frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Show HN: Syd – An offline-first, AI-augmented workstation for blue teams

https://www.sydsec.co.uk
7•paul2495•1h ago
Hi HN, I’m Paul. I’m building Syd, an offline-first forensic workstation that orchestrates tools like YARA and Nmap through a GUI, using a local LLM to analyze the results without leaking data. It runs completely offline on localhost—no data is ever sent to the cloud, making it safe for sensitive investigations.

Here's a demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dQV3JbLrRE.

I built this because while tools like YARA are powerful, managing rule sets and decoding hex strings is slow. AI is great at explaining malware signatures, but I couldn't use ChatGPT for my work because pasting potential malware or sensitive logs into a web form is a massive security risk. I needed the intelligence of an LLM but with the privacy of an air-gapped machine.

Under the hood, it’s built on Python 3. I use subprocess to manage the heavy lifting of the scanning engines so the UI (built with CustomTkinter) doesn't freeze. The "secret sauce" isn't the AI itself, but the parser I wrote that converts the unstructured text output from YARA into a structured JSON format that the local LLM can actually understand and reason about.

I’ve been using it to triage files for my own learning. In one case, Syd flagged a file matching a "SilentBanker" rule and the AI pointed out specific API calls for keylogging, saving me about 20 minutes of manual hex-editing. In the demo video linked, you can see this workflow: scanning a directory, hitting on a custom YARA rule, and having the local AI immediately analyze the strings.

Through this process, I learned that "AI wrappers" are easy, but AI orchestration is hard—getting the tools to output clean data for the LLM is the real challenge. I'd love to hear if there are other static analysis tools (like PEStudio or Capa) you consider essential for a workstation like this, or how you currently handle the privacy risk of using AI for log analysis.

Comments

paul2495•39m ago
Author here. Happy to answer questions!

A bit more context on how Syd works: it uses Dolphin Llama 3 (dolphin-2.9-llama3-8b) running locally via llama-cpp-python. You'll need about 12-14GB RAM when the model is loaded, plus ~8GB disk space for the base system (models, FAISS index, CVE database). The full exploit database is an optional 208GB add-on.

What makes this different from just wrapping an LLM, the core challenge wasn't the AI—it was making security tools output data that an LLM can actually understand tools like YARA, Volatility, and Nmap output unstructured text with inconsistent formats. I built parsers that convert this into structured JSON, which the LLM can then reason about intelligently. Without that layer, you get hallucinations and garbage analysis.

Current tool integrations: - Red Team: Nmap (with CVE correlation), Metasploit, Sliver C2, exploit database lookup - Blue Team: Volatility 3 (memory forensics), YARA (malware detection), Chainsaw (Windows event log analysis), PCAP analysis, Zeek, Suricata - Cross-tool intelligence: YARA detection → CVE lookup → patching steps; Nmap scan → Metasploit modules ready-to-run commands

The privacy angle exists because I couldn't paste potential malware samples, memory dumps, or customer network scans into ChatGPT without violating every security policy. Everything runs on localhost:11434—no data ever leaves your machine. For blue teamers handling sensitive investigations or red teamers on client networks, this is non-negotiable.

Real-world example from the demo syd scans a directory with YARA, hits on a custom ransomware rule, automatically looks up which CVE was exploited(EternalBlue/MS17-010), explains the matched API calls, and generates an incident response workflow—all in about 15 seconds. That beats manual analysis by a significant margin.

What I'd love feedback on:

1. Tool suggestions: What other security tools would you want orchestrated this way? I'm looking at adding Capa(malware capability detection) and potentially Ghidra integration. 2. For SOC/IR folks: How are you currently balancing AI utility with operational security? Are you just avoiding LLMs entirely, or have you found other solutions? 3. Beta testers: If you're actively doing red/blue team work and want to try this on real investigations, I'm looking for people to test and provide feedback. Especially interested in hearing what breaks or what features are missing.

  The goal isn't to replace your expertise—it's to automate the tedious parts (hex decoding, correlating CVEs,explaining regex patterns) so you can focus on the actual analysis. Think of it as having a junior analyst who never gets tired of looking up obscure Windows API calls.

  Check out sydsec.co.uk for more info, or watch the full demo at the YouTube link in the original post.
codethief•18m ago
Came here because I thought this might be related to https://git.sr.ht/~alip/syd / https://gitlab.exherbo.org/sydbox/sydbox , which has been discussed here on HN various times over the years.

RuBee

https://computer.rip/2025-11-22-RuBee.html
174•Sniffnoy•5h ago•21 comments

Fran Sans – font inspired by San Francisco light rail displays

https://emilysneddon.com/fran-sans-essay
855•ChrisArchitect•14h ago•113 comments

A free tool that stuns LLMs with thousands of invisible Unicode characters

https://gibberifier.com
86•wdpatti•5h ago•36 comments

Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?

158•pugworthy•6h ago•63 comments

Disney Lost Roger Rabbit

https://pluralistic.net/2025/11/18/im-not-bad/
115•leephillips•5d ago•32 comments

Show HN: Syd – An offline-first, AI-augmented workstation for blue teams

https://www.sydsec.co.uk
7•paul2495•1h ago•2 comments

The Rust Performance Book (2020)

https://nnethercote.github.io/perf-book/
92•vinhnx•4d ago•6 comments

Lambda Calculus – Animated Beta Reduction of Lambda Diagrams

https://cruzgodar.com/applets/lambda-calculus
17•perryprog•3h ago•0 comments

µcad: New open source programming language that can generate 2D sketches and 3D

https://microcad.xyz/
179•todsacerdoti•11h ago•46 comments

Native Secure Enclave backed SSH keys on macOS

https://gist.github.com/arianvp/5f59f1783e3eaf1a2d4cd8e952bb4acf
373•arianvanp•14h ago•154 comments

New magnetic component discovered in the Faraday effect after nearly 2 centuries

https://phys.org/news/2025-11-magnetic-component-faraday-effect-centuries.html
128•rbanffy•4d ago•40 comments

We stopped roadmap work for a week and fixed 189 bugs

https://lalitm.com/fixits-are-good-for-the-soul/
161•signa11•5h ago•103 comments

Japan's gamble to turn island of Hokkaido into global chip hub

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c8676qpxgnqo
41•1659447091•5h ago•57 comments

Build desktop applications using Go and Web Technologies

https://github.com/wailsapp/wails
32•selvan•4h ago•12 comments

The Cloudflare outage was a good thing

https://gist.github.com/jbreckmckye/32587f2907e473dd06d68b0362fb0048
124•radeeyate•5h ago•91 comments

Having Fun with Complex Numbers

https://mathwonder.org/Having-Fun-with-Complex-Numbers/
25•smm16r•5d ago•6 comments

Passing the Torch – My Last Root DNSSEC KSK Ceremony as Crypto Officer 4

https://technotes.seastrom.com/2025/11/23/passing-the-torch.html
47•greyface-•6h ago•11 comments

Calculus for Mathematicians, Computer Scientists, and Physicists [pdf]

https://mathcs.holycross.edu/~ahwang/print/calc.pdf
291•o4c•16h ago•66 comments

Show HN: I wrote a minimal memory allocator in C

https://github.com/t9nzin/memory
90•t9nzin•10h ago•23 comments

Ego, empathy, and humility at work

https://matthogg.fyi/a-unified-theory-of-ego-empathy-and-humility-at-work/
48•mrmatthogg•6h ago•9 comments

Band of Holes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Band_of_Holes
27•user070223•5d ago•6 comments

Hyperoptic: IPv6 and Out-of-Order Packets

https://blog.zakkemble.net/hyperoptic-ipv6-and-out-of-order-packets/
25•speckx•5d ago•0 comments

Liva AI (YC S25) Is Hiring

https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/liva-ai/jobs/fYP8QP8-growth-intern
1•ashlleymo•9h ago

A desktop app for isolated, parallel agentic development

https://github.com/coder/mux
77•mercat•10h ago•32 comments

A time-travelling door bug in Half Life 2

https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@TomF/115589875974658415
416•AshleysBrain•2d ago•53 comments

Pixar: The Early Days

https://stevejobsarchive.com/stories/pixar-early-days
4•tosh•4d ago•1 comments

Iowa City made its buses free. Traffic cleared, and so did the air

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/climate/iowa-city-free-buses.html
351•bookofjoe•10h ago•404 comments

Show HN: Gitlogue – A terminal tool that replays your Git commits with animation

https://github.com/unhappychoice/gitlogue
133•unhappychoice•5d ago•15 comments

McMaster Carr – The Smartest Website You Haven't Heard Of

https://www.bedelstein.com/post/mcmaster-carr
24•jcartw•5h ago•10 comments

Terence Tao: At the Erdos problem website, AI assistance now becoming routine

https://mathstodon.xyz/@tao/115591487350860999
244•dwohnitmok•1d ago•44 comments