Create a Limited Plugin Policy

In addition to using the Tenable Nessus preset scan templates, you can create a limited plugin policy to scan with a custom selection of plugins.

Note: If your organization has any limited plugin policies or plans to create them, Tenable highly recommends keeping the Auto Enable Plugin Dependencies advanced setting enabled. This setting automatically enables any supporting plugins that your selected plugins may need to collect scan data. For more information, see Scanning (Advanced Settings).

To create a limited plugin policy:

  1. In the top navigation bar, click Scans.

    The My Scans page appears.

  2. In the left navigation bar, click Policies.

  3. In the upper right corner, click the New Policy button.

    The Policy Templates page appears.

  4. Click the Advanced Scan template.

    The Advanced Scan page appears.

  5. Click the Plugins tab.

    The list of plugin families appears, and by default, Tenable Nessus enables all the plugin families.

  6. In the upper right corner, click the Disable All button.

    Tenable Nessus disables all the plugin families.

    Tip: To enable or disable all plugins quickly, click the Enable All and Disable All buttons in the upper right corner. If you only need to enable one or a few individual plugins, Tenable recommends disabling all plugins. Then, you can select individual plugins as described in step 8.

  7. Click the plugin family that you want to include.

    The list of plugins appears in the left navigation bar.

  8. For each plugin that you want to enable, click the Disabled button.

    Tenable Nessus enables each plugin.

    Tip: You can search for plugins and plugin families using the Filter option in the upper right corner. This can help you search for individual plugins in large plugin families more quickly. For example, if you need to find an individual plugin, set the filter to Match All of the following: Plugin ID is equal to <plugin ID>. For more information, see Search and Filter Results.

  9. Click the Save button.

    Tenable Nessus saves the policy.