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Free Linux System Diagnostics

Know your hardware.
Patch your vulnerabilities.

JACKASS is a free, terminal-based hardware intelligence tool for Linux enthusiasts and system administrators. Identify every component, surface CVE vulnerabilities in real time, and verify patch status — all without leaving the shell.

Download JACKASS → See Features
100%
Shell-based
Free
Always
Live
CVE Lookup
Zero
Ads or tracking

What it looks like

jackass — bash
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ JACKASS ║
║ Jack of all trades Advanced Spec Sheet v1.2 ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Use ↑/↓ or j/k to navigate, Enter to view details, Q to quit

▶ CPU
Memory
GPU
Storage
Network
OS Info
PCI Devices
USB Devices
Temperatures & Fans

─── CPU - Detailed View ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Model: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-Core Processor
Vendor: AuthenticAMD
Sockets: 1   Cores/socket: 16   Threads/core: 2   Total: 32
Max (boost): 5759 MHz   Min: 400 MHz
L3 cache: 64 MiB   Microcode: 0xa404102
Flags: avx avx2 aes sha_ni rdrand bmi2 f16c lm

─── Known Issues & CVE Status ───────────────────────────────────────────────
NVD CVE search: 3 result(s) found
CVE-2023-20569 [link 1]
CVE-2022-23825 [link 2]
✓ spectre_v1: Mitigation; usercopy/swapgs barriers
⚠ meltdown: Not affected
✓ retbleed: Not affected

Press a link number to open in browser, A for all, or any other key to return...

What’s inside

Everything you need to
know your system.

🖥️
CPU Intelligence
Full topology — sockets, cores, threads, NUMA nodes. Min/max/current frequencies, L1/L2/L3 cache, microcode revision, and notable flags (AVX2, AVX-512, AES-NI, SHA-NI).
🧠
DIMM-Level RAM Details
Per-slot manufacturer, part number, serial number, DDR type, form factor, rated speed, configured speed, and voltage via dmidecode. Requires sudo.
💾
Storage Identification
Detects HDD, SATA SSD and NVMe/M.2 drives. Shows model, serial, size, transport type, and SMART overall health status per disk.
🌐
Network Interfaces
Per-interface state (UP/DOWN), all assigned addresses, MAC address, MTU, and link speed. IPv4 and IPv6 addresses listed cleanly on separate lines.
🎮
GPU Detection
PCIe-detected GPUs from lspci. NVIDIA GPU temperature and fan speed via nvidia-smi if available.
🔥
Temperatures & Fans
lm-sensors with chip grouping, /sys/class/thermal fallback, hwmon fan RPM, and NVIDIA GPU thermals — all with °C and °F readouts.
🐧
OS Fingerprinting
Distro, version, codename, base family, desktop environment, WSL/VM/container detection, init system, uptime, package count, and shell version.
🔍
Live CVE Lookup
Queries the NIST NVD API in real time for known vulnerabilities matching your detected hardware. Shows CVE IDs with direct links.
🛡️
CPU Vulnerability Status
Reads /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/* — the kernel's own report on Spectre, Meltdown, Retbleed, SRBDS and more. Colour-coded pass/warn/fail.
🔗
Clickable Links (Desktop)
On desktop Linux with a display server, press a number in the detail view to open any CVE link directly in your browser via xdg-open.
🖱️
Interactive TUI
Keyboard-driven menu — arrow keys or j/k to navigate, Enter to drill into any category, Q to quit. Works in any terminal emulator.
🐛
Debug Mode
Run with --debug to log every keypress, data-gather call and screen draw to /tmp/jackass-debug.log for troubleshooting.

Under the hood

How JACKASS
works.

Data gathering
  1. 01
    Reads kernel interfacesPulls CPU topology, frequencies, cache and flags from lscpu and /proc/cpuinfo. No vendor-specific tools required for the basics.
  2. 02
    Queries dmidecodeWhen run as root, reads SMBIOS/DMI tables to extract exact DIMM manufacturer, part number, serial and slot location from the board firmware.
  3. 03
    Scans block devicesUses lsblk with transport flags and /sys/block sysfs entries to identify HDDs, SATA SSDs and NVMe/M.2 devices including model and serial.
  4. 04
    Polls sensorsRuns lm-sensors, falls back to /sys/class/thermal zones and hwmon fan inputs for systems without a full sensor configuration.
Vulnerability checks
  • 🔎
    NVD CVE API — submits the detected CPU or hardware model as a keyword to the NIST National Vulnerability Database REST API. Returns CVE IDs and direct links.
  • 🧬
    Kernel vulnerability files — reads /sys/devices/system/cpu/vulnerabilities/* which the Linux kernel itself populates with current mitigation status per exploit class.
  • 💿
    Microcode revision — reports the loaded microcode revision from /proc/cpuinfo and tips you toward intel-microcode or amd64-microcode if an update may be available.
  • 📊
    SMART health — runs smartctl -H on each detected disk (root required) and surfaces PASSED/FAILED status directly in the Storage issues panel.
Vulnerability status tiers
Not Affected
Kernel confirms this CPU or system is not vulnerable to this exploit class. No action needed.
Mitigation Active
A kernel or microcode mitigation is in place. Performance impact may apply but the vulnerability is addressed.
Vulnerable
No mitigation detected. Update your kernel, microcode package, or BIOS firmware to resolve.

What you need

Dependencies &
requirements.

Required
  • bash 4.0+
  • lscpu (util-linux)
  • lspci (pciutils)
  • lsblk (util-linux)
  • ip (iproute2)
Optional — Enhanced output
  • dmidecode — DIMM hardware details (needs sudo)
  • lm-sensors + sensors — CPU/board temperatures
  • smartmontools (smartctl) — disk SMART health (needs sudo)
  • nvidia-smi — NVIDIA GPU temperature & fan
  • lsusb — USB device listing
  • curl or wget — online CVE lookups
  • xdg-open — clickable CVE links on desktop
Install optional deps (Debian/Ubuntu)
  • sudo apt install lm-sensors smartmontools pciutils usbutils dmidecode
  • Then run: sudo sensors-detect to configure lm-sensors for your board.
Install optional deps (Fedora/RHEL)
  • sudo dnf install lm_sensors smartmontools pciutils usbutils dmidecode
  • Then run: sudo sensors-detect

Download JACKASS

A single shell script installer. Run it once as root and jackass is available system-wide. Requires Linux with bash 4.0+.

Stable Releases Recommended for production systems
JACKASS v1.2 Stable Build 20260323
Released  March 2026  ·  Single installer script  ·  Requires sudo to install
Full hardware diagnostics suite. CPU topology, cache & microcode, DIMM-level RAM details, NVMe/M.2/HDD/SSD identification, network interface detail, OS fingerprinting, temperatures, fans, live NVD CVE lookup, kernel vulnerability status, SMART health, and clickable CVE links on desktop Linux.

Installation:
  1. Download the installer script below.
  2. Make it executable: chmod +x jack-advanced-spec-sheet-1.2-installer.sh
  3. Run as root: sudo ./jack-advanced-spec-sheet-1.2-installer.sh
  4. Launch from anywhere: jackass   or   sudo jackass for full DIMM & SMART data
Download GitHub →
JACKASS installs to /usr/local/bin/jackass and places a man page at /usr/share/man/man1/jackass.1.gz. Run man jackass after installation to read the full manual. CVE lookups require internet access and curl or wget. DIMM details and SMART health require running as root (sudo jackass).