Scan Policy Templates

The most configurable scan type. You can configure this scan template to match any policy. This template has the same default settings as the basic scan template, but it allows for additional configuration options.

The most configurable scan type. You can configure this scan template to match any policy. This template has the same default settings as the basic scan template, but it allows for additional configuration options.

Note: Tenable automatically updates this template with any newly-released plugin families in which plugins rely on network traffic for detection.

Basic Network Scan

Performs a full system scan that is suitable for any host. Use this template to scan an asset or assets with all of Nessus's plugins enabled. For example, you can perform an internal vulnerability scan on your organization's systems.

Credentialed Patch Audit

Authenticates hosts and enumerates missing updates.

Use this template with credentials to give Tenable Security Center direct access to the host, scan the target hosts, and enumerate missing patch updates.

Web Application Tests

Scan for published and unknown web vulnerabilities.

Internal PCI Network Scan

Performs an internal PCI DSS (11.2.1) vulnerability scan.

This template creates scans that you can use to satisfy internal (PCI DSS 11.2.1) scanning requirements for ongoing vulnerability management programs that satisfy PCI compliance requirements. You can use these scans for ongoing vulnerability management and to perform rescans until passing or clean results are achieved. You can provide credentials to enumerate missing patches and client-side vulnerabilities.

PCI Quarterly External Scan

Performs quarterly external scans as required by PCI.

You can use this template to simulate an external scan (PCI DSS 11.2.2) to meet PCI DSS quarterly scanning requirements. However, you cannot submit the scan results from this template to Tenable for PCI Validation. Only Tenable Vulnerability Management customers can submit their PCI scan results to Tenable for PCI ASV validation.

Policy Compliance Auditing

Audits system configurations against a known baseline.

Note: The maximum number of audit files you can include in a single Policy Compliance Auditing scan is limited by the total runtime and memory that the audit files require. Exceeding this limit may lead to incomplete or failed scan results. To limit the possible impact, Tenable recommends that audit selection in your scan policies be targeted and specific for the scan's scope and compliance requirements.

The compliance checks can audit against custom security policies, such as password complexity, system settings, or registry values on Windows operating systems. For Windows systems, the compliance audits can test for a large percentage of anything that can be described in a Windows policy file. For Unix systems, the compliance audits test for running processes, user security policy, and content of files.

SCAP and OVAL Auditing

Audits systems using SCAP and OVAL definitions.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) is a set of policies for managing vulnerabilities and policy compliance in government agencies. It relies on multiple open standards and policies, including OVAL, CVE, CVSS, CPE, and FDCC policies.

• SCAP compliance auditing requires sending an executable to the remote host.
• Systems running security software (for example, McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention), may block or quarantine the executable required for auditing. For those systems, you must make an exception for either the host or the executable sent.
• When using the SCAP and OVAL Auditing template, you can perform Linux and Windows SCAP CHECKS to test compliance standards as specified in NIST’s Special Publication 800-126.

Scans for misconfigurations in Active Directory.

Use this template to check Active Directory for Kerberoasting, Weak Kerberos encryption, Kerberos pre-authentication validation, non-expiring account passwords, unconstrained delegation, null sessions, Kerberos KRBTGT, dangerous trust relationships, Primary Group ID integrity, and blank passwords.

Scans for artificial intelligence (AI), large language model (LLM), and machine learning (ML) related detections and vulnerabilities.

Host Discovery

Performs a simple scan to discover live hosts and open ports.

Launch this scan to see what hosts are on your network and associated information such as IP address, FQDN, operating systems, and open ports, if available. After you have a list of hosts, you can choose what hosts you want to target in a specific vulnerability scan.

Tenable recommends that organizations who do not have a passive network monitor, such as Nessus Network Monitor, run this scan weekly to discover new assets on your network.

Malware Scan

Scans for malware on Windows and Unix systems.

Tenable Security Center detects malware using a combined allow list and block list approach to monitor known good processes, alert on known bad processes, and identify coverage gaps between the two by flagging unknown processes for further inspection.

A high-level scan similar to the Config Audit scan policy template that analyzes HTTP security headers and other externally facing configurations on a web application to determine if the application is compliant with common security industry standards. Does not include scheduling.

If you create a scan using the Quick Scan scan policy template, Tenable Security Center analyzes your web application only for plugins related to security industry standards compliance.

A comprehensive scan that assesses web applications for a wide range of vulnerabilities.

The Scan scan policy template provides plugin family options for all active web application plugins.

If you create a scan using the Scan scan policy template, Tenable Security Center analyzes your web application for all plugins that the scanner checks for when you create a scan using the Web App Config Audit, Web App Overview, or SSL_TLS scan policy templates, as well as additional plugins to detect specific vulnerabilities.

A scan run with this scan template provides a more detailed assessment of a web application and take longer to complete that other web app scans.

A scan to determine if a web application uses SSL/TLS public-key encryption and, if so, how the encryption is configured.

When you create a scan using the SSL_TLS scan policy template, Tenable Security Center analyzes your web application only for plugins related to SSL/TLS implementation. The scanner does not crawl URLs or assess individual pages for vulnerabilities.

A high-level scan that analyzes HTTP security headers and other externally facing configurations on a web application to determine if the application is compliant with common security industry standards.

If you create a scan using this scan policy template, Tenable Security Center analyzes your web application only for plugins related to security industry standards compliance.

A high-level preliminary scan that determines which URLs in a web application Tenable Security Center scans by default.

This scan template does not analyze the web application for active vulnerabilities. Therefore, this scan policy template does not offer as many plugin family options as the Scan template.