Review of Nessus Vulnerability
The freemium version of Nessus is a respectable but slightly constrained web security scanner that is excellent, adaptable, and simple to use. Additionally, a dedicated community of developers that consistently create new plug-ins supports it.
Pros
• All paid programs come with +7-day free trials.
Cons • Slow scanning Pros • Custom reports • Highly insightful and straightforward UI • Fairly low false positive rate • Risk-based vulnerability prioritization
Renaud Deraison, a cybersecurity expert and co-founder of Tenable, the company that created Nessus, introduced the Nessus Project, which led to the creation of Nessus. The primary goal of this project was to offer a cost-free remote security scanner to the online community.
However, Nessus was converted from free, open-source software into a closed-sourced, private product in 2005. Fortunately, Tenable currently provides both free and premium Nessus plans in order to keep ahead of its rivals.
Columbia serves as the company’s corporate headquarters, and it is situated in the US (Maryland. the USA). As we write, their security solutions are trusted by more than 40,000 enterprises worldwide.
The official website of Tenable isn’t extremely inventive, but it does have a simple layout that makes it easy to use. It has a corporate blog that appears to be enthusiastically updated with fresh material.
You can follow Tenable on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube to learn more about them.
Plans and costs
There are three versions of the Nessus web security scanner: “Nessus Essentials” (formerly “Nessus Home”), “Nessus Professional,” and “Nessus Expert.” Only “Nessus Essentials” is fully free of charge out of the three. You can use Nessus’ fermium edition for as long as you need once you obtain and use the activation code.
“Nessus Professional” will set you back €3,875.71 ($3,795) every year if you’re a professional user and willing to shell out big bucks. You can select a paying cycle of annually, biennially, or triennially, and the longer your subscription, the more money you’ll ultimately save.
The enterprise-level security solution “Nessus Expert” is the last but not least, and it costs €8,563.14 ($8,391) annually. There are two add-ons available, “Advanced Support” and “On-Demand Training,” both of which are rather expensive.
Thanks to 7-day free trials, you may test out the paid plans for 7 days without spending a single thing.
All of the popular credit and debit cards, including Visa, MasterCard, and American Express, as well as PayPal, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Apple Pay, and Shop Pay are accepted as payment methods by Tenable.
Features and capabilities
Windows (versions 7, 8, and 10) as well as SUSE Linux, Ubuntu, Debian/Kali Linux, Fedora, FreeBSD, macOS X, Red Hat/CentOS/Oracle Linux, and Windows Server are just a few of the many operating systems (OS) that Nessus works flawlessly on (2008 and 2012). Both 32-bit and 64-bit systems may run the Windows version.
Users of Nessus also have a few versions to pick from, the most recent being 10.3.0.
Nessus Essentials, the free version of the scanner, has fewer functionality than other versions (but not too short). You can only assess vulnerabilities on up to 16 IPs when using asset discovery scanning. Additionally, it is only accessible for personal use, doesn’t provide compliance or audit checks, and can’t schedule scans.
This, however, comes as no surprise given that the target audience for this edition is generally novices and poor networking technology students. As a gateway into the Tenable ecosystem, it is used.
Because there is no usage cap, you are free to use the free edition indefinitely.
It will also provide you access to the Nessus training program and let you join its vibrant community. There, you may expand your Nessus with plug-ins and get a ton of helpful advice from more seasoned users (coded in NASL). While the most of them have a cost, the community has produced some excellent free plug-ins as well.
Both premium plans include You can make use of limitless configuration assessments, IT assessments, real-time reports that can be customized, and community assistance from Nessus. Additional features include external attack surface scanning, the ability to add domains, the ability to scan cloud infrastructure, and 500 pre-built scanning rules will be included with “Nessus Expert.”
Interface and usability
Choose one of the plans—say let’s “Nessus Essentials”—and enter a few bits of personal data, such as your complete name and your professional email address, to get started with Nessus. Once you’ve done that, click “Get Started” and wait for your one-time activation code to arrive in the mail.
You’ll also receive a link to the download page, where you may choose the version of Nessus you want to use. To do this, choose your operating system and the scanner version.
Check out the step-by-step instructions for all versions in the email you received from Nessus. Also, keep in mind that you need to use your activation code at this point.
We didn’t get lost, as we frequently do, thanks to Nessus’ highly intuitive and intelligent user interface (UI). You can scan your fists by clicking “Scans” in the top menu, then choosing “New Scan” in the top right corner.
The next step is to select the scan template, or the pre-configured settings for that kind of scan. We greatly enjoyed the concise and clear descriptions provided for each template, even though some are only available with expensive plans. If you’d like, you can also modify the default scan settings.
When you’ve finished setting everything up, you can either click “Launch” to begin the scan right away or “Save” the scan to begin it at a later time.
Interpreting scan results is as straightforward as it gets thanks to color-coded indicators and customizable display choices. These will display every scanning target (under “Hosts”), every vulnerability found (ordered by severity), every remediation detail, any additional scan-related information, and a list of all previous scans (under “History”), arranged by start and end times and scan statuses.
The only issue we could possibly find with Nessus is that it scans a little slowly; however, because we are using the fermium edition, we aren’t really complaining.
Overall, with a user-friendly interface and excellent step-by-step instructions Nessus seems to be one of the web security scanners with the best user interface in the business.
Technical help from Tenable’s customer service department is available 24/7/365 by phone, live chat, email, and community forums.
However, if you’re using the free edition, you won’t be able to take advantage of the so-called advanced support features, thus you won’t have access to phone or email help. Additionally, the advertised response time of 24 hours isn’t exactly quick.
Tenable’s self-help choices will provide you with all you need if you choose to handle problems on your own; you simply need to know where to go because the alternatives initially appear to be all over the place.
Visit the Nessus FAQ section for answers to frequently asked questions and concerns. Search through the resource library, documentation website, official blog of Tenable, or ask the Nessus community for assistance if you need assistance with more complicated problems.
Competition
The best open-source substitute for Nessus is still OpenVAS (opens in new tab), the original fork of it. OpenVAS is more cost-effective, though Nessus covers a wider range of vulnerabilities than its fork. To be honest, Nessus accomplishes everything OpenVAS can do better, but at a price.
Similar to OpenVAS, Probely’s affordability may be the sole benefit it has over Nessus. The popular “Pro” plan for businesses is €828 ($812) per year, which is a fairly affordable price.
It’s definitely worth taking a look at Vega web scanner if you have a tight budget. It’s a capable, thorough, totally free program that may also be expanded using JavaScript. It’s sadly designed exclusively for tech-savvy users.
Final judgment
Although Nessus may not be as well-known as some of its rivals, it is nonetheless a formidable rival in the cybersecurity space. It includes several different types of scans, real-time results that may be customized, risk-based vulnerability prioritization, an easy-to-use user interface, and a ton of plug-ins made available by its developer community.
Nessus is absolutely worthwhile to check out if you don’t mind scanning quite slowly.
