Specifications

 Hosts and Vulnerabilities can be selected via checkbox and deleted/modified in bulker a history tab.

 New policy scan editor that uses templates and organizes the settings into categories.

 Users can now define if Nessus automatically updates and which components are updated.

 Revamped multi-scanner settings allow for a scanner to serve as both a primary and secondary.

 Improved Settings view for Nessus and Nessus Enterprise

 Enhanced launch control for scans, including new options for specifying targets when launching scans

 With Cisco ISE support, users can quarantine and unquarantine hosts based on vulnerability findings

Operating System Support

Nessus is available and supported for a variety of operating systems and platforms:

 Debian 6 and 7 / Kali Linux (x86-64)

 Fedora 19 and 20 (x86-64)

 FreeBSD 10 (x86-64)

 Mac OS X 10.8 and 10.9 (x86-64)

 Red Hat ES 5 / CentOS 5 / Oracle Linux 5 (x86-64)

 Red Hat ES 6 / CentOS 6 / Oracle Linux 6 (x86-64) [Server, Desktop, Workstation]

 Red Hat ES 7 / CentOS 7 / Oracle Linux 7 (x86-64) [Server, Desktop, Workstation]

 SuSE 10 and 11 (x86-64)

 Ubuntu 10.04 (9.10 package), 11.10, 12.04, 12.10, 13.04, 13.10, and 14.04 (x86-64)

 Windows Server 2008, Server 2008 R2*, Server 2012, Server 2012 R2, 7, and 8 (x86-64)

Note that on Windows Server 2008 R2, the bundled version of Microsoft IE does not interface with a Java

installation properly. This causes Nessus not to perform as expected in some situations. Further, Microsoft’s

policy recommends not using MSIE on server operating systems.

Nessus utilizes several third-party software packages distributed under varying licenses. Running nessusd

(or nessusd.exe on Windows) with the -l argument will display a list of those third-party software licenses.

Background

Nessus is a powerful and easy to use network security scanner with an extensive plugin database that is updated on a

daily basis. It is currently rated among the top products of its type throughout the security industry and is endorsed by

professional information security organizations such as the SANS Institute. Nessus allows you to remotely audit a given

network and determine if it has been compromised or misused in some way. Nessus also provides the ability to locally

audit a specific machine for vulnerabilities, compliance specifications, content policy violations, and more.

 Intelligent Scanning – Unlike many other security scanners, Nessus does not take anything for granted. That is,

it will not assume that a given service is running on a fixed port. This means if you run your web server on port

1234, Nessus will detect it and test its security appropriately. It will attempt to validate a vulnerability through

exploitation when possible. In cases where a Nessus scan is not reliable or may negatively impact the target,

Nessus may rely on a server banner to determine the presence of the vulnerability. In such cases, it will be clear

in the report output if this method was used.

 Modular Architecture – The client/server architecture provides the flexibility to deploy the scanner (server) and

connect to the GUI (client) from any machine with a web browser, reducing management costs (one server can

be accessed by multiple clients).