Install Plugins Manually

You can manually update Nessus plugins in two ways: the user interface or the command-line interface.

Before you begin:

To install plugins manually using the Tenable Nessus user interface:

Note: You cannot use this procedure to update Tenable Vulnerability Management or Tenable.sc-managed scanners.

  1. In Tenable Nessus, in the top navigation bar, click Settings.

    The About page appears.

  2. Click the Software Update tab.

  3. In the upper-right corner, click the Manual Software Update button.

    The Manual Software Update dialog box appears.

  4. In the Manual Software Update dialog box, select Upload your own plugin archive, and then click Continue.

  5. Navigate to the compressed TAR file you downloaded, select it, then click Open.

    Tenable Nessus updates with the uploaded plugins.

To install plugins manually using the command-line interface:

  1. On the system running Tenable Nessus, open a command prompt.
  2. Use the nessuscli update <tar.gz file name> command specific to your operating system.

    Platform

    Command

    Linux

    # /opt/nessus/sbin/nessuscli update <tar.gz filename>

    FreeBSD

    # /usr/local/nessus/sbin/nessuscli update <tar.gz filename>

    macOS

    # /Library/Nessus/run/sbin/nessuscli update <tar.gz filename>

    Windows

    C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus>nessuscli.exe update <tar.gz filename>

    Tenable Nessus updates with the uploaded plugins.

Note: If you receive a signature check failure error, check the integrity of your plugins archive, download the plugins again, and retry the process. If the error persists, re-register Nessus or contact Tenable Support.