In today’s rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape, organizations face challenges that go far beyond preventing traditional malware infections. The real question has become how to detect threats early, respond quickly, and maintain continuous monitoring.
Traditional antivirus and firewalls stop known threats, but they often miss subtle or unknown attacks happening inside the environment.
This is where MDR (Managed Detection and Response) comes in — and among all MDR solutions, Wazuh stands out for being open-source, scalable, and highly flexible, making it an excellent foundation for building an in-house SOC (Security Operations Center).
1. What Is Wazuh?
Wazuh is an open-source security monitoring and threat response platform that combines the capabilities of:
- SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) — centralized log analysis and event correlation
- HIDS (Host-based Intrusion Detection System) — endpoint and system-level intrusion detection
- MDR (Managed Detection & Response) — automated response to threats and anomalies
In short, Wazuh helps organizations move from reactive incident handling to proactive detection and real-time response.
2. Overall Architecture
Wazuh follows a distributed architecture, typically consisting of three main components:
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| Wazuh Dashboard (Kibana) |
| → Visualization and management interface |
| for events, alerts, and reports |
+------------------------------------------------+
↑
+-----------------------------------------------+
| Wazuh Manager / Server |
| → Analyzes events and applies detection rules|
| → Generates alerts and triggers responses |
| → Integrates YARA, OSQuery, VirusTotal, etc. |
+-----------------------------------------------+
↑
+-----------------------------------------------+
| Wazuh Agent |
| → Installed on servers, endpoints, or cloud |
| → Collects system logs, login events, and FIM|
+-----------------------------------------------+
This modular design scales easily to support multiple managers and distributed environments — ideal for multinational organizations.
3. How Wazuh MDR Works: From Collection to Response
1️⃣ Data Collection
Each system or endpoint runs the Wazuh Agent, which continuously gathers:
- Login and authentication logs
- File integrity monitoring (FIM) results
- Service and process changes
- Privilege escalation attempts
- Network anomalies
All collected data are securely forwarded to the Wazuh Manager for centralized analysis.
2️⃣ Detection and Correlation
The Manager analyzes incoming events using its extensive ruleset — a combination of pre-defined and custom detection logic.
It can:
- Detect brute-force login attempts or privilege abuse
- Identify abnormal behaviors or unauthorized processes
- Cross-check with Threat Intelligence sources (malicious IPs, file hashes, etc.)
Supporting tools include:
- YARA for malicious file pattern matching
- OSQuery for live endpoint inspection
- MITRE ATT&CK mapping for attack behavior classification
3️⃣ Threat Correlation and Prioritization
Each alert is automatically assigned a severity level (0–15).
For example:
- Multiple failed logins from the same IP → possible brute-force attack
- One user logging in from two countries within minutes → suspicious activity
By correlating data across endpoints, Wazuh reduces false positives and increases detection accuracy.
4️⃣ Automated Response
When a threat is confirmed, Wazuh can trigger Active Response actions such as:
- Blocking malicious IP addresses (iptables / firewalld)
- Disabling suspicious user accounts
- Isolating compromised hosts
- Sending alerts via Email, Slack, Webhooks, or external SIEM APIs
It can also integrate with SOAR tools (e.g., TheHive, Cortex, Shuffle) for fully automated incident workflows.
5️⃣ Visualization and Continuous Monitoring
All data and alerts are displayed in the Wazuh Dashboard, providing:
- Attack trends and geographic sources
- Affected endpoints overview
- Severity and event type distribution
- Compliance and vulnerability reports
This centralized visibility enables security teams to monitor, audit, and improve their defenses continuously.
4. Why Choose Wazuh?
| Advantage | Description |
|---|---|
| 💰 Open-source & cost-effective | No license fees; ideal for budget-conscious deployments |
| ⚙️ Highly customizable | Create custom rules and automated actions |
| 🧩 Flexible integrations | Works with firewalls, cloud platforms, EDRs, and more |
| 🔍 Powerful visualization | Clear dashboards for security insights |
| 🧠 Automated response | Reduces response time and manual workload |
5. Final Thoughts
In modern enterprise security, success depends not only on prevention but on early detection and rapid response.
Wazuh offers a scalable, transparent, and cost-efficient way to build a full MDR capability — empowering IT and security teams to:
- Gain real-time visibility across all systems
- Respond quickly to emerging threats
- Strengthen security governance and compliance
By adopting Wazuh, organizations take a key step toward a more resilient, proactive cybersecurity posture.