When comparing Hardened Gentoo vs BlackArch, the Slant community recommends Hardened Gentoo for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux distributions for misanthropes?” Hardened Gentoo is ranked 36th while BlackArch is ranked 37th. The most important reason people chose Hardened Gentoo is:
Your only real options for a widely supported hardened distro are the Red Had distros (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora) of which Fedora is your best bet for a desktop , or Gentoo. You can make a hardened kernel in Gentoo while stripping unnecessary features, creating a much smaller attack surface, and using in-kernel mitigations others don’t.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Supports custom hardened kernels
Your only real options for a widely supported hardened distro are the Red Had distros (Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora) of which Fedora is your best bet for a desktop , or Gentoo. You can make a hardened kernel in Gentoo while stripping unnecessary features, creating a much smaller attack surface, and using in-kernel mitigations others don’t.
Pro Comprehensive hardened guide in wiki
From SELinux to PaX to AppArmor to.... The wiki has got you covered.
Pro Fully customized kernel that prevents server-side malwares with SSO mechanisms
Out of CentOS /RedHat/Fedora a hardened kernel is very easy to make.
Pro Best defense against NOP-sled malwares, even with ROP/COP mechanisms
Out of CentOS/RedHat/Fedora/OpenSUSE/Slackware/FreeBSD/Mandriva and Arch, only Gentoo can best protect you against NOP-sled malwares, even with ROP/COP mechanisms.
Pro Large repository
As of Feb. 26th, 2020 there are 2460 tools in the repository.
Pro Better than ArchStrike
Contains many more tools than ArchStrike and far easier installation than ArchStrike
Pro Live session
You can run the OS from a LiveUSB.
Pro Arch-based
BlackArch is just normal Arch with tons of tools preinstalled
Pro Suitable for professionals
Cons
Con Not beginner-friendly
Not great for newbies.
