Lynis is an open source security auditing tool. Primary goal is to help users with auditing and hardening of Unix and Linux based systems. The software is very flexible and runs on almost every Unix based system (including Mac). Even the installation of the software itself is optional!

How it works

Lynis will perform hundreds of individual tests to determine the security state of the system. Many of these tests are also part of common security guidelines and standards. Examples include searching for installed software and determine possible configuration flaws. Lynis goes further and does also test individual software components, checks related configuration files and measures performance. After these tests, a scan report will be displayed with all discovered findings.

Typical use cases for Lynis:

Requirements:
Changelog:
New:
- Boot loader detection for AIX [BOOT-5102]
- Detection of getcap and lsvg binary
- Added filesystem_ext to report
- Detect rootsh
Changes:
- Hide errors when RPM database is faulty and show suggestion instead [PKGS-7308]
- Allow OpenBSD to gather information on listening network ports [NETW-3012]
- Don't trigger warning for Shellshock when doing segfault test [SHLL-6290]
- Do not run Apache test on OpenBSD and strip control chars [HTTP-6624]
- Extended AIDE test with configuration validation test [FIND-4314]
- Improved Shellshock test regarding non-Linux support [SHLL-6290]
- Added support for gathering volume groups on AIX [FILE-6311]
- Properly parse PAM lines and add them to report [AUTH-9264]
- Support for boot loader detection on OpenBSD [BOOT-5159]
- Added uptime detection for OpenBSD systems [BOOT-5202]
- Support for volume groups on AIX [FILE-6312]
- Redirect errors when searching for readlink binary