Tenable Nessus Scanners
For high level information about active and agent scanning, see Active Scans and Agent Scans.
In the Tenable.sc framework, the Tenable Nessus scanner behaves as a server, while Tenable.sc serves as a client that schedules and initiates scans, retrieves results, reports results, and performs a wide variety of other important functions.
You can add Tenable Nessus or Tenable Vulnerability Management deployments to Tenable.sc as Tenable Nessus scanners in Tenable.sc:
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Managed or unmanaged Tenable Nessus scanners
Note: Tenable.sc cannot perform scans with or update plugins for scanners running unsupported versions of Tenable Nessus. For minimum Tenable Nessus scanner version requirements, see the Tenable.sc Release Notes for your version.
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Tenable Nessus Manager instances
Note: If you enabled clustering on Tenable Nessus Manager, add the parent node of the cluster to Tenable.sc. For more information, see Clustering in the Tenable Nessus User Guide.
- Tenable Vulnerability Management instances
For more information, see:
- Add a Tenable Nessus Scanner
- Add a Tenable Vulnerability Management Scanner
- Manage Nessus Scanners
- View Your Nessus Scanners
- View Details for a Nessus Scanner
- Delete a Nessus Scanner
- View Tenable Nessus Instances in Tenable.sc
For information about Tenable.sc-Tenable Nessus and Tenable.sc-Tenable Vulnerability Management communications encryption, see Encryption Strength.
Tenable Nessus Scanner Settings
Option |
Description |
---|---|
Name |
A descriptive name for the scanner. |
Description |
A scanner description, location, or purpose. |
Host |
The hostname or IP address of the scanner. |
Port |
The TCP port that the scanner listens on for communications from Tenable.sc. The default is port 8834. |
Enabled |
A scanner may be Enabled or Disabled within Tenable.sc to allow or prevent access to the scanner. |
Verify Hostname |
Adds a check to verify that the hostname or IP address entered in the Host option matches the CommonName (CN) presented in the SSL certificate from the Nessus server. Note: Confirm that the correct CA certificate is configured for use by Tenable.sc. If you are using a custom CA, configure Tenable.sc to trust your custom CA, as described in Trust a Custom CA. You do not need to perform this step when using the default certificates for Tenable Nessus servers. |
Use Proxy |
Instructs Tenable.sc to use its configured proxy for communication with the scanner. |
Authentication Type |
Select Password For complete information about Tenable Nessus SSL certificate authentication, see Manual Tenable Nessus SSL Certificate Exchange. |
Username |
Username generated during the install for daemon to client communications. This must be an administrator user in order to send plugin updates to the scanner. If the scanner is updated by a different method, such as through another Tenable.sc, a standard user account may be used to perform scans. This option is only available if the Authentication Type is set to Password. |
Password |
The login password must be entered in this option. This option is only available if the Authentication Type is set to Password. |
Certificate |
If you set Authentication Type to SSL Certificate, specifies the nessuscert.pem file you want to use for authentication to the scanner. For complete information about Tenable Nessus SSL certificate authentication, see Manual Tenable Nessus SSL Certificate Exchange. |
Certificate Passphrase | If you selected SSL Certificate as the Authentication Type and the private key that decrypts your SSL certificate is encrypted with a passphrase, the passphrase for the private key. |
Zones |
The scan zones that can use this scanner. For more information, see Scan Zones. |
Agent Capable |
Specifies whether you want this scanner to provide Tenable Nessus Agent scan results to Tenable.sc. Agent capable scanners must be |
Organizations |
When the Agent Capable option is enabled |
API Keys |
When the Agent Capable option is enabled, specifies whether you want to use secure API keys when importing agent scan data from Tenable Nessus For more information about retrieving your access key and secret key from Tenable Nessus |
Access Key |
When the API Keys option is enabled, specifies the access key for the Tenable Nessus When you select API Keys as the Authentication Type, specifies the access key for the Tenable Nessus Agent. |
Secret Key |
When the API Keys option is enabled, specifies the secret key for the Tenable Nessus When you select API Keys as the Authentication Type, specifies the secret key for the Tenable Nessus Agent. |