Lynis is a security auditing for UNIX derivatives 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. Lynis was commonly used by people in the “blue team” to assess the security defenses of their systems. Nowadays, penetration testers also have Lynis in their toolkit.
We believe software should be simple, updated on a regular basis, and open. You should be able to trust, understand, and have the option to change the software. Many agree with us, as the software is being used by thousands every day to protect their systems.
Goals
The main goals are:
- Automated security auditing
- Compliance testing (e.g. ISO27001, PCI-DSS, HIPAA)
- Vulnerability detection
The software (also) assists with:
- Configuration management
- Software patch management
- System hardening
- Penetration testing
- Intrusion detection
Audience
Typical users of the software:
- System administrators
- Auditors
- Security officers
- Security professionals
Installation
Git
- Clone or download the project files (no compilation nor installation is required) ;
git clone https://github.com/CISOfy/lynis - Execute:
./lynis audit system
If you want to run the software as root, we suggest changing the ownership of the files. Use chown -R 0:0 to recursively alter the owner and group and set it to user ID 0 (root).
Package
Stable releases of Lynis are packaged and made available as RPM or DEB package. The CISOfy software repository can be used to install Lynis on systems running : CentOS, Debian, Fedora, OEL, openSUSE, RHEL, Ubuntu, and others.
Enterprise version
This software component is also part of an enterprise solution. Same quality, yet with more functionality.
Focus areas include compliance (PCI DSS, HIPAA, ISO27001, and others). The Enterprise version comes with:
- a web interface and features a dashboard ;
- hardening snippets ;
- and an improvement plan.
Documentation
Full documentation: https://cisofy.com/documentation/lynis/.
