Learn how to install the open source security audit tool, OpenVAS, on the Ubuntu Server platform.
OpenVAS is a full-featured vulnerability scanner that includes numerous tests that can run on your servers. OpenVAS Network Vulnerability Tests (NVTs) are served via the Greenbone Community Feed. The components that make up OpenVAS include:
- Greenbone Security Assistant is a web-based user interface for the administration and management of OpenVAS.
- OpenVAS Manager is the heart of OpenVAS.
- OpenVAS Scanner is the actual scanner.
- Scan Targets are the targets to be scanned for vulnerabilities.
I’m going to walk you through the process of installing OpenVAS on Ubuntu Server 18.04.
What you need
The only things you need are an instance of Ubuntu Server 18.04 and a user account with sudo privileges. With those in place, let’s install OpenVAS.
Installing OpenVAS
The first thing to do is install the necessary repository. Open a terminal window on your Ubuntu Server and issue the command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mrazavi/openvas
Once this completes, update apt with the command:
sudo apt-get update
Install OpenVAS with the command:
sudo apt install sqlite3 openvas9 libopenvas9-dev -y
During the installation, you’ll be prompted to include the redis database (Figure A). Make sure to okay this installation by tabbing to Yes and hitting Enter.
Update the tests
Once OpenVAS is installed, you need to update the vulnerability tests with the following commands:
sudo greenbone-nvt-syncsudo greenbone-scapdata-sync sudo greenbone-certdata-sync
The above commands will take quite some time, so you might want to step away from the computer and take care of another task. When the updates are complete, restart OpenVAS with the following commands:
sudo systemctl restart openvas-scanner sudo systemctl restart openvas-manager sudo systemctl restart openvas-gsa
Enable the services for boot with the commands:
sudo systemctl enable openvas-scanner sudo systemctl enable openvas-manager sudo systemctl enable openvas-gsa
Rebuild the NVT cache and check the set up
Next, the NVT cache needs to be rebuilt, so the newly updated tests are loaded into the OpenVAS manager. This is done with the following command:
sudo openvasmd --rebuild --progress --verbose
Once this completes, test the set up with the command:
sudo openvas-check-setup --v9
Everything should come back okay. You’re ready to use OpenVAS.
Using OpenVAS
Point a web browser to https://SERVER_IP:4000 and log into OpenVAS with admin as both username and password. Once you’ve logged in, you can start working with the OpenVAS Dashboard (Figure B).
That’s all there is to installing this powerful, open source vulnerability scanner. Take the time to poke around the dashboard to get familiar with all the features available in the scanner. Next time around, we’ll scan the network to discover hosts.