Tenable Nessus

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Community Platform

runZero integrates with Tenable Nessus in two ways. For every version of Nessus, runZero can import Nessus files (.nessus) exported from your Nessus instance, and exports from Tenable Security Center work too. For Nessus Professional, the integration can also pull scan data from the Nessus Professional API.

Getting started with Tenable Nessus

To use the Tenable Nessus integration:

  1. Export vulnerability scan results as Nessus files.
  2. Import the Nessus files through the inventory pages.

Requirements

  • Access to the Nessus portal.

Step 1: Export vulnerability scan results

  1. Sign in to Nessus with the account you’re using for the runZero integration.
  2. Open the scan results you want to import into runZero.
  3. Choose Export > Nessus to download the scan results.

Step 2: Import the Nessus files into runZero

  1. Go to the Inventory page in runZero.
  2. Choose Import > Nessus scan (.nessus) from the list of import types.
  3. On the import data page:
    • Choose the site for your assets.
    • Set the severity levels and minimum risk level to ingest. Much of the host information from Tenable comes from Info-level plugins, so if you import only higher severities, assets runZero hasn’t scanned may show little information.

Step 3: View Nessus assets and vulnerabilities

After a successful import, your Nessus assets appear in your inventory with a Tenable icon in the Source column.

The integration also gathers the vulnerabilities Nessus detected. Go to Inventory > Vulnerabilities to view the vulnerability data from Nessus.

To filter by Nessus assets, run this query:

Open an asset to see the attributes runZero gathered from the Nessus scan file.

Troubleshooting

If you’re having trouble with the integration, start with these questions and answers.

Why is the Tenable Nessus integration unable to connect?

  1. Check whether the Tenable Nessus integration is returning any data.
    • Query the inventory rather than the task details to review all the data available from this integration.
    • In some cases, an integration’s configuration limits how much data reaches the runZero console.
  2. Some integrations require specific actions that are easy to overlook. If you miss a step during setup, the integration may not work correctly. Review this page and follow the steps exactly.
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