OpenVAS (''Open Vulnerability Assessment System'', originally known as ''GNessUs'') is the scanner component of Greenbone Vulnerability Manager (GVM), a

software framework In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software, providing generic functionality, can be selectively changed by additional user-written code, thus providing application-specific software. It provides a standard ...

of several services and tools offering

vulnerability Vulnerability refers to "the quality or state of being exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally." A window of vulnerability (WOV) is a time frame within which defensive measures are diminished, com ...

scanning and vulnerability management. All Greenbone Vulnerability Manager products are

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, ...

, and most components are licensed under the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end user In product development, an end user (sometimes end-user) is a person who ultimately uses or is intended to ulti ...

(GPL). Plugins for Greenbone Vulnerability Manager are written in the Nessus Attack Scripting Language, NASL.

History

Greenbone Vulnerability Manager began under the name of OpenVAS, and before that the name GNessUs, as a fork of the previously

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

Nessus scanning tool, after its developers Tenable Network Security changed it to a proprietary (

closed source Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and in ...

) license in October 2005. OpenVAS was originally proposed by pentesters at SecuritySpace, discussed with pentesters at Portcullis Computer Security and then announced by Tim Brown on

Slashdot ''Slashdot'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''/.'') is a social news website that originally advertised itself as "News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters". It features news stories concerning science, technology, and politics that are submitted and evalu ...

. Greenbone Vulnerability Manager is a member project of Software in the Public Interest.

Structure

There is a daily updated feed of Network Vulnerability Tests (NVTs) - over 50,000 in total (as of July 2020).

Documentation

The OpenVAS protocol structure aims to be well-documented to assist developers. The OpenVAS Compendium is a publication of the OpenVAS Project that delivers documentation on OpenVAS.

References

External links

OpenVAS web site

OpenVAS, Nikto Nmap, OWASP Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP) all in one

OpenVAS, Nessus and NexPose TestedOpenVAS Compendium - A Publication of The OpenVAS Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Openvas Free security software Network analyzers 2005 software Pentesting software toolkits

History

Structure

Documentation

See also

References

External links