Zeek observes network traffic passively and writes structured logs that describe what happened: connections, DNS queries, HTTP requests, TLS certificates, files and much more. Instead of only signature alerts, it gives analysts a detailed record of network activity for detection, hunting and forensics.
Its event-driven scripting language lets teams write custom detections and protocol analysis, and a package manager distributes community extensions. Zeek is often deployed next to a signature IDS such as Suricata.