Jun 1, 2025

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OSSEC and Wazuh are both open-source Host-based Intrusion Detection Systems (HIDS) designed to monitor and analyze system activities for signs of malicious behavior. While OSSEC has been a pioneer in the HIDS space, Wazuh emerged as a fork of OSSEC, introducing enhanced features and integrations. This guide delves into their differences, latest releases, update frequencies, core processes, and more.

Latest Releases
- OSSEC: The latest stable release is version 3.8.0, released on January 5, 2021. [Source]
- Wazuh: The latest stable release is version 4.12.0, released on May 8, 2025. [Source]

Update Frequency
- OSSEC: Updates have been infrequent, with the last major release in early 2021.
- Wazuh: Maintains a regular update cycle, with multiple releases each year, reflecting active development and community engagement.

Core Processes and Architecture
- OSSEC: Utilizes a traditional client-server model with agents installed on monitored systems and a central manager for analysis and alerting.
- Wazuh: Expands on OSSEC's architecture by integrating additional components: - **Wazuh Manager:** Core analysis engine. - **Wazuh Agent:** Installed on endpoints to collect data. - **Wazuh Indexer:** Based on OpenSearch, stores and indexes alerts. - **Wazuh Dashboard:** Web interface for visualization and management. - **Filebeat:** Ships logs to the indexer.

Feature Comparison

Integration and Scalability
- OSSEC: Suitable for small to medium environments; integration capabilities are limited.
- Wazuh: Designed for scalability, supporting large enterprise environments with features like cluster deployment, cloud-native integrations, and RESTful APIs.

Migration Considerations
Organizations using OSSEC can migrate to Wazuh with relative ease. Wazuh maintains compatibility with OSSEC agents, allowing for a phased migration strategy. However, to leverage Wazuh's full feature set, it's recommended to update both agents and the manager to the latest Wazuh versions. [Migration Guide]

Which one to use?
For most use cases, both will work very well. Log formats don't change very often and OSSEC supports them very well. The same for File Integrity monitoring. While OSSEC remains a reliable HIDS solution, Wazuh offers a more comprehensive and modern approach to security monitoring, with enhanced features, better scalability, and active development. Organizations seeking advanced capabilities and integrations may find Wazuh to be the more suitable choice.

If you are looking for simplicity OSSEC could be a better option.