Update - jump to latest install OpenVas version 9 on Ubuntu 16.04 released 2017.

A nice change in the latest version of OpenVAS is the simplification of the structure. There are now four components that make up the solution.

All the components rely on having the OpenVAS libraries installed correctly. So that is the first item that will be installed after we use apt-get install to prepare the system for installation. The procedure below builds OpenVAS 7 from source.

OpenVAS Source Installation Steps

First we need to download and extract the required source files for OpenVAS.

mkdir openvas-src
cd openvas-src/
wget http://wald.intevation.org/frs/download.php/1638/openvas-libraries-7.0.1.tar.gz
wget http://wald.intevation.org/frs/download.php/1640/openvas-scanner-4.0.1.tar.gz
wget http://wald.intevation.org/frs/download.php/1637/openvas-manager-5.0.0.tar.gz
wget http://wald.intevation.org/frs/download.php/1639/greenbone-security-assistant-5.0.0.tar.gz
wget http://wald.intevation.org/frs/download.php/1633/openvas-cli-1.3.0.tar.gz
tar zxvf openvas-{component}.tar.gz

Next step is to install the Ubuntu 14.04 packages that will allow us to compile the code.

apt-get install build-essential bison flex cmake pkg-config libglib libglib2.0-dev libgnutls libgnutls-dev libpcap libpcap0.8-dev libgpgme11 libgpgme11-dev doxygen libuuid1 uuid-dev sqlfairy xmltoman sqlite3 libxml2-dev libxslt1.1 libxslt1-dev xsltproc libmicrohttpd-dev

With necessary packages installed we can move on to compiling and installing the different OpenVAS components. Enter each of the components directories and perform the following steps. The order should not matter as long as openvas-libraries-7.0.1 is installed correctly.

cd {component}
mkdir source
cd source
cmake ..
make
make install

Now we are getting close, a few more steps and you will be able login to the OpenVAS scanner and start testing your system.

openvas-mkcert
ldconfig
openvassd

Check that openvassd has started correctly and is running.

ps -ef | grep openvas

Lets sync NVT plugins and the vulnerability data.

openvas-nvt-sync
openvas-scapdata-sync
openvas-certdata-sync

Nearly there! Create a user account and client certificate.

openvasmd --create-user=admin --role=Admin
openvas-mkcert-client -n -i

Start All the Things! Note you can run the Greenbone Security Assistant Client with gsad --http-only to run it without SSL support, however clear text protocols are for wimps so get on the HTTPS. Then check you have openvassd / openvasmd / gsad running.

openvasmd --rebuild --progress
openvasmd
gsad

ps -ef | grep openvas

And confirm each component is listening on its port.

netstat -anp | grep LISTEN

tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:9390            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      3067/openvasmd  
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:9391            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2453/openvassd: Waiting
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:22              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      2772/sshd       
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:443             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN      3070/gsad

The Web Console

Now that we have OpenVAS up and running its time to look at the web console. From the netstat -anp above we can see that gsad is running on port 443. Loading up a browser we can simply go to HTTPS on the IP of our server.

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In this high-level comparison of Nessus, Nexpose, and OpenVAS, I have not attempted a detailed metric-based analysis with the reason being it would be difficult to get a conclusive result due to the large differences in detection and the categorization of vulnerabilities by the different solutions.

Background Info

The testing deliberately focuses on network vulnerability scanning capabilities rather than looking at the web application vulnerability detection in detail. Here at Hacker Target, we believe a network vulnerability scanner must be capable of identifying poorly configured services, default services that have poor security, and software with known security vulnerabilities.

Notes on the Vulnerability Scanner Testing

• Apart from NMAP, external tools that OpenVAS can use have not been installed. These external tools are mostly web application vulnerability detection tools, including wapiti, Arachni, Nikto and Dirb.
• OpenVAS version 5 has been tested with the full scan profile. Ports were all TCP ports scanned with Nmap and top 100 UDP ports.
• Nessus version 5 was launched using the External network scan profile. It was also tested with Internal Network Scan however, results were similar.
• The Nexpose scanner was executed with the Full audit profile.
• No tweaking of default scan profiles was undertaken.
• No credentials were used during the scan. It was an external network service focused scan.

These results are only a quick overview. I have not followed up every discovered vulnerability to determine false positives and false negatives.

Edit 1st of September 2012 (clarification of scanner versions and plugins used)
Nessus : The home feed was used for the Nessus testing. According to the Tenable website The Nessus HomeFeed gives you the ability to scan your personal home network (up to 16 IP addresses) with the same high-speed, in-depth assessments and agentless scanning convenience that ProfessionalFeed subscribers enjoy.. Note when using the Nessus scanner with the home feed it cannot be used in a professional or commercial environment.
OpenVAS : The default OpenVAS 5 open source signatures and software was used. This is free to use under the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL).
Nexpose : The community version of Nexpose was tested. According to the Rapid7 website " Nexpose Community Edition is powered by the same scan engine as award-winning Nexpose Enterprise Edition and offers many of the same features." With this version you can scan up to 32 IP addresses.

And now for the results.....

Nessus 5 External Network Profile	Critical 3 High 6 Medium 22 Low 8 Info 137
OpenVAS 5 Full Audit Scan Profile	High 38 Medium 24 Low 36 Log 44
Nexpose Full Audit Scan Profile	Critical 49 Severe 103 Moderate 18

These total numbers, without any context around the categorization of findings or the accuracy of the results, provides us little value, except to highlight the wide variation in results from the different scanners.

Analysing a specific sample of Security Issues

In order to look at some more meaningful results, I have examined a sample set of exploitable and mis-configured services on the Metasploitable system.

At the last minute I decided to include Nmap with its NSE scripts against the Metasploitable host. The results were interesting to say the least, while not a full blown vulnerability scanner the development of the NSE scripting ability in Nmap makes this powerful tool even more capable.

the numbers get interesting...

These are the numbers of vulnerabilities correctly discovered and rated by each vulnerability scanner from the sample set of exploitable services.

Security Issue	Nessus	OpenVAS	Nexpose	Nmap
FTP 21 Anonymous FTP Access
FTP 21 VsFTPd Smiley Face Backdoor
FTP 2121 ProFTPD Vulnerabilities
SSH 22 Weak Host Keys
PHP-CGI Query String Parameter Injection
CIFS Null Sessions
INGRESLOCK 1524 known backdoor drops to root shell
NFS 2049 /* exported and writable
MYSQL 3306 weak auth (root with no password)
RMI REGISTRY 1099 Insecure Default Config
DISTCCd 3632 distributed compiler
POSTGRESQL 5432 weak auth (postgresql)
VNC 5900 weak auth (password)
IRC 6667 Unreal IRCd Backdoor
Tomcat 8180 weak auth (tomcat/tomcat)

Notes about the sample set of tests

• All the above vulnerabilities and mis-configurations, except for Anonymous FTP, can be exploited to gain shells on the system (in most cases with root privileges) using Metasploit or other methods.
• There are a number of examples where the scanners do not detect weak or default credentials. While not specifically testing passwords, if MySQL is being checked for weak credentials why not other services?
• Items such as the INGRESLOCK backdoor and the Unreal IRCd vulnerability are fairly obscure, however, this makes them good examples for testing overall capability.
• The Metasploitable version 2 release page has good examples of exploiting many of the mis-configurations in this list. This highlights not only how a poorly configured service can lead to a root shell but also the fact that vulnerability scanners need to be able to detect these types of security related mis-configurations.

These scans were conducted in a black box manner, when running internal scans it is recommended to perform credential supplied scanning. This means providing the vulnerability scanning tool with valid Windows domain, SSH, or other valid authorisation so it can perform checks against the local system. This is of most value when looking for missing patches in an operating system or third party software and detecting installed applications.

Conclusion

An organisation wishing to secure its IT infrastructure needs to implement Vulnerability scanning as it is essential to Security Control.

Vulnerability scanning is recommended by the SANS Institute as a Critical Control and US-based NIST as a Security Management Control.

The results shown in this article show significant variation in discovered security vulnerabilities by different tools. It may be helpful to compare vulnerability scanners to anti-virus solutions. Both are important to security control and will enhance an organisation's security posture. However, as with anti-virus, a vulnerability scanner will not find all the bad things.

The following is common knowledge for most in the security industry who perform network vulnerability testing;

• Check results for accuracy -> false positives.
• Actively look for things that were missed -> false negatives.

A recommended approach to vulnerability scanning

• Tune the vulnerability scan profiles to suit your requirements
• Perform a detailed analysis of the results
• Run secondary tools such as Nmap, a secondary vulnerability scanning solution and/or specialised tools. The use of multiple tools will provide a greater level of coverage and assist in confirming discovered vulnerabilities.

Performing internal focused testing in conjunction with external facing vulnerability scans adds value when working to secure Internet connected networks or servers.

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