM Tools For 2022
Prelude is a universal SIEM system and it collects, normalizes, sorts, aggregates, correlates and reports all security-related events independent of the product brand or licence giving rise to such events. Third-party agents to this tool include Auditd, OSSEC, Suricata, Kismet and ClamAV.
Source: logit.io

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Lynis seems to be a lot more popular than Ossec. While we know about 26 links to Lynis, we've tracked only 1 mention of Ossec. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Lynis mentions (26)

  • Who does check linux distros of malware - open source
    Linux has (free) tools to improve security and detect/remove malware: Lynis,Chkrootkit,Rkhunter,ClamAV,Vuls,LMD,radare2,Yara,ntopng,maltrail,Snort,Suricata... Source: over 1 year ago
  • What are your must have favourite apps on Linux mint ?
    (My General Traffic System) Chkconfig: [Version 11.4] Gives a view of programs and the ability to start, stop, pause them. Through the terminal. (Same as systemctl, But to me friendlier interface) Dpkg-repack: Allows for repacking your favorite programs into a deb file. Lynis- System malware checker, More of a system checker for misconfigurations and security holes based on CISOfy -... Source: over 2 years ago
  • What according to u is Easy Linux distribution for hosting sites?
    Lynis is a good tool that will help you harden your system. I believe in redhat it is already in the EPEL repo so you should be able to sudo dnf install lynis and run it. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Every time system update, my neuron activates
    While I think it's fair to recognize the amount of work to patch Windows for security and compatibility, I also think it's unfair for you to regard SteamOS as a "hobbyist" OS that has poor security. SteamOS is based on Arch Linux. From Linux, to Arch distro, to SteamOS, this open source development loop cannot be compared with what you call a "phase" Windows has gone through. The only "phase" I saw since Windows... Source: over 2 years ago
  • Linux security
    Lynis is one such tool. The more tools you use, the more coverage you'll get. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

Ossec mentions (1)

  • Securing a Linux server. What else to do?
    I'd take it one step further and install OSSEC as well. It can be configured to run as a local daemon and report suspicious activity, and also intervene. So if somebody is brute-forcing the login on your web page, it'll create a burst of 401s which OSSEC will detect in the logs and block the offender for X minutes/hours. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Lynis and Ossec, you can also consider the following products

Tiger - The TIGER security tool Homepage

snort - Snort is a free and open source network intrusion prevention system.

Tripwire - Open Source Tripwire software is a security and data integrity tool useful for monitoring and...

AlienVault USM (from AT&T Cybersecurity) - AlienVault USM Anywhere delivers powerful threat detection, incident response, and compliance management for cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments.

OpenVAS - The Open Vulnerability Assessment System (OpenVAS) is a framework of several services and tools...

McAfee Network Security Platform - McAfee Network Security Platform guards all your network-connected devices from zero-day and other attacks, with a cost-effective network intrusion prevention system.