Generally what sets apart scanners is the amount of vulnerability checks they have (and their associated quality, and frequency of updates) and the ability to run the scanner in such a fashion where you as the administrator get accurate scan results in a convenient consistent way. An example of a simple check can be submitting a HTTP GET request and reading the response to pull out the headers and noting the version of PHP then matching that version with a database of version numbers to produce output showing the known vulnerabilities for that given software number. For instance, a vulnerability check for MS15-034 will consist of a vetted way of stimulating a target system (sending network traffic) to induce a response which is then parsed (inspected) and determined to either match a known vulnerable response or not. Nessus is a proprietary vulnerability scanner developed by Tenable Network Security - Tenable just had (July 27th 2018) their IPO and is now a publicly traded company (for whatever that's worth which happens to be about $30 at the time of writing).Īll vulnerability scanners that I am familiar with work essentially the same way which is by relying on a series of vulnerability checks or 'plugins' or otherwise a database with known strings, characteristics, files, versions, etc to search for and a library of detailed information about the vulnerability check including remediation options and impacted software. Today's post will be on the Nessus product offering. While much of the information shared will be applicable to anyone in charge of running the scanning tools, the tone will be from an enterprise perspective.

The target audience for this is enterprise users with the need for a mature threat and vulnerability remediation program. Ultimately, the goal is to compare and contrast the products and provide some insight into why you might want to choose one over the other. The aim is to highlight the pros and cons of each, talk about how typical setup works, expectations of scan results and using the tools. This is part one of a three part series aimed at discussing vulnerability scanners I plan to write a post for Nessus, Nexpose/Rapid7 and OpenVAS.

How to use nessus drown detection