The following steps will guide you to perform vulnerability scan with the help of OpenVAS:
- OpenVAS does not come preinstalled on Kali Linux, but it is a simple process to get it installed and running. To begin, we will use the apt-get command to install the software; when prompted to continue, type Y:
- Once successfully installed, run the openvas-setup command:
- It will take a while for the set up to configure itself and install the vulnerability test scripts. At the conclusion of the configuration, take note of the password created. This will be needed when logging into the OpenVAS web interface:
- Once OpenVAS has been installed and configured we can start it using the openvas-start command:
- We can now access the OpenVAS web interface by navigating to https://127.0.0.1:9392/ with our local browser. We can authenticate using admin as our Username and Password we received at the conclusion of the openvas-setup process:
- Upon successful authentication you are presented with the OpenVAS dashboard. Here (if you have any) you can see statistics on your scans and vulnerabilities. Given that we have just installed OpenVAS we do not currently have any data to display. We can change this by running a scan. To do this, go to Scans in the top menu and select Tasks:
- Once on the the Tasks page, go to the wand icon in the top-left corner of the page and select Task Wizard:
- From the Task Wizard screen we are prompted to enter an IP address or hostname. For our example, we will use the IP address of our Metasploitable2 machine, 172.16.69.128, and click on the Start Scan button:
- On completion of the wizard, OpenVAS will begin scanning the target assigned. It will take some time for it to run the various scans and tests on your target machine. Upon completion, you should see a summary:
- To view the results of the OpenVAS scan, navigate to the Scans section of the menus and select Results:
- Here you can see the results of your scans. There are helpful charts showing the number of vulnerabilities by class (High, Medium, Low, Log) and by Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS). Following the charts mentioned, we can see a list of each vulnerability, its severity, and its location:
