Lynis is a security auditing for UNIX derivatives like Linux, macOS, BSD, and Solaris. It performs an in-depth security scan on the system itself, with the goal to detect issues and provide tips for further system hardening. It will also scan for general system information, vulnerable software packages, and possible configuration issues. Lynis is commonly used by people in the "blue team" to assess the security defenses of their systems.
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.
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).
Stable releases of Lynis are packaged and made available as RPM or DEB file. The [CISOfy software repository](https://packages.cisofy.com) can be used to install Lynis on systems running CentOS, Debian, Fedora, OEL, openSUSE, RHEL, Ubuntu, and others.
This software is also available as part of an enterprise solution. It includes additional functionality (plugins, centralized system, reporting, dashboard), and support.
[![ToolsWatch Best Tools (sixth place)](https://www.toolswatch.org/badges/toptools/2013.svg)](https://www.toolswatch.org/2013/12/2013-top-security-tools-as-voted-by-toolswatch-org-readers/)
[![ToolsWatch Best Tools (third place)](https://www.toolswatch.org/badges/toptools/2014.svg)](https://www.toolswatch.org/2015/01/2014-top-security-tools-as-voted-by-toolswatch-org-readers/)
[![ToolsWatch Best Tools (second place)](https://www.toolswatch.org/badges/toptools/2015.svg)](https://www.toolswatch.org/2016/02/2015-top-security-tools-as-voted-by-toolswatch-org-readers/)
[!Best of Open Source Software Awards 2015](http://www.idgenterprise.com/news/press-release/infoworld-announces-the-2015-best-of-open-source-software-awards/)
[!Best of Open Source Software Awards 2016](http://www.infoworld.com/article/3121251/open-source-tools/bossie-awards-2016-the-best-open-source-networking-and-security-software.html#slide13)
We love contributors. Do you have something to share? Or help out with translating Lynis into your own language? Create an issue or pull request on GitHub, or send us an e-mail: lynis-dev@cisofy.com.