Nessus Software

How to download and install Nessus the vulnerability scanner and how to scan the network using IP Address

1. •Nessuswas founded by RenuadDeraisonin the year 1998 to provide to the Internet
community a free remote security scanner.
•It is vulnerability scanner which allow you to detect vulnerability in your system.
•It is very popular vulnerability scanner which support Windows , Linux and Mac operating
system etc.
•Nessususes web interface to install , scan and report the various vulnerabilities.
•It identifies vulnerabilities that allow remote attacker to access sensitive information rom
the system.

2. Hardware Requirement
Nessusmanaging up to 50,000 hosts
•CPU: 1 dual-core 2 GHz
•CPU Memory: 2 GB RAM (4 GBRAMrecommended)
•Disk space: 30 GB
Nessusmanaging more than 50,000 hosts
•CPU: 1 dual-core 2GHz CPU(2 dual-core recommended)
•Memory: 2 GBRAM(8 GBRAMrecommended)
•Disk space: 30 GB(Additional space may be needed for reporting)

3. Download and Installation
•You can download it from https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus/nessus-
professional
•Once you download it then register
https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus/activation-code
•Then install the tool.
•Open the Nessusin the browser http://localhost:8834/WelcomeToNessus-
Install/welcome
•Create an account and then fill the activation code
•Then downloads the necessary plugins.
•After completion of installation you redirect to the login page and put your credential
their.

4. Policies
•Policies are nothing but the vulnerability test. There are 4 default policie.
1.External network scan
2.Internal network scan
3.Web App Tests
4.Prepare for PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards)
•Create a new policy by clicking on New policy button:

5. Choose the type of scan that you want to perfomon your network.

6. Now I am selecting the basic network scan on my IP address for this you can give
whatever name you want and then give the little description and it is optional

7. Now go to the credential and then if you are using Linux or Mac OS choose Host otherwise
Windows for windows XP users and also fill the username and password by choosing
password in the authentication method

8. There are so many plug-in available in Nessus,clickon save button to save your policy.

9. After saving the policy it automatically redirect to the page where you can see the newly
created policy by their name
Now you have successfully created the policy.

10. Now click on New Scan button and start the scanning process you can also create an folder
if you want and then perform the scan in that particular folder
Now choose the basic network scan to check all the vulnerability in our particular ip
address

11. Here give the name to your scan and add little bit description and add the folder.
In targets field you can give the one or more IP Addresses for scanning. And then click on
launch button to start scan.

12. You can see the status as running ,it will take some time because it is scanning all the
vulnerability in our network IP Address

13. Now you now see the pie chart and the go to the vulnerabilities section

14. It will show you all the available vulnerabilities present in my network and double click on
any vulnerability to see the description about it.