API Usage

The Tenable Security Center API is a RESTful interface to Tenable Security Center functions that provides data in JSON format. Developers often use the REST APIs to integrate Tenable Security Center with other standalone or web applications. Administrators often use the REST APIs to script interactions with the Tenable Security Center server.

For more information, see:

• The Tenable Security Center API guide
• The Tenable Security Center API best practices guide
• The Python SDK guide for common functions

Consider the following best practices when using the API with large deployments of Tenable Security Center:

• From a processing perspective, tasks initiated via the user interface or the API take the same amount of time to complete.
• Tenable Security Center uses the same RBAC system for user API access and user interface access.
• Tenable does not recommend multi-threading API calls to speed up access.
• Tenable generally recommends pulling data from the /analysis endpoint instead of parsing individual results from the /scanResult endpoint.
• Consider the frequency that data is likely to change when setting the frequency for an API call to submit or request data from Tenable Security Center. For example, you do not need to pull data every hour if you are only performing weekly scans.

Note: Tenable may not maintain backward compatibility when extending a protocol or implementation. Consequently, some APIs may change in either structure or function. The API comes with no guarantee of future compatibility.

Tenable Support does not assist with custom implementations using the API. For assistance with custom designs or implementations, contact Tenable Professional Services.