Exploring the OpenVAS vulnerability scanner
The Internet has become more dangerous over the years, with constantly changing threats and ever more sophisticated attackers. As have most security professionals, we have seen all manner of clever schemes designed to part businesses from their money and data. To help discover and manage threats, we rely heavily on free software tools. One of the most popular security tools is the Nessus vulnerability scanner by Tenable Network Security [1], which many have used to look for vulnerabilities on customer networks.
The decision by Tenable to change the licensing for commercial use was viewed with frustration by a number of security professionals. Prompted by the final announcement on Slashdot in October 2005 that Nessus would be closed source, Tim Brown made the decision to announce a fork. The result of that effort is OpenVAS [2], a free software fork of the Nessus vulnerability scanner predominantly licensed under the GPL.
At this time, OpenVAS has a thriving community, with contributions from both individuals and corporations from all over the world. The OpenVAS project is a member of Software in the Public Interest, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping organizations develop free software. A recent successful developers conference had 16 participants from four continents, and we have more than 13,000 vulnerability checks committed to our public SVN repository.
[...]
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
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
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 Drops bcachefs
After a clash over some late fixes and disagreements between bcachefs's lead developer and Linus Torvalds, bachefs is out.
-
ONLYOFFICE v9 Embraces AI
Like nearly all office suites on the market (except LibreOffice), ONLYOFFICE has decided to go the AI route.
-
Two Local Privilege Escalation Flaws Discovered in Linux
Qualys researchers have discovered two local privilege escalation vulnerabilities that allow hackers to gain root privileges on major Linux distributions.
-
New TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro Powered by AMD Ryzen AI 300
The TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen10 offers serious power that is ready for your business, development, or entertainment needs.
-
LibreOffice Tested as Possible Office 365 Alternative
Another major organization has decided to test the possibility of migrating from Microsoft's Office 365 to LibreOffice.
-
Linux Mint 20 Reaches EOL
With Linux Mint 20 at its end of life, the time has arrived to upgrade to Linux Mint 22.