OpenVAS

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Category:Use dmy dates from September 2023

OpenVAS
Developer(s)Greenbone Networks GmbH
Stable release
23.17.0[1]Edit this on Wikidata / 22 April 2025; 21 days ago (22 April 2025)
Repository
Written inC
Operating systemCross-platform
TypeVulnerability scanner
LicenseGPL
Websitewww.openvas.org Edit this at Wikidata

OpenVAS (Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner, originally known as GNessUs) is the scanner component of Greenbone Vulnerability Management (GVM), a software framework of several services and tools offering vulnerability scanning and vulnerability management.[2]

All Greenbone Vulnerability Management products are free software, and most components are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Plugins for Greenbone Vulnerability Management 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 Nessus scanning tool, after its developers Tenable Network Security changed it to a proprietary (closed source) license in October 2005.[3] OpenVAS was originally proposed by pentesters at SecuritySpace,[4] discussed with pentesters at Portcullis Computer Security[5] and then announced[6] by Tim Brown on Slashdot.

Greenbone Vulnerability Manager is a member project of Software in the Public Interest.[7]

Structure

The OpenVAS 8 Structure

There is a daily updated feed of Network Vulnerability Tests (NVTs). As of January 2019Category:Articles containing potentially dated statements from January 2019Category:All articles containing potentially dated statements, there were over 50,000 NVTs.[8]

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.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Release 23.17.0". 22 April 2025. Retrieved 27 April 2025.
  2. ↑ "GMV tools - Glossary". Greenbone Networks GmbH. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  3. ↑ LeMay, Renai (6 October 2005). "Nessus security tool closes its source". CNet.
  4. ↑ "SecuritySpace". www.securityspace.com.
  5. ↑ "Portcullis Labs". labs.portcullis.co.uk. Retrieved 22 September 2023.
  6. ↑ "Nessus Closes Source". Slashdot. 7 October 2005. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
  7. ↑ "[Openvas-discuss] Log from SPI board meeting". lists.wald.intevation.org. 7 July 2007. Archived from the original on 24 October 2010.
  8. ↑ "About Greenbone Community Feed (GCF)". Greenbone Community Forum. 10 January 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2023.
Category:2005 software Category:Free security software Category:Network analyzers Category:Pentesting software toolkits
Category:2005 software Category:All articles containing potentially dated statements Category:Articles containing potentially dated statements from January 2019 Category:Articles with short description Category:Free security software Category:Network analyzers Category:Pentesting software toolkits Category:Short description is different from Wikidata Category:Use dmy dates from September 2023