I am not sure if
this problem is new to the 3.x version, as I don't remember having it in the
past, but I have recently been forced to use the GUI for running nessus, as I
don't seem to get consistent results by editing .nessurc and running in batch
mode (which I would very much prefer to do)
I'm running nessus
3.0.1 on Fedora core 4 using NessusClient, using these cmd line
options:
[root@localhost ~]# NessusClient -T nbe -c /root/.nessusrc -qx localhost 1241 user user /root/testtarget /tmp/testnessus/third.nbe
I initially ran
NessusClient to build the .nessusrc file, and then edited it by hand, my
problems follow:
(problem
1)
My goal was to
configure nessus not to ping the remote host, so I set 'ping_hosts = no' in the
.nessusrc. By running a packet sniffer I could see that nessus actually
did ping the remote host. After some investigation, I learned that
'ping_host' seems to have no effect, and it is the actual plugin in the .nessurc
file which determines whether the host is ping'd.
What I found was
that setting either plugin 10180 (ping host) or 11219 (syn scan) to yes would
cause nessus to ping the remote host, regardless of the value of
'ping_host'. So what is the significance of
'ping_host'?
(problem
2)
With these
settings:
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ping the remote host[entry]:TCP ping
destination port(s) : = 1-3000
Ping the remote host[checkbox]:Do a
TCP ping = no
11219 =
yes
nessus scans the port range
1-3000.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ping the remote host[entry]:TCP ping
destination port(s) : =
1-3000
Ping the remote host[checkbox]:Do a TCP ping = yes
11219 = no
Ping the remote host[checkbox]:Do a TCP ping = yes
11219 = no
only first digit is
recognized in port range (port 1)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ping the remote
host[checkbox]:Do a TCP ping = no
10180 =
yes
11219 =
no
ping_host.nasl runs, and then
plugins start to run as well, even though there was no response from
ping.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
My frustration lies
in the fact that I can't seem to trust the settings I edit in the .nessusrc
file. I would ideally like to edit server setting/preferences, without
having to know the purpose and value of each plugin.
I have searched
through the archives, and looked on the web site, but none of the documentation
I have found is detailed enough. I there documentation on the sections of
the config file, and the implications of the settings contained
within
thanks. I can
provide a .nessurc file if you would like
Scott
Pate
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