ICSFuzz vs ICSREF: 2026 Comparison
ICSFuzz is a free industrial control system security tool. ICSREF is a free industrial control system security tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best industrial control system security fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
ICS engineers and red teamers validating PLC firmware will find value in ICSFuzz for its direct approach to fuzzing control logic without requiring external hardware or complex lab setup. The tool is free and openly available on GitHub, lowering the barrier for teams already spending budget on commercial ICS scanners to add native fuzzing capability. The low star count signals limited adoption and community validation; this is best suited for practitioners comfortable troubleshooting edge cases and integrating a single-purpose tool into existing workflows, not teams expecting vendor support or turnkey vulnerability management.
OT security teams responsible for CODESYS-based manufacturing environments should pick ICSREF if reverse engineering is your bottleneck; the tool automates what takes analysts weeks manually, and the 179 GitHub stars indicate active use in real deployments. The modular framework design means you're not paying licensing costs to test it against your own binaries first. This isn't useful if your sites run Siemens TIA Portal or Allen-Bradley systems; ICSREF's value is CODESYS-specific, so confirm your install base before allocating analyst time to learn it.
