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Internal Vulnerability Scanning on Linux: Manual Set-Up

Internal Vulnerability Scanning on Linux: Manual Set-Up

How to set up our agent-based internal scanning solution to protect Linux devices in your internal network
Patrick Craston avatar
Written by Patrick Craston. Updated over a week ago

This article describes how to manually install the agent on a Linux device. If you wish to individually install the agent on devices, you can use the installation wizard inside the platform.

🚨 IMPORTANT 🚨

For each agent that you install, you must have a license available; if you don't, the machine(s) won't show up on your targets page.

👉 If you're installing the agent on 10 machines, you must have 10 licenses available.

Step 1: Download the agent installer (but don't launch installer).

  • Select the right installer package for your flavour of Linux and download it.

Step 2: Install the agent*

Fedora, Red Hat, CentOS, and Oracle Linux:

rpm -ivh [NessusAgent package].rpm

Ubuntu, Debian:

dpkg -i [NessusAgent package].deb

Step 3: Configure the command

Open the Targets page > Add Targets > Internal targets

Click 'View configuration keys'

Copy the 'Prefix' and the 'Key'

  • Assemble your name. It's comprised of:

    • Your Prefix (unique identifier of your account)

    • and your DeviceName (what you'd like the target to be named in the portal).

e.g. DQEGBQUAAAc_paul-laptop

  • Populate the command below with your Prefix and DeviceName

/opt/nessus_agent/sbin/nessuscli agent link --name=[Prefix_DeviceName] --key=819652a91d674e8d5be08e21299f1a3c69bd9806c72e24bc05df6b32b8db7fe1 --cloud

  • Your DeviceName can also be populated automatically using the hostname of the computer by using the following command:

/opt/nessus_agent/sbin/nessuscli agent link --name=[Prefix]_$(hostname -s) --key=819652a91d674e8d5be08e21299f1a3c69bd9806c72e24bc05df6b32b8db7fe1 --cloud

Step four: Link the agent to Intruder

  • Open the Terminal

  • Run the linking command you created above

Possible error messages

error: Failed dependencies:

This means that the installation has failed because some dependencies need to be installed first – they should be listed under this message. If you could install them first, then try the installation again, it should work.

*The location of nessuscli might vary depending on your version of Linux

Note: Internal vulnerability scanning is available to users with a Pro, Premium or Vanguard plan.

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