Cacti

Cacti at a glance

Cacti is a long-established open-source network monitoring and graphing tool built on RRDtool, common for bandwidth and device graphing. Cacti ships regular releases plus coordinated security fixes; as a web application with network visibility and device credentials, hardening and prompt patching matter.

For admins Cacti has had serious, actively exploited security vulnerabilities (including remote code execution), so apply security releases promptly and never expose it to the internet — keep it strictly on the management network behind authentication. Updates run database changes — back up the database and the RRD files first, and keep the underlying PHP and database supported. Plugins extend Cacti and carry their own risk — keep them minimal and current. After updating, verify that polling and graphs still work. Because its past CVEs have been weaponized, treat Cacti's advisories with particular seriousness. Track the version and its support status; patchletter surfaces new Cacti releases.