SysWarden

Host-local Linux defense with auditable, fail-closed enforcement.

SysWarden is an open-source Linux security orchestrator that combines an authoritative nftables policy, host telemetry, threat-intelligence lists, out-of-band WAAP log analysis, authenticated high availability and a native terminal dashboard. It is designed for operators who want one reviewable host defense layer without placing another proxy in the application data path.

SysWarden is not an inline HTTP proxy, a traffic sanitizer or a regulatory certification product.

Current source version: v4.10.0.

The latest qualified, stable public release is v4.04.3.

The source version identifies the development candidate; it does not mean that its native packages have completed release qualification. Check the applicability notice in each technical document before using it on a stable installation. In particular, HA v2 settings require the v4.10.0 candidate.

Features

• Authoritative nftables enforcement with bounded firewalld and UFW compatibility when exactly one supported frontend is already active.
• Persistent blocklists, whitelists and SSH exceptions with canonical IP, CIDR and service-scoped entries.
• Host telemetry and out-of-band WAAP log analysis for local detection and response workflows.
• Bounded threat-intelligence feeds with last-known-good publication behavior.
• Native local terminal dashboard with no browser service or listening port.
• Authenticated HA synchronization over TLS 1.3 with explicit ownership and migration-fence controls.
• Optional BunkerWeb integration with authenticated HA and provenance-aware cleanup.
• Native DEB, RPM and APK packaging for supported amd64 Linux hosts.

Capabilities

Release inventory and verification

The stable v4.04.3 release publishes a machine-readable SPDX software bill of materials, syswarden-sbom.spdx.json, for dependency review. An SBOM is an inventory, not a vulnerability-free claim.

SHA256SUMS.txt checks package integrity against the downloaded inventory. Authenticate the Ed25519-signed update manifest with an independently trusted release key before installing a manually downloaded package. The operator guidance explains the existing verifier, its trust prerequisites and the distinction between package authentication and the SBOM inventory.

Intelligence Sources

Why Choose SysWarden

• Host-local by design. Security decisions stay close to the protected Linux host, without an inline proxy or remote terminal listener.
• Fail-closed boundaries. Ambiguous configuration, identity, feed or HA state is rejected before security policy is published.
• Operator control. Existing firewall service ownership is preserved, and host mutation remains explicit and reviewable.
• Auditable delivery. Source, package, security, compliance and release qualification gates expose the evidence behind each release decision.
• Open source. The implementation and its operational boundaries can be inspected, tested and improved by the community.

Documentation

Operational procedures are centralized in the SysWarden wiki.

Project

Security policy | Contributing | Releases | License

Developing and maintaining SysWarden requires infrastructure, testing and ongoing security work. Community support helps sustain the project.