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brew / rank 7615

Install zlint with Homebrew, apt, MacPorts, Nix

X.509 Certificate Linter focused on Web PKI standards and requirements. Version 3.7.1 via Homebrew; verified 2026-07-25. Also installable with debian: sudo apt install zlint.

Install commandSecurity notes

install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%
brew install zlint

local Homebrew formula metadata

MacPortsverified · 94%
sudo port install zlint

MacPorts ports tree · security/zlint/Portfile · source: api.github.com

Linux

Debian aptverified · 92%
sudo apt install zlint

Debian stable package indexes · zlint · source: deb.debian.org

Nixverified · 92%
nix profile install nixpkgs#zlint

nixpkgs package indexes · pkgs/by-name/zl/zlint/package.nix · source: api.github.com

overview

Package summary

X.509 Certificate Linter focused on Web PKI standards and requirements

Commands and aliases

  • zlint

history

Project history and usage

ZLint is a Go-based X.509 certificate linter from the ZMap/Web PKI research ecosystem. It encodes checks from RFC 5280, CA/Browser Forum Baseline Requirements, and related PKI rules so certificates can be linted before or after issuance.

Project history

The public GitHub repository was created in 2016 under the ZMap organization, and the 2018 paper Tracking Certificate Misissuance in the Wild introduced ZLint as part of a systematic study of certificate authority mistakes. The paper describes manually dissecting RFC 5280 and CA/B Forum Baseline Requirements into standalone lints, with hundreds of checks that could be run over certificate corpora.

ZLint grew out of the same measurement culture as ZMap and Censys: turn public Internet and Web PKI data into testable artifacts. Its README presents it both as a command-line tool and as a library that can be integrated into CA software, which is why the package matters beyond one-off certificate inspection.

Adoption history

The original research ran ZLint over browser-trusted certificates in Censys, making it part of a Web PKI measurement pipeline rather than only a local developer utility. The tool helped quantify how certificate construction errors changed over time and how errors correlated with CA operational practices.

The CA/Browser Forum lists ZLint among linting software resources, alongside tools such as pkilint and pkimetal. That placement is significant because CA/B Forum rules are the policy surface ZLint was built to encode, and the listing reflects its role in the public certificate-issuance tooling ecosystem.

How it is used

Practical use is usually pre-issuance or post-issuance certificate checking: feed a certificate to the zlint CLI, or call the Go library from CA, CT-monitoring, or compliance tooling. Results are useful for catching malformed extensions, missing required fields, invalid names, and other policy or standards violations that are easier to automate than to audit by hand.

For package users, ZLint is a specialist security tool: it is not a TLS scanner like testssl.sh and not a certificate parser like OpenSSL. Its niche is standards and policy linting for certificate objects themselves.

Why package nerds care

ZLint is a good example of research software becoming operational infrastructure. It packages Web PKI policy as runnable checks, so a formula install gives operators and researchers the same kind of linting logic used in large-scale certificate studies.

It also shows the ZMap project's broader pattern: small focused command-line tools that turn Internet measurement and PKI knowledge into reusable Unix-style components.

Timeline

  • 2016-11-30: The zmap/zlint GitHub repository is created.
  • 2018: Tracking Certificate Misissuance in the Wild introduces and releases ZLint as a Go-based certificate linting framework.
  • 2018: The paper reports running ZLint over browser-trusted certificates in Censys.
  • 2020s: The CA/Browser Forum resources page lists ZLint as X.509 certificate linting software.

Related projects

  • ZMap and Censys are related through the broader Internet measurement and Web PKI research lineage.
  • pkilint and pkimetal occupy adjacent PKI linting and meta-linting roles listed by the CA/Browser Forum.
  • certlint is an earlier certificate linting tool referenced in Web PKI linting literature.

security posture

No protected-tool coverage found yet

No matching local secret-handling manifest was found for zlint. Nucleus package metadata is still published here so future coverage has a stable package URL.

Install behavior

  • No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

executables

Installed executables

CommandKindExposureNote
zlintexecutableindexed executableDiscovered from the local executable index.

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-08-03
manager version3.7.1
manager updated2026-07-25
local dataunknown
upstreamnot available
latest detectednot detected
  • okNo freshness warnings were generated.

install metadata

Package metadata

Package keybrew:zlint
Version3.7.1
Package managerHomebrew
Homepagehttps://zmap.io/
Repositoryhttps://github.com/zmap/zlint
Last updated2026-07-25T21:50:59+02:00
Pulseupdated
Bottlenot recorded
Servicenone declared

source database matches

Other package-manager records

Matches are pulled from external package-manager indexes and kept separate from local Automic Vault package links.

Debian apt95%

zlint 3.6.2-4

X.509 Certificate Linter focused on Web PKI standards (program)

https://github.com/zmap/zlint

sudo apt install zlint
  • Section: golang
  • Architecture: amd64
  • Source Package: golang-github-zmap-zlint
  • 1 dependencies
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Zlint
Debian stable package indexes · deb.debian.org · Debian stable package indexes: zlint from https://deb.debian.org/debian/dists/stable/main/binary-amd64/Packages.xz
Nix95%

zlint

nix profile install nixpkgs#zlint
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Zlint
nixpkgs package indexes · api.github.com · nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/zl/zlint/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
MacPorts95%

zlint

sudo port install zlint
  • normalized package name match
  • Matched by: Zlint
MacPorts ports tree · api.github.com · MacPorts ports tree: security/zlint/Portfile from https://api.github.com/repos/macports/macports-ports/git/trees/master?recursive=1

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Used sources

  • Geiger risk classifier
  • cross-ecosystem install command graph
  • curated package history
  • external package-manager database matches
  • pkg.so package database
  • pkgdb category and tag curation