About PVS Plugins

PVS has two sources of plugin information: the .prmx and .prm plugin libraries in the plugins directory.

Tenable distributes its passive vulnerability plugin database in an encrypted format. The encrypted file is named tenable_plugins.prmx and, if necessary, can be updated daily. PVS plugins written by the customer or third parties have the .prm extension.

Tenable has also implemented passive fingerprinting technology based on the open-source SinFP tool. With permission from the author, Tenable includes the database of passive operating system fingerprints for the fingerprinting technology in this distribution of PVS.

Writing Custom Plugins

PVS customers can write their own passive plugins, which are added into the plugins directory in the PVS installation directory. The plugin must end with a .prm extension to be visible by PVS.

You must restart PVS if:

You add a new custom plugin to the plugins directory. PVS does not fire the plugin until you restart.
You delete a .prm file manually from the plugins directory. PVS continues to fire the plugin until you restart.

Copyright © 2017. Tenable Network Security, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable Network Security, Nessus, SecurityCenter Continuous View, Passive Vulnerability Scanner, and Log Correlation Engine are registered trademarks of Tenable Network Security, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective owners.