minsec

Installing minsec

Beta packages for EL 8/9/10, Debian 11/12 and Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, on x86_64 and aarch64.

For the beta, every release attaches a .rpm and a .deb to the GitHub release page. One package per architecture serves every supported distribution: the binaries are built against glibc 2.28, which is the floor across EL 8 and Debian 11, so there is no per-distro build to pick between. Dependencies are minimal — systemd and, for the default backend, nftables — so a downloaded package installs with the same one command a repository would use.

Requirements

  • Linux with systemd (the daemon reads the journal and installs a unit).
  • nftables for the default backend. If you run firewalld or iptables-nft, minsec composes with them rather than replacing them — see firewall.
  • Root, for the install and for the daemon.

A system without nftables can still run minsec with the exec or null backends.

Install the package

Pick your architecture: uname -m prints x86_64 or aarch64.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky, AlmaLinux, Oracle Linux, CentOS Stream.

ARCH=$(uname -m)
VER=0.1.5
curl -fsSLO "https://github.com/minsecio/minsec/releases/download/v${VER}/minsec-${VER}-1.${ARCH}.rpm"
sudo dnf install "./minsec-${VER}-1.${ARCH}.rpm"

dnf pulls in anything missing and the package is tracked like any other, so dnf remove minsec works normally. Upgrades are manual during the beta: download the next release and run the same dnf install.

The package installs the minsec binary, the minsec-sync helper for multiplayer mode, a default /etc/minsec/minsec.toml, the systemd units, and the manual pages. It does not start the daemon, and no filters are enabled until you enable them.

The cockpit-minsec module is published the same way, from its own releases — see the Cockpit UI.

Verify

minsec --version
minsec filters          # the built-in filter set; * marks enabled
man minsec              # same text as our /docs/reference pages

Package repositories

Package repositories are not published yet

The COPR and PPA below do not exist yet, and the commands in this section will not work until they do. For the beta, install from the release files on GitHub — see above.

A COPR for EL and a PPA for Ubuntu are planned, so that installs and upgrades arrive with the rest of your system updates. Release files stay supported afterwards, for Debian and for anyone who would rather not add a repository.

sudo dnf install dnf-plugins-core
sudo dnf copr enable minsecio/minsec
sudo dnf install minsec

The COPR will carry both minsec and the cockpit-minsec module, so the Cockpit UI needs no second repository.

Next

Continue to the quick start to enable filters and watch a dry run before anything reaches the firewall.