Nessus is a popular open-source vulnerability scanning tool often used in ethical hacking. It scans the network to find any vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, Denial of Service (Dos) vulnerabilities and more. These vulnerabilities can be exploited by hackers allowing them to gain access to your network.
Nessus has a variety of features including:
- Vulnerability Scanning
- Asset Discovery
- Network Scanning
- Vulnerability Assessment
- Web Scanning
How it Works
A computer’s connection to the network is divided into logical paths called ports. Every computer has thousands of ports that various services may listen on. Nessus scans each port and determines what service is running on it. It then tests the service to see if there are any vulnerabilities within it.
Keep in mind, Nessus does not actively prevent attacks – It is a tool that exposes vulnerabilities that could be exploited.
What is Nessus? by O-Line Security
Additional Links
More Info: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dwendlan/personal/nessus.html
Download Nessus: https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus
Nessus Documentation: https://docs.tenable.com/
