Nessus is a cross-platform, comprehensive systems vulnerability scanner, which provides a wide range of penetration techniques starting with a simple host ping scan and finishing with dangerous Denial of Service attack.
Register for a Home Licence
Nessus Home registration if free and can be done on this page: https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus-home
Home licence is available for personal use in a home environment only, that’s all we need.
Make sure that the email provided during the registration is valid as it will be used to send a Tenable Nessus Home Activation Code.
Download the Installation Package
Installation packages are available for download on this page: https://www.tenable.com/products/nessus/select-your-operating-system
We use a 32-bit Debian Wheezy machine, therefore will go for Nessus-5.2.5-debian6_i386.deb (Debian 6.0, 32 bits).
Installation
Install Nessus scanner:
# dpkg -i Nessus-5.2.5-debian6_i386.deb
Start the daemon:
# /etc/init.d/nessusd start
Check that Nessus is running:
# netstat -nltp | grep nessus tcp 0 0 0.0.0.0:8834 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN 11614/nessusd tcp6 0 0 :::8834 :::* LISTEN 11614/nessusd
Open a web browser and go to:
https://localhost:8834/
Make sure the TCP 8834 port is open on a firewall if intended to access form another PC. Follow the on-screen instructions: create a new user account, enter the activation code and download plugins (this is CPU and disk intensive task and takes a lot of time). Once the plugins are downloaded and processed, subsequent startups will be much faster. Happy home systems scanning!
Configure Iptables
# iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8834 -j ACCEPT
Hello,
Do you know if Nessus as an ARM version for raspberry pi?
Thanks,
-Joe
No idea to be honest, I never thought about installing Nessus on a Raspberry Pi due to lack of RAM it comes with. You may want to try OpenVAS.