Version 4 of the Nessus vulnerability scanner released

The Nessus 4 report interface. Tenable Network Security has announced the release of version 4 of their vulnerability scanner, Nessus. Nessus is a network scanner that can be used to detect potential vulnerabilities on individual systems and networks, preventing remote attackers from gaining access to private data. It can audit a network for individual anti-virus products and ensure that these are running the latest updates.

The 5.0 release now supports multi-threading, improving performance and decreasing the amount of time each scan requires. The ability to create custom XSLT reports based on the scan results has also been added.

Nessus uses the same engine and TCP SYN port scanner on Windows and Unix-based systems. All of the Unix command-line tools can now run on Windows as well. Version 4.0 no longer depends on external libraries, making the configuration and installation easier. The Nessus Attack Scripting Language (NASL) has also been revised and expanded. It now supports XML parsing and other network features.

Nessus 4.0 is available free of charge for personal and non-enterprise use but requires that users provide their e-mail address. A one-year license of the professional version costs $1,200 per year. More details about the release can be found in the Nessus 4.0 FAQ and the provided documentation. Nessus 4.0 is available to download.

(crve)