Zeek alternatives
Looking for an alternative tool to replace Zeek? During the review of Zeek we looked at other open source tools. Based on their category, tags, and text, these are the ones that have the best match.
Top 3
- Suricata (network IDS, IPS and monitoring)
- Sweet Security (security monitoring on Raspberry Pi and similar)
- Snort (network intrusion detection system)
These tools are ranked as the best alternatives to Zeek.
Alternatives (by score)
Suricata
Introduction
Suricata is a somewhat younger NIDS, though has a rapid development cycle. It can work with Snort rulesets, yet also has optimized rulesets for usage with Suricata itself. For example, this set is known as Emerging Threats and fully optimized.
Project details
Suricata is written in C, Lua.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 50 contributors
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Information gathering
- Intrusion detection
- Network analysis
- Threat discovery
Sweet Security
Introduction
This tool helps with automating the installation of several components like Bro IDS, Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana (ELK stack), and Critical Stack. Saving time on installation and configuration is its primary purpose.
Project details
Sweet Security is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Network security monitoring
- Security monitoring
Snort
Introduction
Besides intrusion detection, Snort has the capabilities to prevent attacks. By taking a particular action based on traffic patterns, it can become an intrusion prevention system (IPS).
Project details
Snort is written in C.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Supported by a large company
- + Well-known tool
Typical usage
- Security monitoring
DejaVu
Introduction
DejaVu is an open source deception framework which can be used to deploy and administer decoys or canaries across a network infrastructure. Defenders can use deception as a technique to learn quickly about possible attackers on the network and take actions.
Project details
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
- - No releases on GitHub available
Typical usage
- Security monitoring
- Threat discovery
Scirius
Introduction
Scirius is a web application to do Suricata ruleset management. There is both a community version as paid version available.Project details
Scirius is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Network security monitoring
Maltrail
Introduction
Maltrail monitors for traffic on the network that might indicate system compromise or other bad behavior. It is great for intrusion detection and monitoring.Project details
Maltrail is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 10 contributors
- + More than 3000 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Intrusion detection
- Network analysis
- Security monitoring
IVRE
Introduction
IVRE is a framework to perform reconnaissance for network traffic. It leverages other tools to pull in the data and show it in the web interface.Project details
IVRE is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 10 contributors
- + More than 1000 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Digital forensics
- Information gathering
- Intrusion detection
- Network analysis
Moloch
Introduction
Moloch comes with a web interface that allows for easy browsing of pcap data (packet capture). It can also search in the data or export it. Besides pcap, the JSON format is supported, so data can be easily consumed in other tools (like Wireshark).
Project details
Moloch is written in C, Node.js.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 25 contributors
- + More than 3000 GitHub stars
- + Many releases available
- + The source code of this software is available
- + Supported by a large company
Typical usage
- Network security monitoring
- Security monitoring
CHIRON ELK
Introduction
CHIRON is a tool to provide network analytics based on the ELK stack. It is combined with Machine Learning threat detection using the Aktaion framework. Typical usage of the tool is home use and get the visibility of home internet devices. By leveraging the Aktaion framework, it helps with detection threats like ransomware, phishing, or other malicious traffic.
Project details
CHIRON ELK is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
- - No releases on GitHub available
Typical usage
- Network analysis
- Network security monitoring
- Network traffic analysis
- Threat discovery
OSSEC
Introduction
OSSEC uses a centralized, cross-platform architecture allowing multiple systems to be monitored and managed.
Highlights:
The OSSEC project was acquired by Third Brigade, Inc in June 2008. This included the copyrights owned by Daniel Cid, its project leader. They promised to continue the development, keep it open source, and extend commercial support and training to the community.
Trend Micro acquired Third Brigade in May 2009. This included the OSSEC project. Trend Micro promised to keep the software open source and free.
Project details
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Commercial support available
- + Well-known tool
- - Commercial support available
Samhain
Introduction
Samhain is a host-based intrusion detection system (HIDS). It provides file integrity checking and log file monitoring/analysis. Additional features are rootkit detection, port monitoring, detection of rogue SUID executables, and the detection of hidden processes.
Samhain is typically deployed as a standalone application, although it supports centralized logging. This makes it ideal for environments with multiple systems.
Samhain is open source software and written by Rainer Wichmann.
Project details
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
Chiron
Introduction
Chiron is a security assessment framework for IPv6. It provides several modules including an IPv6 scanner, IPv6 Local Link, IPv4-to-IPv6 proxy, IPv6 attack module, and IPv6 proxy. These modules help to perform an assessment, like a penetration test.
The tool uses IPv6 extension headers to create a headers chain. This may allow evading security devices like IDS, IPS, and firewalls. Due to the flexibility of the framework, the tool can also be used to perform fuzzing of the IPv6 stack of a device.
Project details
Chiron is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + The source code of this software is available
- - No releases on GitHub available
Typical usage
- Network analysis
- Network scanning
- Network security monitoring
Acra
Introduction
Acra is a database encryption proxy that provides encryption and data leakage prevention to applications. It provides selective encryption, access control, database and data leak prevention, and even intrusion detection capabilities. It is focused on developers and supports most popular programming languages such as Go, PHP, Python, Ruby.
Project details
Acra is written in Golang, Node.js, Objective-C, PHP, Python, Ruby.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + Commercial support available
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Data encryption
- Data leak prevention
- Data security
- Vulnerability mitigation
GRR Rapid Response
Introduction
The goal of the GRR tooling is to support digital forensics and investigations. By using a fast and scalable model, analysts can quickly perform their analysis. One of the main features is the ability to search for particular information or details. This process is called hunting.
Project details
GRR Rapid Response is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 25 contributors
- + More than 3000 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
- + Supported by a large company
Typical usage
- Digital forensics
- Intrusion detection
- Threat hunting
Loki
Introduction
Loki is security tool to find so-called indicators of compromise (IOC). It does this by scanning files and then uses pattern matching.Project details
Loki is written in Python.
Strengths and weaknesses
- + More than 10 contributors
- + Commercial support available
- + More than 500 GitHub stars
- + The source code of this software is available
Typical usage
- Digital forensics
- Intrusion detection
- Security monitoring
Some relevant tool missing as an alternative to Zeek? Please contact us with your suggestion.