News

January 5th, 2012 - OpenVAS-5 BETA-Test phase started

The OpenVAS developers are proud to announce that the test phase for the upcoming OpenVAS-5 started and the first releases have become available.

OpenVAS-5 is yet another major evolution step of the Open Vulnerability Assessment System. Advances range from integration of CVE and CPE databse, an Asset Management over vulnerability prognosis, a improved user interface and not at least improved scanning and detection capabilities.

The OpenVAS-5-based Greenbone Security Manager recently passed the SCAP validation of US agency NIST for category Unauthenticated Scanner. All required criteria were added to OpenVAS-5.

A few features are still in the works and will be added over the next couple of weeks during the Beta phase. Together with improvements based on user feedback.

It is planned to close beta phase in february, entering the release candidate phase. The aim is to release OpenVAS-5 in march, exactly one year after the release of OpenVAS-4.

... Read the full announcement

March 17th, 2011 - OpenVAS-4 released

The OpenVAS community is proud to announce the availability of OpenVAS-4, the next generation of the Open Vulnerability Assessment System. Though only eight months since OpenVAS 3.1, the new release represents the biggest step forward ever in the history of OpenVAS.

The most significant new features are a Report Format Plugin Framework, a Master-Slave mode and an improved Scanner. The extended OpenVAS Management Protocol (OMP) 2.0 of OpenVAS Manager makes several new features consistently available to all of its clients (Web, Desktop, CLI).

This is the first release that is directly accompanied with installation packages for over 20 platforms, several installation quick guides, a tool to check proper setup and, last but not least a virtual appliance.

OpenVAS-4 covers the following OpenVAS modules: Libraries 4.0, Scanner 3.2, Manager 2.0, Administrator 1.1, GSA 2.0, GSD 1.1 and CLI 1.1.

At the OpenVAS developer conference #3, July 7-9 in Osnabrück, Germany, the feature set for OpenVAS-5 will take shape.

Availability:

• Source Code downloads are directly available from OpenVAS homepage: http://www.openvas.org

• Binary installation packages: http://www.openvas.org/install-packages.html

• Virtual Appliance: http://www.openvas.org/vm.htm

New features and changes:

• New: Report Format plugin framework. All previous reporting features were converted to plugins. The XML representation of a report is now the base for any plugin and thus consistency of reports is gained.

  Report Format Plugins can be set active so that they appear in the selection lists. Selections can consider content types so that for example only the plugins with content type "text" are offered as email body.

  It is possible to use parameters for the plugins so the user can adjust the behaviour of the Report Format to the individual preferences or needs.

  A verification method allows to distribute signatures for valid plugins via the NVT Feed.

• New default Report Format: TXT for simple text.

• New default Report Format: LaTeX for LaTeX source.

• New sample Report Format: Simple Bar Chart. Demonstrates how to use Gnuplot for graphical reports.

• New sample Report Format: Simple Topo Plot. Demonstrates how to use Graphviz for graphical reports.

• New sample Report Format: Simple Pie Chart. Demonstrates how to use PyChart for graphical reports.

• New sample Report Format: Simple Map Plot. Demonstrates how to use MapServer and GDAL for graphical reports.

• New sample Report Format: Sourcefire Host Input. Demonstrates that Report Formats can be used to build connectors.

• New: Master-Slave mode. Any OpenVAS Manager can use one or many other OpenVAS Manager as slave to run scans. The whole scan task is transferred to the slave, results are continuously reported to the Master during scan process. After the scan is finished all data is removed from the slave.

  The master can also retrieve system reports from the slave and thus can collect the performance overview for all configured slaves.

• New Escalator: HTTP GET. This allows for example to access text message (SMS) gateways or ticket management systems.

• Extended Escalator: For email escalation it is now possible to select from configured Report Formats to be included in the email body.

• Agents: A verification method was added. This allows to distribute signatures for valid agents via the NVT Feed.

• Credentials: Can now be edited. This allows to change the login name or password without the need to create a new scan configuration.

• Credentials: Auto-generated installer packages are now created on the fly. If the generators are improved, it is now easy to create an updated package for already existing credentials.

• Targets: Credentials for SMB and SSH are now distinguished.

• Targets: Various opportunities have been added to specify and combine IP ranges and ports.

• Tasks: The task overview is delivered much faster now.

• Reports: The report filtering is much faster now.

• Performance: A fall-back performance report delivers some base data if no other tool is configured.

• Web interface: Changed login mechanism from HTTP BasicAuth to session based authentication.

• Scan behaviour: By default now only ports are scanned that are specified as part of the target.

• No binary NVTs: The remaining binary NVTs are turned into built-in functionality. Binary plugins are (finally) no more supported by OpenVAS.

• Network scan NVTs: Network-wide initial scans now posible.

• Scan performance increased: Lower memory footprint (~10% more concurrent scans possible)

• Scan Feature for VHosts: Preferences allow to specify VHosts.

• Scanner: Command line options "--dump-cfg" and "--gen-config" are removed.

• Scanner: Configuration file "openvassd.conf" not mandatory anymore.

• Helper tool openvas-mkcert: New switches and does not create openvassd.conf.

• OpenVAS is now compliant with the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS 2.3).

• Consolidated default ports: Manager listens on 9390, Scanner on 9391, GSA on 9392 and Administrator on 9393.

• OpenVAS build environment now consistently uses cmake and pkgconfig across all modules.

• Compile-time hardening flags are now enabled by default across all modules.

• All applications now consistently deliver output of --version compliant with the GNU Coding Standard.

• OMP self-documentation: Part of the Managers' XML-based communication protocol OMP 2.0 is to deliver the full specification and documentation of the protocol itself (command "HELP"). It can be retrieved as XML-, RNC- or HTML representation. See here for online documentation: http://www.openvas.org/omp-2-0.html

• OAP self-documentation: Part of the Administrators' XML-based communication protocol OAP 1.0 is to deliver the full specification and documentation of the protocol itself (command "HELP"). It can be retrieved as XML-, RNC- or HTML representation. See here for online documentation: http://www.openvas.org/oap-1-0.html

• Extended Language Support: Dekstop client GSD now supports english, german and french.

Compatibility and migration:

• The OpenVAS NVT Feed will be extended with tests that take advantage of the network scan feature but fully keeps the behaviour for previous releases. Also the replacement methods for the former binary NVTs are compatible across OpenVAS 2 through 4.

• The OpenVAS Manager has a migration option for updating an OpenVAS Manager 1.0 SQL database. But there is no support to downgrade the database back to 1.0.

• Migration from OpenVAS 2.x/3.x: Several default file locations changed for the new OpenVAS Scanner. Installing OpenVAS-4 "ontop" of an older release will likely cause trouble because the old, and now only optional "openvassd.conf" forces wrong paths. Delete or move away that file before starting with OpenVAS-4.

• OpenVAS Scanner communication protocol (OTP) remains compatible with the previous release, so the latest release of the old OpenVAS-Client still works.

December 7th, 2010 - OpenVAS Administrator 1.0.0 released

OpenVAS Administrator 1.0 now available

The mission of OpenVAS Administrator is to provide a unified access for various administrative tasks such as creating and configuring scan user accounts.

The Administrator can be used in two ways: As a command line tool for direct changes on the respective system and as a remote service. The remote service offers the OpenVAS Administration Protocol (OAP) which is supported for example by the web client Greenbone Security Assistant (GSA). Release 1.0 is compatible with OpenVAS 3.1 and with the current beta version of OpenVAS 4.

... Read the full announcement

December 6th, 2010 - OpenVAS CLI 1.1.0 released

OpenVAS Command Line Interface (CLI) 1.1.0 for Windows/Linux/MacOSX now available

The mission of OpenVAS CLI Client is to allow creating batch processes for OpenVAS Manager using the protocol OMP. The command line tool runs on various Windows, MacOSX, GNU/Linux and other unixoid operating systems.

OpenVAS CLI 1.1 is part of OpenVAS 4 and supports the upcoming protocol OMP 2.0.

OpenVAS CLI is Free Software (Open Source), licensed under GNU General Public License Version 2 or any later version.

... Read the full announcement

December 2nd, 2010 - Desktop-Client GSD 1.0.0 released

Greenbone Security Desktop (GSD) 1.0: Windows/Linux/MacOSX Client for OpenVAS now available

The mission of GSD is to allow users to organize their vulnerability management on their desktop without the need of a web browser. This desktop client interacts with OpenVAS Manager using the OpenVAS Management Protocol (OMP).

GSD makes the functionality of OMP available in desktop-integrated application. GSD 1.0 support OMP 1.0 and parts of the upcoming OMP 2.0. GSD runs on various Windows, MacOSX, GNU/Linux and other unixoid operating systems.

Greenbone Security Desktop is Free Software (Open Source), licensed under GNU General Public License Version 2 or any later version.

... Read the full announcement

December 1st, 2010 - OpenVAS 4 BETA-Test phase started

The OpenVAS developers are proud to announce that the test phase for the upcoming OpenVAS 4 started and the first releases have become available.

"OpenVAS 4" is the label of the next generation and will cover the following OpenVAS modules: Libraries 4.0, Scanner 3.2, Manager 2.0, Administrator 1.0, GSA 2.0, GSD 1.0 and CLI 1.1.

Most significant change will be Version 2 of the OpenVAS Management Protocol (OMP). It makes the new features of the Manager available to its clients (Web, Desktop, CLI).

Major new features are:

• Master-Slave: Have one installation control several others
• Report Format Plugin Framework: Use or create arbitrary report styles (for example PDF, text, pie chart, bar charts, maps, topoplots)
• Targets: More ways to specify IP-ranges
• Credentials: Editor (password changes possible)
• Escalators: More of them, current improved
• OMP: protocol self-documentation as HTML, XML, RNC
• Network scan plugins: Speedup of scans via network-wide initial scans
• Lower memory footprint (~10% more concurrent scans possible)

... Read the full announcement

August 3rd, 2010 - OpenVAS CLI 1.0 Released

OpenVAS CLI 1.0: Full command line client for OpenVAS Manager 1.0 now available

The OpenVAS CLI package contains the command line tool "omp" which allows to send any command of the OpenVAS Management Protocol (OMP) in original form and some of the commands as short cuts. This allows to create batch processes for remote control of OpenVAS.

August 2nd, 2010 - Greenbone Security Assistant 1.0 Released

Greenbone Security Assistant (GSA) 1.0: Full web-client for OpenVAS Manager 1.0 now available

GSA 1.0 represents almost 2 years of intensive work. The mission of GSA is to be a web client to the OpenVAS Manager 1.0 via the OpenVAS Management Protocol (OMP).

GSA offers a complete implementation of OMP in order to access all features to organize and manage OpenVAS vulnerability scans. Additionally, GSA optionally acts as a client for the upcoming openvas-administrator using the OpenVAS Administration Protocol (OAP) which allows e.g. management of scan users.

Central features of Greenbone Security Assistant are:

• Full OMP 1.0 client. The XML-based OMP responses are transformed into web pages via XSLT.
• No additional web-server required. The GSA daemon (gsad) uses microhttpd to implement a HTTP service on its own.
• Plain HTML. Neither cookies, JavaScript nor other dynamic elements are used. GSA works stateless and uses HTTP Basic Auth.

July 29th, 2010 - OpenVAS Manager 1.0 Released

Substantial Technology Advance: Vulnerability Management with OpenVAS Manager 1.0

OpenVAS Manager 1.0 represents almost 2 years of intensive work. The mission of OpenVAS Manager is to offer powerful and comfortable vulnerability management on top of the actual vulnerability scanner, OpenVAS Scanner 3.1.

The OpenVAS Manager is a layer between the OpenVAS Scanner and various client applications. The upcoming clients cover web, desktop and command line technology and will replace the classic OpenVAS Client.

Central features of OpenVAS Manager are:

• New XML-based protocol OMP (OpenVAS Management Protocol) which client tools use to control scans, results, etc.
• SQL database where configurations, scan results etc. are stored. Thus, clients do not need to keep local storage anymore.
• Full control of scan processes. This includes multiple concurrent scans as well as stopping, pausing, resuming and not at least the scheduling of scans.
• Management of scan notes, false positives and result escalators (notification on finished scans).

July 14th, 2010 - OpenVAS Scanner 3.1 Released

The OpenVAS developers are happy to announce the release of openvas-scanner 3.1.0. This release adds a number of new features, for example support for soft pausing of scans, for retrieving the version of an installed NVT collection, for automatically installing generated client certificates, for storing uploaded preference files in memory, for dropping privileges for NASL and NES NVTs and for scanning virtual web hosts. It also contains updated feed synchronization scripts and removes legacy support for passwords stored in plaintext (see OpenVAS change request #31).

March 12th, 2010 - The OpenVAS Project applies for the Google Summer of Code 2010 Program

The OpenVAS Project sent in its application for the Google Summer of Code 2010 Program today.

A list of accepted organizations will be published on March 18th. An ideas page with basic information exists. Thanks for all the input so far!

December 18th, 2009 - Network Security Scanner OpenVAS 3.0.0 Released

On December 18th, 2009, the OpenVAS developer team released OpenVAS 3.0.0. The release introduces new features and a new architecture which forms the basis for turning the vulnerability scanner into a vulnerability management solution.

The GPL-licensed Open Vulnerability Assessment System (OpenVAS) has become the Open Source Network Vulnerability Scanner. It is complemented with the largest open collection of vulnerability tests, the daily updated OpenVAS NVT Feed with over 15,500 Network Vulnerability Tests (NVTs).

Exactly 1 year after version 2.0.0 was released, the new 3.0 generation introduces:

• A new internal architecture of the modules
• NVT Meta Information that is free of arbitrary size limits
• IPv6 support
• WMI clients support
• Supports upcoming optional extensions:
  • OpenVAS Manager for storing and organizing scans on a central server in a SQL database
  • OpenVAS Administrator for User-, Feed- and Settings-Management
  • Greenbone Security Assistent for a web-based Vulnerability Management

Compatibility:
The new OpenVAS Scanner remains compatible with the OpenVAS NVT Feed as well as with the Greenbone Security Feed. Also, it is possible to use the new OpenVAS Scanner with the OpenVAS-Client 2.0. OpenVAS Client 3.0 can connect to both OpenVAS Scanner 3.0 and OpenVAS Server 2.0 concurrently, and even to OpenVAS Manager via the new OpenVAS Management Protocol (OMP).

New Module Architecture:
OpenVAS 3.0 introduces a new architecture where openvas-libraries now includes openvas-libnasl as well as redundant code from openvas-client. The module openvas-server has been renamed to openvas-scanner and includes any platform-dependent elements of openvas-plugins. As a result of this, the total number of source code lines decreased, though new features were added. Also, for running just the core scanner only 2 modules are required (instead of 4 as is the case for OpenVAS 2.0).

Maintenance:
Version 3.0 will be maintained by the OpenVAS team for at least 2 years and the maintenance of Version 2.0 will continue for at least one year. Version 1.0 is being retired in January 2010.

Downloads:
All download links for OpenVAS 3.0.0 and additional information can be found on the OpenVAS website. OpenVAS 3.0.0 has been released initially as a source code package; binary packages for various distributions are expected to follow.

The OpenVAS team would like to thank everybody who has contributed to this release. We have worked hard to bring you a reliable network security scanner. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to use the public mailing list and our online chat. Please use the OpenVAS bug tracker to report bugs.

The OpenVAS developers would like to wish all users a recreative holiday season and a happy new year.

August 10th, 2009 - The second OpenVAS Developer Conference and Workshop was a success

The second OpenVAS Developer Conference was held in Osnabrück from July 9th to July 12th. A workshop preceded it on July 8th.

With 16 participants from 4 continents we had lots of fruitful discussions, fun and even did an important bug fix!
See details about the conference and workshop. The minutes are also online now.

Read more...

April 9th, 2009 - OpenVAS now beyond 10000 Network Vulnerability Tests

Passing the 10000th Network Vulnerability Test (NVT) is a perfect occasion to report about the progress of the OpenVAS project[1].

In October 2008 the systematic development of new NVTs started with a base of around 5800 Tests. With the release of OpenVAS 2.0 in December 2008, the development was boosted and has now reached an average of 10 code updates per day. The public OpenVAS NVT Feed Service delivers 3-10 new vulnerability tests every day.

Read more...

December 17th, 2008 - OpenVAS 2.0.0 released

On December 17th, 2008, the OpenVAS developer team released OpenVAS 2.0.0 which marks the start of the next generation of the Open Vulnerability Assessment System for network security scanning.

Read more...

December 5th, 2008 - OpenVAS 2.0-rc1 released

The OpenVAS developers are happy to announce the release of the 2.0-rc1 versions of openvas-libraries, openvas-libnasl, openvas-server and openvas-client.

This release is the first release candidate for the upcoming 2.0 release of OpenVAS. Unless serious bugs are discovered, this release candidate will become the final OpenVAS 2.0 release. Users are encouraged to test this release and to report bugs to the OpenVAS bug tracker located at http://bugs.openvas.org/ .

This release marks another milestone towards the improvement of the OpenVAS infrastructure; it uses the finalized version of OTP, the new OpenVAS Transport Protocol which debuted in 2.0-beta1 and has now completely replaced the old Nessus Transport Protocol (NTP).

November 14th, 2008 - OpenVAS and backtrack

As OpenVAS is not in Backtrack 3 by default (yet!). You can download lzm module or download remastered backtrack3 which includes OpenVAS lzm (it still fits on 700 Mb CD). It's good way of testing OpenVAS in case you want to try it out.

Read more and download ...

October 30th, 2008 - 2008 OpenVAS Contest Winners Announced

With 5 nominees who contributed a large number of improvements to the OpenVAS framework and extended the Open Source Network Vulnerability Testing, the 2008 OpenVAS Contest was a great success.

The OpenVAS developers and the sponsors of the OpenVAS Contest would like to thank all developers for their great contributions. The developers have spent a considerable amount of time on their submissions and have helped OpenVAS to become even better. These contributions will be included in the upcoming OpenVAS 2.0 release which will help to make the task of network security scanning easier worldwide.

And the winners are ...

October 15th, 2008 - OpenVAS 2.0 Begins Public Beta Phase

In late September 2008, the OpenVAS developer team released the 2.0-beta1 version of OpenVAS, the Open Vulnerability Assessment System for network security scanning.
The intended audience for this beta release are experienced users interested in upcoming features as well as developers of vulnerability checks.

The new version introduces first steps towards support for OVAL, the Open Vulnerability and Assessment Language. OVAL is an international, information security, community standard to promote open, standardized and publicly available security content.
The OpenVAS server can now execute OVAL files just like its own Network Vulnerability Tests (NVTs) by using the OVAL definitions interpreter "ovaldi". While the plain ovaldi tool can only check local systems where it is installed, the combination with OpenVAS enables it to test any target system for which OpenVAS has collected information. The beta1 release offers sample support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux security announcements which are provided as OVAL definitions.

Major internal changes include the cleaned and extended protocol for client-server communication (OTP) and the transition to the new OID-based scheme for unique IDs of vulnerability tests. The switch from the NTP inherited from Nessus to OTP was necessary due to security and design considerations.

The OpenVAS (NVTs) remain compatible with both the 1.0 and 2.0 series of OpenVAS. This also means that the free OpenVAS NVT feed service (which has recently extended to deliver the full range of NVTs, grown to over 5000 available NVTs) is also compatible for both release series. The switch from NTP to OTP does not affect NVTs already in existance. This means NVTs written in NASL continue to be fully supported by OpenVAS. There is no need to make changes to your old NASL scripts -- unless you want to use the new features.

The first release candidate of the new OpenVAS Compendium has been made available in PDF and HTML format for final reviews and as a base for translation into other languages (a translation to German is already in progress) as well.

The OpenVAS team is looking forward to feedback for the beta1 release. If you want to participate in the beta phase by sharing your experience with beta1 or if you have any questions, please feel free to use the public mailing lists or visit us in our IRC online chat.

August 13th, 2008 - OpenVAS Toolchain for Network Vulnerability Tests Established and Stable

OpenVAS Toolchain for Network Vulnerability Tests Established and Stable, Now Focussing on Tests Development and Documentation

In July 2008 the OpenVAS developer team finished the update cycle of the 1.0 release including all four server modules and the client.

The most work during this update cycle went into cleanups and support for RPM and Debian packagers. The number of necessary bug-fixes remained pleasingly low.

OpenVAS installation packages are readily available for various platforms: openSUSE, Fedora, Mandrake, FreeBSD and Gentoo. Packages for Debian and Ubuntu are in the works. Additionally, OpenVAS-Client is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems.

The OpenVAS developer team has started creating a comprehensive documentation for the whole toolchain; the next major challenge for the project is now to extend the range of the vulnerability tests for present and upcoming security issues, especially for those reported as CVEs, BIDs etc.

It is a fundamental goal of the OpenVAS project team to accompany the Free Software OpenVAS network security scanner licensed under GNU GPL with a feed of vulnerability tests being Open Source and readily available for everyone as well. Additional contributors are welcome to join the OpenVAS developer team.