Nessus 8.10.x User Guide Last Updated: September 24, 2021 Table of Contents Welcome to Nessus 8.10.x 13 Get Started with Nessus 16 Navigate Nessus 18 System Requirements 19 Hardware Requirements 20 Software Requirements 24 Customize SELinux Enforcing Mode Policies 28 Licensing Requirements 29 Deployment Considerations 30 Host-Based Firewalls 31 IPv6 Support 32 Virtual Machines 33 Antivirus Software 34 Security Warnings 35 Certificates and Certificate Authorities 36 Custom SSL Server Certificates 38 Create a New Server Certificate and CA Certificate 40 Upload a Custom Server Certificate and CA Certificate 42 Trust a Custom CA 44 Create SSL Client Certificates for Login 46 Nessus Manager Certificates and Nessus Agent 49 Install Nessus 51 Copyright © 2021 Tenable, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable, Tenable.io, Tenable Network Security, Nessus, SecurityCenter, SecurityCenter Continuous View and Log Correlation Engine are registered trade- marks of Tenable,Inc. Tenable.sc, Tenable.ot, Lumin, Indegy, Assure, and The Cyber Exposure Company are trademarks of Tenable, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective Download Nessus 52 Install Nessus 54 Install Nessus on Linux 55 Install Nessus on Windows 57 Install Nessus on Mac OS X 59 Install Nessus Agents 61 Retrieve the Linking Key 62 Install a Nessus Agent on Linux 63 Install a Nessus Agent on Windows 67 Install a Nessus Agent on Mac OS X 73 Link an Agent to Nessus Manager 77 Upgrade Nessus and Nessus Agents 80 Upgrade Nessus 81 Upgrade from Evaluation 82 Update Nessus Software 83 Upgrade Nessus on Linux 86 Upgrade Nessus on Windows 87 Upgrade Nessus on Mac OS X 88 Upgrade a Nessus Agent 89 Downgrade Nessus Software 95 Configure Nessus 97 Install Nessus Essentials, Professional, or Manager 98 Link to Tenable.io 100 Link to Industrial Security 102 Copyright © 2021 Tenable, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable, Tenable.io, Tenable Network Security, Nessus, SecurityCenter, SecurityCenter Continuous View and Log Correlation Engine are registered trade- marks of Tenable,Inc. Tenable.sc, Tenable.ot, Lumin, Indegy, Assure, and The Cyber Exposure Company are trademarks of Tenable, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective Link to Nessus Manager 105 Managed by Tenable.sc 107 Manage Activation Code 109 View Activation Code 110 Reset Activation Code 111 Update Activation Code 112 Transfer Activation Code 114 Manage Nessus Offline 116 Install Nessus Offline 118 Generate Challenge Code 121 Generate Your License 122 Download and Copy License File (nessus.license) 123 Register Your License with Nessus 124 Download and Copy Plugins 125 Install Plugins Manually 126 Update Nessus Software Manually on an Offline system 128 Offline Update Page Details 130 Back Up Nessus 131 Restore Nessus 132 Remove Nessus and Nessus Agents 134 Remove Nessus 135 Uninstall Nessus on Linux 136 Uninstall Nessus on Windows 138 Uninstall Nessus on Mac OS X 139 Copyright © 2021 Tenable, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable, Tenable.io, Tenable Network Security, Nessus, SecurityCenter, SecurityCenter Continuous View and Log Correlation Engine are registered trade- marks of Tenable,Inc. Tenable.sc, Tenable.ot, Lumin, Indegy, Assure, and The Cyber Exposure Company are trademarks of Tenable, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective Remove Nessus Agent 140 Uninstall a Nessus Agent on Linux 141 Uninstall a Nessus Agent on Windows 143 Uninstall a Nessus Agent on Mac OS X 145 Scans 146 Scan and Policy Templates 147 Agent Templates 150 Scan and Policy Settings 152 Basic Settings for Scans 154 Scan Targets 160 Basic Settings for Policies 163 Discovery Scan Settings 165 Preconfigured Discovery Scan Settings 175 Assessment Scan Settings 194 Preconfigured Assessment Scan Settings 211 Report Scan Settings 220 Advanced Scan Settings 222 Preconfigured Advanced Scan Settings 227 Credentials 234 Cloud Services 236 Database Credentials 240 Database Credentials Authentication Types 246 Host 260 SNMPv3 261 Copyright © 2021 Tenable, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable, Tenable.io, Tenable Network Security, Nessus, SecurityCenter, SecurityCenter Continuous View and Log Correlation Engine are registered trade- marks of Tenable,Inc. Tenable.sc, Tenable.ot, Lumin, Indegy, Assure, and The Cyber Exposure Company are trademarks of Tenable, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective SSH 263 Windows 278 Miscellaneous 292 Mobile 297 Patch Management 300 Plaintext Authentication 309 Compliance 314 SCAP Settings 317 Plugins 319 Configure Dynamic Plugins 320 Special Use Templates 322 Unofficial PCI ASV Validation Scan 325 Create and Manage Scans 327 Example: Host Discovery 328 Create a Scan 330 Import a Scan 331 Create an Agent Scan 332 Modify Scan Settings 333 Configure an Audit Trail 334 Launch a Scan 335 Stop a Running Scan 336 Delete a Scan 337 Scan Results 338 Create a New Scan from Scan Results 339 Copyright © 2021 Tenable, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable, Tenable.io, Tenable Network Security, Nessus, SecurityCenter, SecurityCenter Continuous View and Log Correlation Engine are registered trade- marks of Tenable,Inc. Tenable.sc, Tenable.ot, Lumin, Indegy, Assure, and The Cyber Exposure Company are trademarks of Tenable, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective Search and Filter Results 341 Compare Scan Results 348 Dashboard 349 Vulnerabilities 351 View Vulnerabilities 352 Modify a Vulnerability 353 Group Vulnerabilities 354 Snooze a Vulnerability 356 Live Results 358 Enable or Disable Live Results 360 Remove Live Results 361 Scan Exports and Reports 362 Create a Scan Report 363 Export a Scan 366 Customized Reports 367 Customize Report Title and Logo 368 Scan Folders 369 Manage Scan Folders 371 Policies 373 Create a Policy 375 Import a Policy 376 Modify Policy Settings 377 Delete a Policy 378 About Nessus Plugins 379 Copyright © 2021 Tenable, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable, Tenable.io, Tenable Network Security, Nessus, SecurityCenter, SecurityCenter Continuous View and Log Correlation Engine are registered trade- marks of Tenable,Inc. Tenable.sc, Tenable.ot, Lumin, Indegy, Assure, and The Cyber Exposure Company are trademarks of Tenable, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective Create a Limited Plugin Policy 381 Install Plugins Manually 385 Plugin Rules 387 Create a Plugin Rule 388 Modify a Plugin Rule 389 Delete a Plugin Rule 390 Scanners 391 Link Nessus Scanner 392 Unlink Nessus Scanner 393 Enable or Disable a Scanner 394 Remove a Scanner 395 Download Managed Scanner Logs 396 Agents 398 Modify Agent Settings 400 System-wide Agent Settings 401 Filter Agents 403 Export Agents 405 Download Linked Agent Logs 406 Unlink an Agent 408 Agent Groups 410 Create a New Agent Group 411 Configure User Permissions for an Agent Group 412 Modify an Agent Group 414 Delete an Agent Group 416 Copyright © 2021 Tenable, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable, Tenable.io, Tenable Network Security, Nessus, SecurityCenter, SecurityCenter Continuous View and Log Correlation Engine are registered trade- marks of Tenable,Inc. Tenable.sc, Tenable.ot, Lumin, Indegy, Assure, and The Cyber Exposure Company are trademarks of Tenable, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective Freeze Windows 417 Create a Blackout Window 418 Modify a Blackout Window 419 Delete a Blackout Window 420 Clustering 421 Clustering System Requirements 423 Enable Clustering 425 Get Linking Key from Parent Node 426 Link a Node 427 Migrate Agents to a Cluster 429 View or Edit a Node 431 Rebalance Nodes 432 Enable or Disable a Node 433 Delete a Node 434 Settings 435 About 436 Set an Encryption Password 438 Advanced Settings 439 Create a New Setting 472 Modify a Setting 473 Delete a Setting 474 LDAP Server 475 Configure an LDAP Server 476 Proxy Server 477 Copyright © 2021 Tenable, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable, Tenable.io, Tenable Network Security, Nessus, SecurityCenter, SecurityCenter Continuous View and Log Correlation Engine are registered trade- marks of Tenable,Inc. Tenable.sc, Tenable.ot, Lumin, Indegy, Assure, and The Cyber Exposure Company are trademarks of Tenable, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective Configure a Proxy Server 478 Remote Link 479 SMTP Server 482 Configure an SMTP Server 483 Custom CA 484 Upgrade Assistant 485 Password Management 486 Configure Password Management 488 Scanner Health 489 Monitor Scanner Health 492 Notifications 493 Acknowledge Notifications 494 View Notifications 495 Accounts 496 My Account 497 Modify Your User Account 498 Generate an API Key 499 Users 500 Create a User Account 501 Modify a User Account 502 Delete a User Account 503 Transfer User Data 504 Download Logs 505 Additional Resources 506 Copyright © 2021 Tenable, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable, Tenable.io, Tenable Network Security, Nessus, SecurityCenter, SecurityCenter Continuous View and Log Correlation Engine are registered trade- marks of Tenable,Inc. Tenable.sc, Tenable.ot, Lumin, Indegy, Assure, and The Cyber Exposure Company are trademarks of Tenable, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective Agent Software Footprint 507 Agent Host System Utilization 508 Amazon Web Services 509 Command Line Operations 510 Start or Stop Nessus 511 Start or Stop a Nessus Agent 513 Nessus-Service 515 Nessuscli 518 Nessuscli Agent 526 Update Nessus Software 533 Default Data Directories 534 File and Process Whitelist 535 Manage Logs 537 Mass Deployment Support 545 Nessus