Scan a network

Nessus provides a set of ready-to-use templates. For general scans, the (1) Advanced Scan and (2) Basic Network Scan would work. The differences are the Advanced Scan supports the Compliance and Plugins which can be used to fine-tune the compliance checks (credentials are required) and plugins.

Advanced Scans

1. Navigates to Scans → New Scan → Advanced Scan , insert the Name, Description, and Targets. The Schedule and Notifications options enable the scan to be performed at certain time and email the results to a list of recipients automatically.

   

2. Tune the rest of the settings:

   

3. Once all is set, save. The scan job will be listed in My Scans folder.

Basic Network Scans

1. Navigates to Scans → New Scan → Basic Network Scan , insert the Name, Description and Targets, then save.

   

Launch A Scan

1. From the My Scans folder, select a task from the list to launch the scan.

   

2. Once the scan complete, the status bar will changed to checked.

   

Results

1. The scan results are grouped by host, and vulnerabilities (color-coded by severity).

2. To prepare both summary and technical reports to circulate among teams, use the Export → PDF (or HTML, CSV, Nessus, Nessus DB)

3. Clicking the vulnerabilities bar will drill-down to the next-level of 192.168.1.1 vulnerabilities:

   

4. The next level of drill-down will display the list of vulnerabilities exposed by Nessus on target 192.168.1.1, and clicking the specific vulnerability will drill-down to the attack vectors info:

   

5. The description of the vulnerability, the recommended solution, and the payload used during the scan are documented:

   i. Description of the vulnerability and the attack vector.

   ii. The recommended solution.

   iii. The attack code/payload during the scan.

   iv. Network port used for this attack.

   v. A summarize of the risk factor information.

   vi. Vulnerability information on known exploit availability and publication date.

   vii. Reference information from the CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) network.

   

Exports

Executive Report

1. To generate an executive report, choose Executive Summary :

   

Technical Report

1. To generate a technical report, choose Custom , select Vulnerabilities to include the data, and group by Host .

   

References:

1. https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus-vulnerability-scanner