Installation guide

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Table 30 – Ping the Remote Host Settings
Option
Description
TCP ping destination
port(s)
Specifies the list of ports that will be checked via TCP ping. If you are not sure of the
ports, leave this setting to the default of “built-in”.
Do an ARP ping
Utilize the ARP protocol for pings.
Do a TCP ping
Utilize the TCP protocol for pings.
Do an ICMP ping
Utilize the ICMP protocol for pings.
Number of Retries (ICMP)
Allows you to specify the number of attempts to try to ping the remote host. The default
is set to 2.
Do an applicative UDP ping
(DNS, RPC…)
Perform a UDP ping against specific UDP-based applications including DNS (port 53),
RPC (port 111), NTP (port 123), and RIP (port 520).
Make the dead hosts
appear in the report
If this option is selected, hosts that did not reply to the ping request will be included in
the security report as dead hosts.
Log live hosts in the report
Select this option to specifically report on the ability to successfully ping a remote host.
Test the local Nessus host
This option allows you to include or exclude the local Nessus host from the scan. This
is used when the Nessus host falls within the target network range for the scan.
Fast network discovery
By default, when Nessus “pings” a remote IP and receives a reply, it performs extra
checks to make sure that it is not a transparent proxy or a load balancer that would
return noise but no result (some devices answer to every port 1-65535 but there is no
service behind). Such checks can take some time, especially if the remote host is
firewalled. If the “fast network discovery” option is enabled, Nessus will not perform
these checks.
Port scanner settings (plugin 33812) provide two options for further controlling port scanning activity:
Table 31 – Port Scanner Settings
Option
Description
Check open TCP ports
found by local port
enumerators
If a local port enumerator (e.g., WMI or netstat) finds a port, Nessus will also verify it
is open remotely. This helps determine if some form of access control is being used
(e.g., TCP wrappers, firewall).
Only run network port
scanners if local port
enumeration failed
Rely on local port enumeration.
SMB Registry: Start the Registry Service during the scan (plugin 35703) enables the service to facilitate some of the
scanning requirements for machines that may not have the “Remote Registry” service running all the time. The
administrative shares may be enabled during the scan if they are not enabled at the beginning of the scan.
Under the SMB Scope (plugin 10917) menu, if the option “Request information about the domain” is set, then domain
users will be queried instead of local users.