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Ossec VS rsyslog

Compare Ossec VS rsyslog and see what are their differences

Ossec logo Ossec

OSSEC is an Open Source Host-based Intrusion Detection System.

rsyslog logo rsyslog

Rsyslog is an enhanced syslogd supporting, among others, MySQL, PostgreSQL, failover log...
  • Ossec Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-23
  • rsyslog Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-01

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.

rsyslog features and specs

  • High Performance
    Rsyslog is designed for high performance, capable of processing thousands of messages per second and efficiently handling large volumes of log data.
  • Modular Architecture
    Its modular architecture allows for the addition of various plugins and modules to extend functionality and customize the logging system as needed.
  • Advanced Filtering
    Rsyslog offers advanced filtering capabilities, using both simple and complex filters to fine-tune which logs are collected and where they are sent.
  • Network Support
    It has strong support for remote logging via protocols such as TCP, UDP, and RELP, making it a robust solution for centralized logging.
  • Reliability
    Features such as disk-assisted queues and failover actions ensure that log messages are not lost, improving overall reliability.
  • Compatibility
    Rsyslog is compatible with existing syslog implementations and can drop-in replace older syslog daemons without significant changes.
  • Open Source
    Being open-source software, it is freely available for use and modification, supported by an active community.

Possible disadvantages of rsyslog

  • Complex Configuration
    The configuration syntax of rsyslog can be complex and unintuitive, requiring a steep learning curve for beginners.
  • Documentation Quality
    While comprehensive, the documentation can sometimes be difficult to navigate and understand, which might pose challenges for new users.
  • Resource Consumption
    Although efficient, rsyslog can be resource-intensive in certain configurations, potentially impacting system performance if not properly optimized.
  • Dependency Management
    Managing dependencies for various modules and plugins can be cumbersome and may require additional effort to ensure compatibility.
  • Version Inconsistency
    Different distributions might include various versions of rsyslog, leading to inconsistencies in features and behaviors across environments.

Ossec videos

Intrusion Detection System OSSEC | One Stop Cyber Security

More videos:

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

rsyslog videos

[LINUX] #11 Rsyslog Server Log Analyzer e Mysql

More videos:

  • Review - Ubuntu: How can I configure logrotate without having `/etc/logrotate.d/rsyslog`?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Ossec and rsyslog)
Monitoring Tools
37 37%
63% 63
Security & Privacy
48 48%
52% 52
Log Management
0 0%
100% 100
Cyber 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 Ossec and rsyslog

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

rsyslog Reviews

Best Log Management Tools: Useful Tools for Log Management, Monitoring, Analytics, and More
Rsyslog is a blazing-fast system built for log processing. It offers great performance benchmarks, tight security features, and a modular design for custom modifications. Rsyslog has grown from a singular logging system to be able to parse and sort logs from an extended range of sources, which it can then transform and provide an output to be used in dedicated log analysis...
Source: stackify.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ossec seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1 time since March 2021. 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.

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

rsyslog mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of rsyslog yet. Tracking of rsyslog recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

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

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

Fluentd - Fluentd is a cross platform open source data collection solution originally developed at Treasure Data.

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.

logstash - logstash is a tool for managing events and logs.

Wazuh - Open Source Host and Endpoint Security

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.