Building an Open Source Operational Technology Pentesting Platform: Lessons from LINICS

2026-05-21

AI Summary

This work addresses the longstanding absence of a dedicated, open-source penetration testing platform for operational technology (OT) environments—akin to Kali Linux in IT security—by proposing LINICS, the first open-source security analysis and penetration testing platform tailored specifically for industrial control systems (ICS). LINICS integrates OT-specific protocol stacks, industrial device emulation modules, vulnerability scanners, and traffic analysis tools within a modular, extensible architecture. Designed to support comprehensive and customizable security assessments, the platform fills a critical gap in the OT security tooling ecosystem. By providing researchers and practitioners with a reproducible and adaptable testing environment, LINICS significantly enhances the capacity for both academic investigation and practical evaluation of OT system security.

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) security professionals have ready access to open-source platforms such as Kali Linux. But no such platform exists for Operational Technology (OT) that underpins Industrial Control Systems. We discuss experiences of architecting, building and releasing LINICS, an open-source platform for OT pentesting and security analysis.

Problem

• Operational Technology
• Industrial Control Systems
• Pentesting Platform
• Open Source
• Cybersecurity

Innovation

• Operational Technology
• penetration testing
• open-source platform
• Industrial Control Systems
• LINICS