Quick answer
LSE (linux-smart-enumeration) and LinPEAS are both maintained and both good. The key difference is philosophy: LSE reveals findings gradually through verbosity levels (0/1/2), so you can start minimal, while LinPEAS is thorough by default and you tune it down. Pick LSE for a quiet, staged approach; LinPEAS for breadth and container/cloud coverage.
At a glance#
| LinPEAS | LSE | |
|---|---|---|
| Maintenance | Active | Active |
| Default output | Thorough, colour-coded | Minimal (level 0), expand with -l1/-l2 |
| Verbosity model | Tune down with -o/-s | Tune up with levels 0 → 1 → 2 |
| Container awareness | Yes (Docker/LXC/containerd, breakout) | Some (container section) |
| Cloud checks | Yes | No |
| Process monitoring | Yes (with -a) | Yes (built-in, configurable watch time) |
| Portability | POSIX /bin/sh | Mostly POSIX (from v2.0) |
| Output volume | High by default | Low by default, scales with level |
| Learning curve | Moderate | Low to moderate |
When to use each#
- Use LSE when you want to start quiet and only dig deeper if the first pass is unproductive — its level model is excellent for that.
- Use LinPEAS when you want maximum breadth in one run, or you are on a container/cloud host.
- Both are shell scripts with no dependencies, so carrying both costs little.
Running LSE#
./lse.sh # level 0 (highly important only)
./lse.sh -l1 # interesting findings
./lse.sh -l2 | less -r # everythingSources & references
- PEASS-ng (LinPEAS) — reviewed 20260908-dffb9496
- LinEnum repository — maintenance status checked 2026-09-13
- linux-smart-enumeration repository
- pspy repository