mbtget vs ICSREF: 2026 Comparison
mbtget 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:
OT security teams running legacy Modbus networks need mbtget for quick command-line protocol validation without spinning up a full client tool; the 125 GitHub stars and active maintenance signal real operational use in brownfield environments. Its simplicity means you're diagnosing Modbus transactions in seconds, not minutes spent configuring GUI clients or waiting for vendor support. Skip this if your team lacks command-line fluency or needs to monitor continuous traffic; mbtget is a one-off diagnostic instrument, not a persistent network monitor.
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.
