OpenVAS (''Open Vulnerability Assessment System'', originally known as ''GNessUs'') is the scanner component of Greenbone Vulnerability Manager (GVM), a software framework of several services and tools offering

vulnerability Vulnerability refers to "the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally." A window of vulnerability (WOV) is a time frame within which defensive measures are diminished, com ...

scanning and

vulnerability management Vulnerability management is the "cyclical practice of identifying, classifying, prioritizing, remediating, and mitigating" software vulnerabilities. Vulnerability management is integral to computer security and network security, and must not be ...

. All Greenbone Vulnerability Manager products are free software, and most components are licensed under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...

(GPL). Plugins for Greenbone Vulnerability Manager are written in the Nessus Attack Scripting Language, NASL.

History

Greenbone Vulnerability Manager began under the name of OpenVAS, and before that the name GNessUs, as a

fork In cutlery or kitchenware, a fork (from la, furca 'pitchfork') is a utensil, now usually made of metal, whose long handle terminates in a head that branches into several narrow and often slightly curved tine (structural), tines with which one ...

of the previously open source Nessus scanning tool, after its developers Tenable Network Security changed it to a proprietary (

closed source Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and inte ...

) license in October 2005. OpenVAS was originally proposed by pentesters at SecuritySpace, discussed with pentesters at Portcullis Computer Security and then announced by Tim Brown on

Slashdot ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and eval ...

. Greenbone Vulnerability Manager is a member project of

Software in the Public Interest Software in the Public Interest, Inc. (SPI) is a US 501(c)(3) non-profit organization domiciled in New York State formed to help other organizations create and distribute free open-source software and open-source hardware. Anyone is eligible to ...

Structure

There is a daily updated feed of Network Vulnerability Tests (NVTs) - over 50,000 in total (as of July 2020).

Documentation

The OpenVAS protocol structure aims to be well-documented to assist developers. The OpenVAS Compendium is a publication of the OpenVAS Project that delivers documentation on OpenVAS.

References

External links

OpenVAS web site

OpenVAS, Nikto Nmap, OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) all in one

OpenVAS, Nessus and NexPose TestedOpenVAS Compendium - A Publication of The OpenVAS Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Openvas Free security software Network analyzers 2005 software Pentesting software toolkits

History

Structure

Documentation

See also

References

External links