Whether you aspire to become a security engineer or seek security services for your organization, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Nessus. But what is Nessus? This blog will highlight Nessus and its use by security vendors and internal security personnel within security operations centers (SOCs).
Overview
Tenable® created Nessus, a powerful vulnerability scanner. It enables internal security engineers and security vendors to identify vulnerabilities from both internal and external perspectives. Its high configurability allows for fine-tuning to suit your organization’s specific needs.
How Nessus Helps Security Engineers
Security vendors, contracted by organizations for their expertise and knowledge, need to utilize powerful vulnerability scanners, despite their cost. Nessus often stands as the “gold standard” in vulnerability scanners for several reasons:
- It identifies unsupported or vulnerable software. Identifying unsupported software is crucial, as it indicates that the vendor will no longer release important patches for any existing vulnerabilities. Nessus excels at detecting version numbers that security engineers might overlook. However, skilled security engineers must verify Nessus results to avoid false positives commonly flagged by vulnerability scanners.
- It streamlines assessments. Penetration tests and security assessments, being time-limited engagements, require efficiency. Quick identification of potential vulnerabilities allows security engineers to focus on easy targets.
- It provides a holistic view of your environment. At Lucid Security, we aim for crystal clear results, highlighting all possible risks or security issues. Nessus offers a comprehensive overview of findings, from critical to informational, helping security engineers distinguish genuine concerns from false positives.
- It manages the attack surface. Managing the attack surface is essential in security. Nessus offers an overview of systems, software, and services on an organization’s external perimeter or internal network, helping to identify what is exposed and where mitigation is necessary.
Downsides to Nessus
Despite its power and usefulness, Nessus has downsides:
- Steep learning curve. Nessus can overwhelm and challenge the untrained user. Lucid Security recommends outsourcing vulnerability assessments to an expert security vendor for proper use and to avoid network disruptions.
- False Positives. Nessus may flag items as false positives, necessitating thorough data review and validation of every flagged finding.
- Confusing reports. Nessus reports, available in formats like CSV, HTML, and PDF, can be lengthy and hard to navigate. Lucid Security addresses this by validating findings, customizing descriptions, recommendations, and providing resources to understand risks and remediation steps, and adjusting vulnerability scans to prevent disruptions.
- System downtime or disruptions. As highlighted in a previous blog post, “What Can Go Wrong During a Penetration Test?“, we’ve discussed that Nessus can potentially cause disruptions by crashing systems. For that reason, it’s important to know that going into a scan and tuning scans accordingly.
Summary
By now, you should understand what Nessus is and how it can benefit your organization. While Lucid Security recommends expert outsourcing for vulnerability scanning, a combination approach can also work, allowing your organization to compare and discuss results to optimize your security strategy.
How Lucid Security Can Help
Lucid Security routinely conducts vulnerability assessments and is happy to partner with you to identify gaps or security issues within your network or external perimeter. Reach out today to get started!
Tenable Copyright
COPYRIGHT 2023 TENABLE, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. TENABLE, NESSUS, LUMIN, ASSURE, AND
THE TENABLE LOGO ARE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF TENABLE, INC. OR ITS AFFILIATES. ALL
OTHER PRODUCTS OR SERVICES ARE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.
