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HIDS and HIPS

Host-based intrusion detection and prevention systems (HIDS/HIPS) are software solutions installed directly on individual machines to monitor and respond to threats that network-level systems cannot see. Understanding the distinction between detection and prevention, and between host-based and network-based implementations, is essential for building a complete defense strategy.

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About this video

Intrusion detection and prevention systems are foundational security controls, but their effectiveness depends heavily on where they are deployed. A network-based intrusion detection system (NIDS) sits at the network perimeter, inspecting incoming traffic and generating alerts when anomalies are identified. It is relatively unobtrusive and carries minimal performance impact, but it cannot stop an attack on its own—response requires manual intervention. A network-based intrusion prevention system (NIPS) builds on that capability by automatically blocking suspicious traffic before it reaches its target, though this active role introduces the risk of false positives that could disrupt legitimate connections and adds processing overhead to network traffic flows. These systems are frequently integrated directly into firewall appliances, making them a common component of perimeter defense. The limitation shared by both network-based approaches is their blind spot: traffic moving between machines inside the network. Once a threat is already inside the perimeter—whether through a compromised endpoint, a phishing attack, or lateral movement—network-level controls may not detect it. Host-based intrusion detection and prevention systems (HIDS/HIPS) address this gap by operating as software installed on individual endpoints. Rather than monitoring the network boundary, they analyze activity and traffic at the host level, detecting or blocking threats that target a specific machine. Together, network-based and host-based systems form complementary layers of a defense-in-depth security architecture.

What you'll learn

What's covered

HIDS/HIPS Overview

Key terms

Intrusion Detection System
IDS
A system that monitors network or system activities for malicious behavior and generates alerts.
Intrusion Prevention System
IPS
A system that monitors network traffic and actively blocks detected threats in real time.
Host-based Intrusion Detection System
HIDS
A security system that monitors and analyzes activity on a single host for signs of malicious behavior.
Host-based Intrusion Prevention System
HIPS
Host-based Intrusion Prevention System monitors endpoint activity and actively blocks malicious behavior such as unauthorized code execution, process injection, and suspicious file modifications.
Network-based Intrusion Detection System
NIDS
An IDS deployed at the network level that monitors traffic across the entire network for signs of malicious activity.
Network-based Intrusion Prevention System
NIPS
An IPS deployed at the network level that monitors and actively blocks malicious traffic across the entire network.

Topics

Hids Hips Intrusion Detection Intrusion Prevention Network Security Endpoint Security

Transcript

Something that's not quite as prevalent out there that we should still consider is some sort of HIDS or HIPS system. This is a host-based intrusion prevention or detection system.

IDS versus IPS

Remember, an intrusion detection system, or IDS, will detect if there's an intrusion. So we have maybe some sort of piece of hardware that's sitting here and looking at the traffic coming into the network and detecting if there's anything suspicious with it. If there is, then it will alert of what traffic it's seeing.

An intrusion prevention system takes this to the next step. Rather than just alerting you of the issue, it'll actually take steps to prevent it from happening. So if somebody's trying to get into the network, then it will stop that.

Of course, there are advantages and disadvantages to this, because if we have an intrusion prevention system, it could accidentally stop legitimate traffic. There's also a performance hit with it, because it's looking at all of the traffic. But it can stop the attack from happening, versus an intrusion detection system, which is less intrusive but can't stop the attack - you have to take action against it.

Network-based versus host-based

In talking about intrusion detection systems or prevention systems, usually what we're talking about is a network-based intrusion detection system or a network-based intrusion prevention system. So essentially we've got this at the network level as traffic is coming in, or a lot of times it actually shows up on the firewall. So our IDS/IPS system is built into the firewall, but it's doing it from a network-wide perspective.

What it doesn't guard against is machine to machine. So if the attack is happening within this network, we need to detect what's happening on the machine. That's where a host-based intrusion detection system or a host-based intrusion prevention system comes into play. This is software that's installed on the system itself, analyzing that traffic and detecting if there's an intrusion onto the host. So that is host-based.

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