From Fedora Project Wiki

Description

Using OpenVAS to scan a hosts or network for vulnerabilities.

Setup

  • A remote host with various network services (SSH, HTTP, DNS, SMTP ...) is required. For example: a Linux server with OpenSSH, Apache HTTPd, ISC BIND, Postfix or Sendmail.
  • Open ports of the scanned services in the remote host firewall.
  • Ensure the openvas-scanner, openvas-libraries, openvas-client packages are installed.

How to test

  1. Start OpenVAS scanner: /etc/init.d/openvas-scanner
  2. Create a new certificate: openvas-mkcert
  3. Add a OpenVAS user: openvas-adduser
  4. Update the NVTs: openvas-nvt-sync
  5. Restart OpenVAS scanner (take a while for the first time): /etc/init.d/openvas-scanner restart
  6. Start OpenVAS client: openvas-client (Or System Tools > OpenVAS Client)
  7. Connect to OpenVAS server with the user created in step 3.
  8. Create a new scan using the client and wait until it finishes.
  9. Export the report to a HTML or PDF.

Expected Results

  1. The scan should finish correctly.
  2. In the report, you should see the network services being scanned and vulnerabilities reported.