Architecture

From discovery to continuous monitoring — seven steps.

AuditToolkit runs on a producer-consumer architecture. Specialised tools collect data from every layer of your infrastructure and deliver it to a central platform that correlates, remediates, and reports — without any of that data leaving your environment.

1
Discovery

Your infrastructure is inventoried.

Cloud platforms, on-premises servers, network devices, and endpoints are discovered automatically across 40+ vendor connectors — SSH, WinRM, SNMP, NETCONF, and REST API. No manual asset lists to maintain.

2
Data Collection — Producers

Satellite tools collect from every layer.

Six repos work together here: the Audit Admin Toolkit core platform plus five purpose-built producers — Linux Security Lite, CMDB Data Collection, Switch Exposure Centre, Asset Command Centre, and the Audit Assurance Node — each covering a distinct infrastructure layer and delivering normalised findings under a shared data contract.

3
Execution Layer — Audit Assurance Node

Audit scripts run across your estate in parallel.

The Audit Assurance Node executes PowerShell and shell audit scripts across any SSH- or WinRM-accessible host. Every result is wrapped in an HMAC-signed, SHA-256 verified evidence bundle before it leaves the host — integrity guaranteed from point of collection.

4
Processing

Findings are normalised, correlated, and mapped.

All producer data arrives at the central Audit Admin Toolkit platform, is normalised to a common schema, correlated across sources into unified host records, and automatically mapped to CIS Benchmarks, PCI-DSS, SOC 2, NIST SP 800-53, and ISO 27001 controls — in a single pass.

5
Reporting

Live posture. Differential analysis. Trend data.

Dashboards show current compliance posture across every audited host. Differential reports compare any two assessment runs. 30/60/90-day trend analysis tracks improvement across the estate — and surfaces regressions before they become audit findings.

6
Evidence Generation

Auditor-ready packages. On demand. In minutes.

Tamper-evident evidence packages are assembled and signed on demand — SHA-256 checksums on every artifact, provenance metadata on every finding, a MANIFEST.json auditors can verify independently. What used to take weeks to assemble takes minutes.

7
Continuous Monitoring

Posture is tracked over time, not measured once.

Every collection run is compared against the prior baseline. Regressions surface automatically. Findings flow to your SIEM, tickets open in your ITSM, and alerts land in Slack or Teams — so the rest of the organisation stays in the loop without changing how they work.

Platform Architecture

Complete platform architecture

The Control Plane orchestrates five specialised tools that operate independently across your infrastructure. Each tool collects from a distinct layer — discovery, audit, network, asset inventory — and feeds findings into the central platform for correlation, remediation, and evidence generation.

flowchart TB subgraph ControlPlane["Control Plane"] CC["Web Console"] API["API Layer"] end subgraph Tools["Audit Tools"] T1["Audit-Tool"] T2["Switch Exposure Centre"] T3["CMDB Data Collector"] T4["Linux Security Lite"] T5["Audit Assurance Node"] end subgraph Execution["Execution Methods"] AG["Fleet Agent"] SSH["SSH"] WINRM["WinRM"] SNMP["SNMP"] end subgraph Targets["Target Systems"] LINUX["Linux Hosts"] WINDOWS["Windows Hosts"] NETWORK["Network Devices"] end CC --> API API --> T1 API --> T2 API --> T3 API --> T4 API --> T5 T1 --> AG T2 --> AG T3 --> AG T1 --> SSH T1 --> WINRM T2 --> SNMP AG --> LINUX AG --> WINDOWS SSH --> LINUX WINRM --> WINDOWS SNMP --> NETWORK

Architecture Model

Producers feed a central platform.

Each satellite producer operates independently and can be deployed where it has the best access to its target infrastructure. The central platform sees everything — regardless of which producers are active or how many are running.

Satellite Producers

Linux Security Lite · Audit Assurance Node · CMDB Data Collection · Switch Exposure Centre · Asset Command Centre

Audit Admin Toolkit

Ingest · Normalise · Correlate · Remediate · Report · Package evidence

Data contract: every producer delivers findings under a versioned JSON schema (producer-output.schema.json). The central platform and every producer negotiate a schema version on delivery — preventing silent data corruption across upgrades.

Deployment

Four deployment modes. All self-hosted.

Every deployment path keeps data in your environment. No cloud dependency. No telemetry by default.

Mode How it deploys Best for
Linux server (native) Application installed directly on Ubuntu, Debian, or RHEL — PostgreSQL + Redis + Nginx Production deployments with full control over the host stack
VM appliance Ready-to-import OVF, OVA (VMware), or VHDX (Hyper-V) — boot and configure Rapid enterprise deployment to existing virtualisation infrastructure
Docker Compose Container stack for test and staging environments Evaluation, development, and pre-production validation
Agent-based (air-gap) HTTPS push agents on endpoints — agent initiates outbound connection, no inbound firewall rules required. Offline MSI available. Restricted networks, air-gapped environments, endpoints without SSH or WinRM

Platform Security

Held to the same standard it audits.

AuditToolkit holds credentials, configuration data, and compliance findings. The platform is built to the same security standard it applies to the systems it audits.

Authentication & access

  • bcrypt password hashing throughout — no MD5, no SHA-1
  • TOTP MFA with backup recovery codes on all user accounts
  • Role-based access control on every UI screen and API endpoint
  • No hardcoded credentials — bootstrap tokens for first login, environment variables for secrets

Transport & data

  • TLS enforced on all external communication via reverse proxy
  • OWASP-compliant input validation at every API boundary
  • SSRF protection on all webhook and outbound integration configurations
  • defusedxml for safe XML parsing — no XXE exposure

Audit trail

  • Append-only, tamper-evident audit trail within the platform
  • Every remediation logged with operator identity, timestamp, and before/after configuration state
  • Evidence packages include provenance metadata traceable to source system and collection run

See the architecture in your environment.

The Community tier covers one host at no cost. Or contact us to design the right deployment path for your estate.