Scan and Policy Settings

Scan settings enable you to refine parameters in scans to meet your specific network security needs. The scan settings you can configure vary depending on the Tenable-provided template on which a scan or policy is based.

You can configure these settings in individual scans or in policy from which you create individual scans.

Tenable Nessus organizes scan settings into the following categories:

Settings in Policies

When configuring settings for policies, note the following:

  • If you configure a setting in a policy, that setting applies to any scans you create based on that policy.
  • You base a policy on a Tenable-provided template. Most of the settings are identical to the settings you can configure in an individual scan that uses the same Tenable-provided template.

    However, certain Basic settings are unique to creating a policy, and do not appear when configuring an individual scan. For more information, see Basic Settings for Policies.

  • You can configure certain settings in a policy, but cannot modify those settings in an individual scan based on a policy. These settings include Discovery, Assessment, Report, Advanced, Compliance, SCAP, and Plugins. If you want to modify these settings for individual scans, create individual scans based on a Tenable-provided template instead.

  • If you configure Credentials in a policy, other users can override these settings by adding scan-specific or managed credentials to scans based on the policy.