Lynis: Security auditing and hardening tool for UNIX-based systems

lynis

Lynis is a security auditing tool for systems based on UNIX like Linux, macOS, BSD, and others. It performs an in-depth security scan and runs on the system itself. The primary goal is to test security defenses and provide tips for further system hardening. It will also scan for general system information, vulnerable software packages, and possible configuration issues. System administrators and auditors commonly used Lynis to assess the security defenses of their systems. Besides the “blue team,” nowadays penetration testers also have Lynis in their toolkit.

Goals

The main goals are:

• Automated security auditing
• Compliance testing (e.g. ISO27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA)
• Vulnerability detection

The software (also) assists with:

• Configuration and asset management
• Software patch management
• System hardening
• Penetration testing (privilege escalation)
• Intrusion detection

Typical users of the software:

• System administrators
• Auditors
• Security officers
• Penetration testers
• Security professionals

Install & Use