Run Tenable Nessus as Non-Privileged User

Tenable Nessus can run as a non-privileged user.

Limitations

• When scanning localhost, Nessus plugins assume that they are running as root. Therefore, certain types of scans may fail. For example, because Nessus is now running as a non-privileged user, file content Compliance Audits may fail or return erroneous results since the plugins are not able to access all directories.
• nessuscli does not have a --no-root mode. Running commands with nessuscli as root could potentially create files in the Nessus install directory owned by root, which can prohibit Nessus from accessing them successfully. Use care when running nessuscli, and potentially fix permissions with chown after using it.