Security Onion
A free Linux distribution for network security monitoring, packet capture, detection and threat hunting.
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About Security Onion
Security Onion is a Linux platform that you install from an ISO to monitor a network, capture traffic, run detection rules and hunt for threats. It is built and maintained by security practitioners who use it in their own work, and it is deployed in home offices, universities, government agencies and large companies.
The platform is free and its source code is published. Newer additions include Onion AI for alert analysis and detection tuning, with local model support; details of that feature are handled through the company's sales team. An annual conference and published documentation support the user community.
Strengths
- Complete monitoring platform installed from a single ISO
- Includes packet capture, detection rules and threat hunting
- Free to use with published source code
- Active development and documentation
Limitations
- Needs dedicated hardware or virtual machines and setup time
- Onion AI details are only available through sales
- Aimed at security teams rather than casual home users
Details
- Pricing
- FreemiumThe platform is free, while Onion AI features are offered through sales representatives.
- License
- Proprietary
- Developer
- Security Onion Solutions
- Platforms
- Linux, Self-hosted
- How it runs
- Self-hosted, Operating system
- Best suited for
- Security teams and learners building a network monitoring and threat hunting setup
- Categories
- Network tools, Security tools
- Last verified
- Added
- Provenance
- Facts checked against the developer's own pages and store listings, 1 sources on file.
Alternatives to Security Onion
Compare allSoftware that can replace Security Onion for an important use case, and what changes if you switch.
Malcolm
A self-hosted network traffic analysis suite that turns PCAP files, Zeek logs and Suricata alerts into searchable dashboards.
Malcolm is open source and combines PCAP, Zeek and Suricata data with Arkime and OpenSearch dashboards, deployable with Docker, Kubernetes or an ISO.
Arkime
Store and search captured network traffic through a web interface.
Arkime is an Apache-2.0 tool focused on storing and searching full packet captures, without Security Onion's detection rules and threat hunting suite.
RITA
A network traffic analysis framework that detects command and control communication such as beaconing.
RITA is a narrower open-source framework that detects beaconing and command and control traffic from existing logs, installed via a script or Docker.
ntopng
Web-based network traffic probe that shows real-time and historical flows by host, protocol and application.
ntopng is a web traffic probe showing flows by host and application via nDPI, focused on usage rather than intrusion detection, with some features paid.
Security Onion as an alternative
Listings that name Security Onion as an alternative.
Snort
Open-source intrusion detection and prevention system.
Security Onion is a full Linux monitoring distribution installed from one ISO, bundling detection, packet capture and threat hunting, but it needs dedicated hardware and setup time.
Suricata
Inspect network traffic with an intrusion-detection engine.
Security Onion is a complete monitoring distribution installed from one ISO with detection, packet capture and threat hunting, needing dedicated hardware and more setup.
Zeek
Network analysis framework that turns traffic into high-level activity logs.
Security Onion installs a complete monitoring platform with packet capture, detection and threat hunting from one ISO, and needs dedicated hardware or virtual machines.
Similar software
Related functionality, not necessarily a direct replacement.
Wireshark
The network protocol analyser: capture traffic and read it packet by packet, with dissectors for hundreds of protocols.
Zui
A desktop application for exploring data, and the official front end to Brim Data's SuperDB.
NetworkMiner
Network forensics tool that extracts files and credentials from captures.
T-Pot
An all-in-one multi-honeypot platform with dashboards for analysing collected attack data.
OpenCanary
A lightweight multi-protocol honeypot daemon that alerts when someone touches fake network services.
OPNsense
An open-source firewall and routing platform based on FreeBSD that you install on your own hardware.
