Open Source Risk Management Tools
Search for open source risk management and you will not find generic enterprise risk registers so much as security and compliance tools, each built around a specific framework or methodology. That is the first thing to accept here: the option that fits depends less on features than on which standard your risk work already speaks, a DoD accreditation process, an ISO risk methodology, or a broad governance-risk-compliance program. Because these run on your own infrastructure, the scoring rules, control mappings, and evidence stay inside your environment, which matters when a register openly lists your unresolved weaknesses. You can also read exactly how a risk score is derived instead of inheriting a vendor's fixed matrix.
CISO Assistant
Open source GRC platform for risk, compliance, audit, privacy, and reporting
Probo
Self-hostable GRC platform for engineers with web, CLI, MCP, and GraphQL access
OpenRMF
Web-based tool for DoD STIG checklists, SCAP and Nessus scans, and NIST RMF reporting
ISRA Security Risk Assessment Tool
Electron desktop app for ISO 27005 security risk assessments of engineering projects
Our picks
Pick by the framework you report against and how you want to operate the register.
Best broad GRC platform: CISO Assistant CISO Assistant links risk, compliance, audit, third-party risk, and privacy in one place. It ships 150+ frameworks, including ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, NIS2, and DORA, with automatic control mapping, and lets you add your own from Excel or YAML. The community edition is AGPLv3 and self-hosts with Docker.
Best for engineering teams: Probo Probo is a GRC platform built for engineers, covering risk identification, control tracking, vendor risk, access reviews, and document approvals. Every entity is reachable through a web console, the prb CLI, an MCP API, and GraphQL. It adds inherent-and-residual scoring, RBAC, immutable audit logs, and sign-off with evidence chains. ISC-licensed.
Best for DoD RMF and STIG: OpenRMF OpenRMF manages DoD STIG checklists, SCAP scans, and Nessus patch scans in one interface and generates NIST 800-53 compliance listings across a system. It exports CKL files, color-coded Excel, and RMF documents including the SSP, SAR, and RAR. Built on .NET Core and MongoDB, it runs from a single Docker Compose file, with air-gapped and Kubernetes options.
Best for ISO 27005 assessments: ISRA Security Risk Assessment Tool ISRA is an Electron desktop app for ISO 27005 security assessments of engineering projects, used internally at Thales. It models business and supporting assets, threat agents, and vulnerabilities, builds attack paths with AND and OR logic, and records a mitigate, retain, avoid, or share decision. It runs offline on Windows, macOS, and Linux, with an adaptable JSON schema.
Matching the tool to the framework you already follow
Narrowing this list goes fastest by the standard you must report against, because each tool is opinionated about one. OpenRMF is purpose-built for the DoD Risk Management Framework, ingesting STIG checklists, SCAP, and Nessus scans and generating NIST 800-53 listings and RMF documents like the SSP and SAR. ISRA follows ISO 27005 end to end: scope, business and supporting assets, vulnerability scoring, attack paths, and a mitigate-retain-avoid-share treatment decision. CISO Assistant and Probo are broader GRC platforms that link risk to controls, audits, vendors, and privacy across many frameworks at once.
Then look at how the register operates day to day, since a risk tool earns its keep by showing who accepted a risk, what changed, and what evidence supports it. Probo builds a risk register with inherent and residual scoring, immutable audit logs, and document sign-off with evidence chains, and reaches every entity through a web console, CLI, MCP, and GraphQL, which is useful if you want compliance to run from code or scripts. CISO Assistant leans on smart linking between objects and ships 150+ frameworks with automatic control mapping, so one control can support many requirements.
Finally weigh deployment and scoring flexibility against your team's reality. A hard-coded matrix is fine for one operational team but painful once security, legal, and executives describe the same exposure differently, so check whether scales are configurable. Self-hosting keeps sensitive findings in-house but makes patching, backups, and identity integration your job. Test the exit path with real data too: CISO Assistant imports and exports through its UI, CLI, and Kafka, which is the kind of portability that keeps a register from becoming a trap.
Related categories
Frequently asked questions
Are these enterprise risk registers or security risk tools?+
Mostly security and compliance risk. This category is dominated by GRC and security tools, not general business risk registers. OpenRMF handles DoD accreditation, ISRA runs ISO 27005 security assessments, and CISO Assistant and Probo are GRC platforms covering risk, controls, audits, and vendors. If you need enterprise risk management with business-unit taxonomies and risk-appetite reporting, check that a given tool models it rather than assuming the word risk implies it.
Which tool matches which framework?+
Match the tool to your standard. OpenRMF is built for the DoD RMF, ingesting STIG, SCAP, and Nessus data and producing NIST 800-53 and RMF reports. ISRA follows ISO 27005 and ISO 25010 for engineering-project risk. CISO Assistant ships 150+ frameworks including ISO 27001, NIST CSF, SOC 2, and DORA with automatic control mapping. Probo covers SOC 2, GDPR, HIPAA, and ISO 27001. Pick the one whose native framework you must report against.
What is the difference between a risk register and a GRC platform?+
A register records risks: description, owner, likelihood, impact, treatment, and review date. A GRC platform surrounds that register with controls, audits, vendor risk, privacy, and evidence, linking them so a failed control updates related risks. ISRA is close to a focused assessment tool, while CISO Assistant and Probo are full GRC systems. Do not assume a tool covers both a lightweight register and cross-domain governance just because it uses risk terminology.
Can I change the risk scoring model to match how we decide?+
Check this before adopting, because it decides whether the tool survives contact with your committees. Some register the risk with a fixed likelihood-impact matrix; others let you define scales. Probo supports inherent and residual scoring and a Statement of Applicability. CISO Assistant uses an open format for custom objects and frameworks you can load from Excel or YAML. Also test what happens to historical scores when you change the model, so trend reporting stays honest.
How do these track evidence and who accepted a risk?+
This is where a tool beats a spreadsheet. A useful register preserves who changed a score, why a treatment was accepted, what evidence was attached, and when the next review is due. Probo ships immutable audit logs and electronic document sign-off with evidence chains, so decisions are defensible later. CISO Assistant tracks remediation and links evidence to controls. Prioritize this history over any dashboard, since audits ask how a decision was made, not just its status.
Can I run risk work from code or scripts instead of a UI?+
Yes, if that is how your team works. Probo exposes every entity through a web console, the prb CLI, a Model Context Protocol API, and a GraphQL API, with 270+ MCP tools and policy-based RBAC, so compliance tasks can run from scripts or an LLM agent. CISO Assistant is API-first and moves data through its UI, CLI, and Kafka. For teams that treat governance as code, that programmatic surface matters more than the UI.
Is self-hosting a good idea for risk data?+
It often makes sense here, because a register openly lists unresolved weaknesses, legal exposure, and supplier problems you may not want on someone else's platform. All four tools self-host: OpenRMF and CISO Assistant on Docker, Probo on Docker with Go and PostgreSQL, and ISRA as a local desktop app that works offline. The tradeoff is that patching, backups, and identity integration become your responsibility, so budget for running it properly.