The Open-Source Cybersecurity Ecosystem: A Sustainable, Transparent and Accessible Alternative to Commercial Tools
- Predrag Puharic
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
Modern cybersecurity relies on a dense and rapidly evolving ecosystem of tools, platforms and services. While most well-known solutions come from the commercial sector — often expensive and closed — a global community of developers continues to build a powerful, transparent and mature open-source ecosystem that today covers almost every security capability, from SIEM and EDR to SAST, SOAR, API protection and cloud security.
Open-source brings a set of advantages that are particularly important for public institutions, academia, civil society organisations, independent media and SMEs: transparency, lower cost, full control over data, easier audits, and the ability to tailor tools to local needs. For regions with limited budgets and rapidly growing threats — including the Western Balkans — open-source tools are not a compromise. They are often the most reliable and sustainable way to achieve high cyber resilience.
The following section presents a fully open-source version of the cyber security ecosystem, grouped by categories. It is intended as a practical roadmap for anyone looking to build a robust, affordable and trustworthy cybersecurity stack.
PEOPLE / SOFTWARE
SOAR / Automation
TheHive → https://thehive-project.org/
Cortex → https://thehive-project.org/cortex/
Shuffle SOAR → https://shuffler.io
StackStorm → https://stackstorm.com
SIEM / SecOps
Wazuh → https://wazuh.com
Elastic Security (open source core) → https://www.elastic.co/security
Graylog Open → https://www.graylog.org/products/open
OpenSearch Security Analytics → https://opensearch.org
MDR / SOC Platforms (Open-source friendly)
Security Onion → https://securityonionsolutions.com/software
RockNSM → https://rocknsm.io
MozDef → https://github.com/mozilla/MozDef
Identity
FreeIPA → https://www.freeipa.org
Keycloak → https://www.keycloak.org
AuthLibre → https://github.com/authlib/authlib
Access Management / Authentication
Authelia → https://www.authelia.com
LemonLDAP::NG → https://lemonldap-ng.org
OpenAM (community edition) → https://github.com/OpenRock/OpenAM
DFIR / Incident Response Toolkits
Velociraptor → https://www.velocidex.com
GRR Rapid Response → https://github.com/google/grr
CyberChef → https://gchq.github.io/CyberChef
HARDWARE / ENDPOINT / IOT
Endpoint Security / EDR
Wazuh Agent → https://wazuh.com
OSQuery → https://osquery.io
Falco → https://falco.org
ClamAV → https://www.clamav.net
Secure Browsers
Firefox ESR → https://www.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/enterprise/
Chromium → https://www.chromium.org/Home
Ungoogled Chromium → https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium
Unified Endpoint & Asset Management
FleetDM → https://fleetdm.com
Snipe-IT → https://snipeitapp.com
OCS Inventory → https://ocsinventory-ng.org
GLPI → https://glpi-project.org
IoT / OT Security
Zeek → https://zeek.org
Suricata → https://suricata.io
Snort Community → https://www.snort.org
OpenPLC → https://openplcproject.com
Asset Management
NetBox → https://netbox.dev
OpenAudit → https://www.opmantek.com/openaudit/
NETWORK / FIREWALL / SASE
Secure Networking / VPN
WireGuard → https://www.wireguard.com
OpenVPN → https://openvpn.net/community
StrongSwan → https://www.strongswan.org
SoftEther VPN → https://www.softether.org
Zero Trust / SASE-style
OpenZiti → https://openziti.io
Pritunl Zero → https://zero.pritunl.com
Teleport (open source) → https://goteleport.com
Authelia + Traefik stack → https://traefik.io
Firewalls
OPNsense → https://opnsense.org
pfSense CE → https://www.pfsense.org
IPFire → https://www.ipfire.org
VyOS → https://vyos.io
APPLICATION SECURITY / APPSEC / AST
SAST / DAST
OWASP ZAP → https://www.zaproxy.org
Semgrep (community) → https://semgrep.dev
Bandit → https://bandit.readthedocs.io
Brakeman → https://brakemanscanner.org
Software Supply Chain Security
Sigstore → https://www.sigstore.dev
Cosign → https://github.com/sigstore/cosign
Trivy → https://trivy.dev
Grype → https://github.com/anchore/grype
Dependency-Track → https://dependencytrack.org
OpenSSF Scorecards → https://github.com/ossf/scorecard
in-toto → https://in-toto.io
API Security
OWASP API Security Project → https://owasp.org/www-project-api-security
KrakenD OSS API Gateway → https://www.krakend.io/open-source/
CLOUD SECURITY
Cloud / K8s Posture & Hardening
Kubesec → https://kubesec.io
kube-bench → https://github.com/aquasecurity/kube-bench
kube-hunter → https://github.com/aquasecurity/kube-hunter
Falco → https://falco.org
Cloud Custodian → https://cloudcustodian.io
Cloud & Infra Visibility
Prometheus → https://prometheus.io
Grafana Loki → https://grafana.com/oss/loki
OpenTelemetry → https://opentelemetry.io
DATA RISK, PRIVACY & COMPLIANCE
Email Security
Rspamd → https://rspamd.com
SpamAssassin → https://spamassassin.apache.org
OpenDMARC → https://github.com/trusteddomainproject/OpenDMARC
OpenDKIM → https://www.opendkim.org
Data Security / DSPM
Apache Ranger → https://ranger.apache.org
HashiCorp Vault → https://www.vaultproject.io
Encryption / Storage
Cryptomator → https://cryptomator.org
VeraCrypt → https://www.veracrypt.fr
Privacy & GRC
OpenGRC → https://github.com/strongdm/open-grc
ArcherySec GRC → https://archerysec.io
OpenControl → https://opencontrol.dev
Audit & Monitoring
Auditd → https://linux.die.net/man/8/auditd
Wazuh Compliance → https://wazuh.com
Lynis → https://cisofy.com/lynis
VULNERABILITY MANAGEMENT
Scanning / Assessment
OpenVAS (Greenbone Community) → https://www.openvas.org
Nmap → https://nmap.org
Nuclei → https://nuclei.projectdiscovery.io
Trivy → https://trivy.dev
Grype → https://github.com/anchore/grype
Nikto → https://cirt.net/Nikto2
Third-Party / Vendor Risk
Dependency-Track → https://dependencytrack.org
OpenGRC vendor module → https://github.com/strongdm/open-grc