Nessus on Ubuntu

Getting Nessus running on Ubuntu is pretty easy but there is one anomaly - to get it registered in order to take advantage of the plug-ins.

Let me run through the entire process to get Nessus operational. You can install the client with the GUI installer (Add/Remove) and then add the daemon with:

sudo apt-get install nessusd

Then, create a nessus user (later used in the Nessus client):

sudo nessus-adduser

The daemon is started with:

sudo /etc/init.d/nessusd start

You can at this point fire-up the Nessus client and login to the localhost using the username and password you just created. After registering at the Nessus site will you get an email with information on how to activate the copy. The information on how to activate on a Linux machine doesn't work on Ubuntu and you basically need to exchange /opt/nessus/ to /usr/ in the command, so the CLI entry reads:

sudo /usr/bin/nessus-fetch --register XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX

You find detail info on this issue at an entry at Gouki’s blog.

You're now ready to go but be careful - this is a powerful tool and may break things. You should have permission before pointing it at systems.

Nessus also offers a commercial feed for $1,200 with additional features.