Wazuh – One Platform to Watch Them All
What It Is (and Why People Use It)
Security monitoring can get complicated — too many tools doing too many things, none of them really talking to each other.
Wazuh tries to fix that.
It started off as a fork of OSSEC but quickly grew into something bigger: a full-blown, open-source SIEM and XDR platform that pulls logs, monitors files, checks integrity, detects anomalies, and responds — all from one interface.
The cool part? It doesn’t just handle endpoints. Wazuh can monitor servers, containers, public cloud accounts, or on-prem hardware. And it doesn’t require giving up control to a third-party provider.
What It Actually Does
| Area | What It Handles |
| Data Collection | File changes, logs, syscalls, registry edits, user activity |
| OS Support | Linux, Windows, macOS, Solaris, AIX — even some legacy stuff |
| Detection Logic | Correlation rules, threat intel, MITRE ATT&CK alignment |
| Dashboards | Web UI or Kibana-based interface with graphs and filters |
| Active Response | Built-in scripts that block IPs, kill processes, or shut down services |
| Cloud Monitoring | AWS/GCP/Azure log ingest and auditing |
| Compliance Checks | PCI, HIPAA, GDPR, CIS — mapped out and built-in |
| Integration | Works with the Elastic Stack, REST API included |
| Licensing | 100% open source (GPLv3), no vendor tricks |
| Website | https://wazuh.com |
What It Feels Like in Real Use
Once set up, the Wazuh agent sits quietly on your systems — watching files, tracking user actions, and pulling logs.
Behind the scenes, the manager parses all that and applies rules. It might match a known bad IP. Or see someone messing with /etc/passwd. If configured, it can fire back — blocking the user, killing the session, or just sending alerts.
And yeah, it’s a lot to set up at first — but once running, it becomes the central nervous system of your security posture. Especially handy when juggling dozens (or hundreds) of endpoints.
When It Actually Helps
– Replacing a patchwork of open-source scripts with one dashboard
– Keeping visibility over cloud + on-prem assets without two teams
– Running audits and compliance reports in environments with strict controls
– SOC teams who want fine-tuned alerting without enterprise SIEM pricing
– Detecting the weird stuff before it becomes an incident
