Looking for vulnerabilities with OpenVAS and Greenbone
Security Search

OpenVAS scans your systems and discovers potential security problems. If you want to wield the power of OpenVAS without becoming a security expert, use the handy Greenbone user interface tool.
With the never-ending onslaught of hackers penetrating networks, most system administrators need a way of identifying vulnerabilities in a simple, consistent, and repeatable fashion. Wouldn't it be nice if users had a simple means for running a series of automated checks to identify known security problems?
One powerful and popular security analysis tool is The Open Vulnerability Assessment System, or OpenVAS. OpenVAS is actually a framework that supports scanning and reporting on your system's vulnerabilities. Scan a system, and OpenVAS will provided a detailed list of security issues. OpenVAS efficiently organizes the information, offering important details on the problem and what to do about it.
OpenVAS is available for download as a virtual appliance and is included in some security toolkits. The OpenVAS security scanner is often bundled with other security tools into specialized security-themed Linux distributions. A dedicated security distro can save you time, because you have more tools readily available depending on what you turn up with your analysis. Kali Linux is one of the more popular distributions, and Kali includes OpenVAS.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
TuxCare Announces Support for AlmaLinux 9.2
Thanks to TuxCare, AlmaLinux 9.2 (and soon version 9.6) now enjoys years of ongoing patching and compliance.
-
Go-Based Botnet Attacking IoT Devices
Using an SSH credential brute-force attack, the Go-based PumaBot is exploiting IoT devices everywhere.
-
Plasma 6.5 Promises Better Memory Optimization
With the stable Plasma 6.4 on the horizon, KDE has a few new tricks up its sleeve for Plasma 6.5.
-
KaOS 2025.05 Officially Qt5 Free
If you're a fan of independent Linux distributions, the team behind KaOS is proud to announce the latest iteration that includes kernel 6.14 and KDE's Plasma 6.3.5.
-
Linux Kernel 6.15 Now Available
The latest Linux kernel is now available with several new features/improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Microsoft Makes Surprising WSL Announcement
In a move that might surprise some users, Microsoft has made Windows Subsystem for Linux open source.
-
Red Hat Releases RHEL 10 Early
Red Hat quietly rolled out the official release of RHEL 10.0 a bit early.
-
openSUSE Joins End of 10
openSUSE has decided to not only join the End of 10 movement but it also will no longer support the Deepin Desktop Environment.
-
New Version of Flatpak Released
Flatpak 1.16.1 is now available as the latest, stable version with various improvements.
-
IBM Announces Powerhouse Linux Server
IBM has unleashed a seriously powerful Linux server with the LinuxONE Emperor 5.