What is OpenSCAP used for?

OpenSCAP is a library and command-line tool for parsing and evaluating SCAP standard components, supporting configuration and vulnerability scans. It is a good fit for performing configuration and vulnerability scans of a local system, validating SCAP content against SCAP standard XML schemas, and displaying basic information about content or listing profiles in an XCCDF benchmark.

Is OpenSCAP open source?

Yes. OpenSCAP is open source under the LGPL-2.1 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at OpenSCAP/openscap.

Yes. OpenSCAP is open source, so the software itself is free to use.

Can I self-host OpenSCAP?

Yes. OpenSCAP can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is OpenSCAP an alternative to?

OpenSCAP is an open-source alternative to Rapid7, Sysdig and Prisma Cloud. Other open-source alternatives to Rapid7 include Wazuh and Graylog.

Is OpenSCAP actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to OpenSCAP was on 13 October 2026, and the latest release is 1.4.5, published on 13 October 2026. The project has 1.8k stars on GitHub.

OpenSCAP: open-source alternative to Rapid7, Sysdig

About OpenSCAP

OpenSCAP is a library and command-line tool that parses and evaluates each component of the SCAP standard. The library enables creation of new SCAP tools, while the command-line tool, oscap, formats content into documents or scans the system based on that content. It supports SCAP 1.2 and is backward compatible with SCAP 1.1 and 1.0.

The tool can evaluate DISA STIGs, NIST's USGCB, and Red Hat's Security Response Team's content. It performs configuration and vulnerability scans of a local system, evaluating XCCDF benchmarks and OVAL definitions and generating results. OpenSCAP is available on various Linux distributions and, since version 1.3.0, also on Microsoft Windows.

Key features

Parses and evaluates each component of the SCAP standard
Command-line tool oscap for configuration and vulnerability scans
Supports SCAP 1.2, backward compatible with SCAP 1.1 and 1.0
Evaluates DISA STIGs, NIST USGCB, and Red Hat Security Response Team content
Evaluates XCCDF benchmarks and OVAL definitions
Available on Linux distributions and Microsoft Windows

Good fit for

Performing configuration and vulnerability scans of a local system
Validating SCAP content against SCAP standard XML schemas
Displaying basic information about content or listing profiles in an XCCDF benchmark

Built with: XSLT tools
Tags: scap; security; vulnerability-scanning; configuration-scanning; linux; windows

OpenSCAP: questions and answers

What is OpenSCAP used for?: OpenSCAP is a library and command-line tool for parsing and evaluating SCAP standard components, supporting configuration and vulnerability scans. It is a good fit for performing configuration and vulnerability scans of a local system, validating SCAP content against SCAP standard XML schemas, and displaying basic information about content or listing profiles in an XCCDF benchmark.
Is OpenSCAP open source?: Yes. OpenSCAP is open source under the LGPL-2.1 licence. Its source code is on GitHub at OpenSCAP/openscap.
Is OpenSCAP free?: Yes. OpenSCAP is open source, so the software itself is free to use.
Can I self-host OpenSCAP?: Yes. OpenSCAP can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is OpenSCAP an alternative to?: OpenSCAP is an open-source alternative to Rapid7, Sysdig and Prisma Cloud. Other open-source alternatives to Rapid7 include Wazuh and Graylog.
Is OpenSCAP actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to OpenSCAP was on 13 October 2026, and the latest release is 1.4.5, published on 13 October 2026. The project has 1.8k stars on GitHub.