Skip to main content

What Is OpenSearch Security Analytics?

Security Analytics is the OpenSearch project SIEM plugin. It ships more than 2,200 prepackaged Sigma rules across common log sources, matches ingested log data against them, and provides detection rule management, a correlation engine, alerts, and dashboards. Because it runs inside OpenSearch, storage, retention, and clustering follow the platform rather than a separate SIEM license.

Use Cases

AWS or self-hosted OpenSearch users adding threat detection without new vendor licensing.

Strengths and Limitations

Strengths

  • +Sigma-native rule pipeline.
  • +Apache-2.0 licensed with no feature paywall.
  • +Included with every OpenSearch distribution, including Amazon OpenSearch Service.

Limitations

  • -Sources outside the standard log types need a custom log type.
  • -Detectors depend on field mappings between log data and rule fields.

Defensive Use

Sigma-based detection and alerting over logs already collected in OpenSearch.

OpenSearch Security Analytics Alternatives

ToolPricing
Elastic Security

SIEM and XDR built on the Elastic Stack with open detection rules and endpoint integration.

Free / Commercial
Graylog

Open core log management platform with SIEM features, event definitions, and alerting.

Free / Commercial
Splunk

Search-driven SIEM and observability platform, owned by Cisco since 2024.

Free / Commercial
Wazuh

Open-source SIEM and XDR platform providing endpoint monitoring, log analysis, file integrity checks, and threat detection.

Free / Commercial

Frequently Asked Questions

What is OpenSearch Security Analytics?→

Security Analytics is the OpenSearch project SIEM plugin. It ships more than 2,200 prepackaged Sigma rules across common log sources, matches ingested log data against them, and provides detection rule management, a correlation engine, alerts, and dashboards. Because it runs inside OpenSearch, storage, retention, and clustering follow the platform rather than a separate SIEM license.

What is OpenSearch Security Analytics used for?→

AWS or self-hosted OpenSearch users adding threat detection without new vendor licensing.

What are the strengths of OpenSearch Security Analytics?→
  • +Sigma-native rule pipeline.
  • +Apache-2.0 licensed with no feature paywall.
  • +Included with every OpenSearch distribution, including Amazon OpenSearch Service.
What are the limitations of OpenSearch Security Analytics?→
  • +Sources outside the standard log types need a custom log type.
  • +Detectors depend on field mappings between log data and rule fields.
How is OpenSearch Security Analytics used defensively?→

Sigma-based detection and alerting over logs already collected in OpenSearch.