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Snort vs Zeek
February 17, 2025 | Author: Michael Stromann
13★
Snort is the foremost Open Source Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) in the world. Snort IPS uses a series of rules that help define malicious network activity and uses those rules to find packets that match against them and generates alerts for users.
7★
Zeek (formerly Bro) is the world’s leading platform for network security monitoring. Flexible, open source, and powered by defenders.
See also:
Top 10 Intrusion Detection Systems
Top 10 Intrusion Detection Systems
If you’ve ever felt the irresistible urge to stare at endless streams of network traffic until your eyes glaze over, both Snort and Zeek are here to help. They diligently inspect packets, log suspicious activities and generally try to make sense of the vast digital soup we call the internet. Both can integrate with SIEM systems, which is a fancy way of saying they whisper their findings to bigger, even more paranoid security tools. They are open-source, which means they’re free—unless you count the hours you’ll spend configuring them as payment.
Snort, born in the USA in 1998, is what happens when you give a network a guard dog that only barks when it recognizes a burglar’s face from a pre-approved Most Wanted list. It’s a signature-based IDS/IPS, meaning it’s excellent at spotting known threats but might politely hold the door open for an entirely new and creative kind of digital villain. Designed for real-time packet inspection, it’s favored by network administrators who enjoy stopping attacks before they happen, ideally without having to explain what "packet inspection" means at family gatherings.
Zeek, hailing from Germany and first appearing in 1999, takes a different approach, preferring to watch, analyze and take detailed notes like a hyper-observant detective in a trench coat. Instead of barking at intruders, it builds a fascinating case study on their movements, habits and likely preference for late-night hacking. This makes it invaluable for forensic investigations, where security analysts try to piece together "What on Earth Just Happened" long after the damage is done. Unlike Snort, it doesn’t block anything in real-time, but then again, neither does a good documentary and people still find those useful.
See also: Top 10 Intrusion Detection Systems
Snort, born in the USA in 1998, is what happens when you give a network a guard dog that only barks when it recognizes a burglar’s face from a pre-approved Most Wanted list. It’s a signature-based IDS/IPS, meaning it’s excellent at spotting known threats but might politely hold the door open for an entirely new and creative kind of digital villain. Designed for real-time packet inspection, it’s favored by network administrators who enjoy stopping attacks before they happen, ideally without having to explain what "packet inspection" means at family gatherings.
Zeek, hailing from Germany and first appearing in 1999, takes a different approach, preferring to watch, analyze and take detailed notes like a hyper-observant detective in a trench coat. Instead of barking at intruders, it builds a fascinating case study on their movements, habits and likely preference for late-night hacking. This makes it invaluable for forensic investigations, where security analysts try to piece together "What on Earth Just Happened" long after the damage is done. Unlike Snort, it doesn’t block anything in real-time, but then again, neither does a good documentary and people still find those useful.
See also: Top 10 Intrusion Detection Systems
