Downgrade Tenable Nessus Software

Tenable Nessus 8.10.0 and later supports the ability to downgrade Tenable Nessus to a previous version of Tenable Nessus. You cannot downgrade to a version before 8.10.0.

You can downgrade Tenable Nessus software manually, or, for you can configure the Nessus Update Plan to automatically downgrade to an older release.

Before you begin:

To downgrade Tenable Nessus manually on Linux or macOS:

Note: To manually downgrade Tenable Nessus on Windows, contact Tenable support.
  1. Turn off automatic software updates by doing either of the following:

    • Change your Tenable Nessus software update plan as described in Update Tenable Nessus Software, set Automatic Updates to Disabled.
    • Modify the advanced setting Automatically Update Nessus (auto_update_ui), as described in Advanced Settings.
  2. Use one of the following procedures depending on your operating system:

To configure Tenable Nessus to downgrade automatically (Tenable Nessus Professional, Tenable Nessus Expert, and Tenable Vulnerability Management-managed Tenable Nessus scanners only):

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

    The About page appears.

  2. Click the Software Update tab.
  3. Set the Nessus Update Plan to determine what version Tenable Nessus automatically updates to. To automatically downgrade, select Delay updates, staying on an older release.

    Note: If you change your update plan and have automatic updates enabled, Tenable Nessus may immediately update to align with the version represented by your selected plan. Tenable Nessus may either upgrade or downgrade versions.

    Option Description

    Update to the latest GA release

    (Default)

    Automatically updates to the latest Tenable Nessus version when it is made generally available (GA).

    Note: This date is the same day the version is made generally available.

    Opt in to Early Access releases Automatically updates to the latest Tenable Nessus version as soon as it is released for Early Access (EA), typically a few weeks before general availability.
    Delay updates, staying on an older release Does not automatically update to the latest Tenable Nessus version. Remains on an earlier version of Tenable Nessus set by Tenable, usually one release older than the current generally available version, but no earlier than 8.10.0. When Tenable Nessus releases a new version, your Tenable Nessus instance updates software versions, but stays on a version prior to the latest release.
  4. Click the Save button.

    Tenable Nessus saves the update plan.