Nessus vulnerability scans

To configure Quick scans and Deep scans using the Nessus scanner:

  1. Go to the Administration > Integration > Vulnerability Scanning  page.

  2. Select the Quick Scan or Deep Scan tab, as applicable.

  3. Fill in the Connection Information fields with the IP address or the resolvable DNS host name and port number of the machine on which the scanner server process is running.

  4. Click Apply.

  5. Use the Authentication, Plugins and Options buttons to open pages for specifying the remaining information. (See the topics below for explanations of each of these.)

Authentication

To configure the scanner server authentication method:

  1. Go to the Administration > Integration > Vulnerability Scanning page.

  2. Click Authentication. This opens the authentication page.

  3. Enter your Nessus user name.

  4. Select Use password authentication or Use certificate authentication.

  5. Enter the password or the SSL certificate information.

  6. Click OK.

The Use certificate authentication controls on the Authentication page enable you to upload the following certificate files from your management machine to the NetProfiler :

  • Certificate file – The certificate file for the user that was created on the scanner server. This usually takes the form of cert_<username>.pem

  • Key file – The private key for the user that was created on the scanner server. This usually takes the form of key_<username>.pem

  • Certificate authority file – The certification of the authority who issues the keys. For Nessus, this is cacert.pem

These files must be in a location accessible to your management machine.  

Note:  When a Nessus administrator adds a Nessus user account, the account can be authenticated by password or by certificates. If you are authenticating by certificates, you must not use the private key password protection feature. The NetProfiler has been tested with and is known to be compatible with version 2.2.7 of the Nessus server. For information about configuring Nessus, see http://www.nessus.org/documentation.

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Plugins

To select scanner plugins:

  1. Click Plugins on the Administration > Integration > Vulnerability Scanning  page. This opens the Plugin Selection page.

    Note: If plugins have not been loaded before, the window will be empty. Click Refresh from Server to load the list of plugins.

  2. Choose View by family or View by category, as you prefer, to display the list of available families or categories of plugins.

  3. Select the desired family or category in the left column to display its members in the right column.

  4. Enable the plugins that you want the scan to use. You can enable an entire group by selecting the Enabled column heading. Click the plugin ID for a description of the plugin.

  5. Click OK at the bottom of the page to enable all the plugins that you have selected.

You can select plugins from more than one Family or Category and then apply them all at the same time by clicking OK.

Other controls on the Plugin Selection page include:

  • Search – Helps you quickly locate a plugin when you know only fragmentary information about it.

  • Restore – Clears all the changes you have made since the last time OK was clicked.

  • Refresh from Server – Reloads the page with the latest list of plugins, which is obtained from the host specified in the Connection information field for the type of scan you are specifying.  If you change the host specified in the Connection information field, use this button to update the plugins list.

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Options

To select scanner options:

  1. Click the Options button on the Administration > Integration > Vulnerability Scanning  page. This opens the Option Selection page, which lists the options that are available with the scanner.  

    Note: If options have not been loaded before, the window will be empty. Click Refresh from Server to load the list of options.

  2. Choose the category of options you want to set. The options in the category you choose are displayed on the right side of the page.

  3. Edit the default values for the options if necessary. Note that the NetProfiler cannot check the validity of values you enter for the scanner's options.

  4. Click OK at the bottom of the page to accept the settings and return to the Vulnerability scan page.

Note: only one category of options can be specified at a time. Click OK before selecting another category of options to configure.

Other controls on the Option Selection page include:

  • Restore – Clears all the changes you have made since the last time OK was clicked.

  • Refresh from Server – Reloads the page with the latest list of options, which is obtained from the host specified in the Connection information field. If you change the host specified in the Connection information field, use this button to update the options list.

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Automatic vulnerability scanning

Manually initiating a vulnerability scan

Types of vulnerability scans

Vulnerability scans