Top Open-Source System Information Gathering Tools in 2025System information gathering remains a foundational step for system administrators, incident responders, penetration testers, and IT auditors. In 2025 the landscape of open-source tools continues to evolve: projects have improved platform support, added richer telemetry and inventory features, and emphasized privacy and safe usage. This article reviews the most reliable open-source system information gathering tools available in 2025, explains what makes each tool useful, compares their strengths and weaknesses, and provides practical usage tips and example commands.
What is system information gathering?
System information gathering is the process of collecting hardware, software, configuration, and runtime information from a host or set of hosts. Typical data includes CPU, memory, disk and filesystem details, running processes and services, installed packages, network interfaces and routes, open ports and sockets, OS version and kernel, user accounts, scheduled jobs, and logs. The goal can be benign (inventory, troubleshooting, compliance) or offensive (reconnaissance during a security assessment), so responsible, authorized use is essential.
Key selection criteria for 2025
When evaluating open-source system information tools in 2025, consider:
- Cross-platform support (Linux, Windows, macOS, BSD)
- Ease of deployment and automation (agents, one-shot binaries, scripts)
- Output formats (JSON, CSV, YAML) for integration with SIEMs or CMDBs
- Extensibility (plugins, modules, community-contributed collectors)
- Resource and privacy footprint (CPU, memory, network usage, data sensitivity)
- License and community activity (maintenance, security fixes)
1) osquery
Overview osquery exposes an operating system as a high-performance relational database, letting you write SQL to ask questions about system state. Developed and maintained originally by Facebook and now a widely adopted open-source project, osquery is a staple for endpoint visibility.
Why use it
- Cross-platform: Linux, Windows, macOS, FreeBSD.
- Powerful query language: Use SQL to join tables like processes, packages, listening_ports, kernel_info, etc.
- Stable telemetry: Good for continuous monitoring and scheduled snapshot queries.
- Extensible via packs and custom tables.
Typical use
- Deploy as a daemon (osqueryd) for continuous monitoring or run interactive osqueryi for ad-hoc queries. Example command (interactive):
osqueryi "SELECT name, version FROM programs WHERE version IS NOT NULL;"
Pros and cons (quick)
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| SQL queries, flexible, cross-platform | Learning curve for custom tables; agent deployment required for continuous monitoring |
2) Inxi
Overview Inxi is a command-line system information script primarily for Linux and BSD systems (also works on macOS via Homebrew). It provides a human-readable, comprehensive summary of hardware and software.
Why use it
- Quick and verbose summaries for hardware, drivers, audio, graphics, network, and sensors.
- Lightweight — no daemon required.
- Useful for troubleshooting and forum support where readable output is preferred.
Typical use
inxi -Fxxxz This prints full system information with extra verbosity while masking some sensitive data like MAC addresses.
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Fast, readable, highly informative for hardware | Primarily interactive; not ideal for structured output or large-scale automation |
3) Hardinfo (and lshw, hwinfo)
Overview Hardinfo is a GUI and CLI tool that aggregates hardware information; lshw and hwinfo provide detailed hardware descriptions for Linux. They are battle-tested for deep hardware inventories.
Why use them
- Detailed hardware tree: RAM layout, PCI devices, firmware versions.
- Useful for auditing, hardware lifecycle management, and low-level troubleshooting.
Typical use
sudo lshw -json > hardware.json Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Extremely detailed hardware info | Root privileges often required; Linux-focused |
4) WMI-based scripts and WMIC (Windows)
Overview On Windows, WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) provides a vast interface for system data. PowerShell cmdlets and community scripts (Get-CimInstance, Get-WmiObject, or WMIC legacy) remain essential for sysadmins.
Why use it
- Native Windows support; deep access to OS, services, installed software, event logs, and more.
- Easily scripted and exported to CSV/JSON for automation.
Typical use (PowerShell):
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_OperatingSystem | Select-Object Caption, Version, BuildNumber | ConvertTo-Json Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Native, powerful, scriptable | WMI complexity; potential performance impact if misused |
5) Sysdig and Falco (sysdig-inspect)
Overview Sysdig (open-source) and its runtime-analysis sibling Falco provide system call-level visibility and can capture snapshots of system state. While often associated with container troubleshooting and security, sysdig’s chiselled capture capability is valuable for deep system inspection.
Why use it
- Kernel-level visibility, container-aware, can capture traces for later analysis.
- Good for incident response when you need precise process, network, and file event context.
Typical use
sudo sysdig -pc -w capture.scap # later inspect: sysdig -r capture.scap Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Deep visibility, great for containers and incidents | Requires kernel modules or eBPF support; larger capture files |
6) Nmap and Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE)
Overview Nmap is primarily a network scanner, but its host discovery and NSE scripts can gather OS, service, and basic system information remotely when authorized.
Why use it
- Remote system intelligence: useful for network inventories, discovering open services, and fingerprinting OS versions.
- Highly extensible via NSE scripts.
Typical use
nmap -O -sV --script=hostdetected -oN nmap_host.txt 192.0.2.10 Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Great for remote reconnaissance and network mapping | Some techniques intrusive; not for deep local hardware data |
7) Benchmark and inventory frameworks: Salt, Ansible facts, and Puppet Facter
Overview Configuration management tools collect system facts (Ansible facts, Salt mine, Puppet Facter) as part of orchestration. They’re practical for fleets where inventory must be current and automatable.
Why use them
- Integrated into automation pipelines, produce structured output (JSON), and support multi-platform fact collectors.
- Minimal additional tooling if you already use CM tools.
Typical use (Ansible ad-hoc):
ansible all -m setup --tree /tmp/facts Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Scales well for fleets; structured data | Requires agent or orchestration; may collect less low-level hardware detail by default |
8) Volatility and Rekall (memory forensics)
Overview For incident response scenarios where you must examine volatile memory, Volatility and Rekall are the leading open-source frameworks for memory analysis.
Why use them
- Extract process lists, network connections, loaded modules, and credentials from memory captures.
- Essential during compromise investigations.
Typical use
volatility -f memdump.raw --profile=Win10x64_19041 pslist Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| In-depth forensic capabilities | Memory acquisition must be done carefully; profiles and plugins can be complex |
Comparison table
| Tool / Category | Best for | Platforms | Output for automation |
|---|---|---|---|
| osquery | Continuous endpoint visibility, SQL querying | Linux, Windows, macOS, BSD | JSON, packs |
| Inxi | Quick human-readable hardware/software overview | Linux, BSD, macOS | Text (limited structured) |
| lshw / hwinfo / Hardinfo | Deep hardware inventory | Linux, some BSD | JSON (lshw), text |
| WMI / PowerShell | Native Windows inventory and logs | Windows | CSV, JSON via PowerShell |
| Sysdig / Falco | Kernel-level trace and container context | Linux (eBPF/kernel) | Capture files, JSON |
| Nmap / NSE | Remote host/service discovery | Any (network-based) | XML, grepable, scripts |
| Ansible/Salt/Puppet facts | Fleet-wide inventory integration | Multi-platform | JSON/YAML |
| Volatility / Rekall | Memory forensics | Any (memory images) | Plugin outputs, JSON via scripts |
Practical tips and ethical considerations
- Always obtain explicit authorization before running information-gathering tools on systems you do not own.
- Prefer structured output (JSON) when integrating with downstream systems (SIEM, CMDB).
- Mask or redact sensitive identifiers (MACs, serial numbers, user tokens) before sharing outputs publicly.
- For production environments, prefer agents with controlled scheduling to avoid performance impacts.
- Keep tools updated — many security fixes and new collectors are released frequently.
Example workflows
- Fleet inventory snapshot
- Deploy osquery (packs) + scheduled queries.
- Aggregate results to a central store, normalize JSON, and feed to a CMDB.
- Incident triage on Linux server
- Capture a sysdig trace of suspicious process activity.
- Run lshw and inxi for hardware/context if hardware anomaly suspected.
- Create a memory dump and analyze with Volatility.
- Windows host audit
- Run Get-CimInstance scripts to collect installed software, services, and users.
- Use PowerShell to export as JSON and ingest into centralized logging.
Conclusion
In 2025 the open-source ecosystem offers mature, complementary tools for system information gathering. Use osquery for continuous, queryable endpoint visibility; inxi, lshw, and hwinfo for rich local hardware detail; WMI/PowerShell for Windows-native inventory; sysdig for kernel-level and container context; Nmap for remote discovery; and orchestration tools’ facts for fleet management. Choose the tool or combination that fits your scale, platform mix, and integration needs — and always run them responsibly.
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