Nessus Network Auditing

The Updated Version of the Bestselling Nessus Book. This is the ONLY Book to Read if You Run Nessus Across the Enterprise. Ever since its beginnings in early 1998, the Nessus Project has attracted security researchers from all walks of life. It continues this growth today. It has been adopted as a de facto standard by the security industry, vendor, and practitioner alike, many of whom rely on Nessus as the foundation to their security practices. Now, a team of leading developers have created the definitive book for the Nessus community. Perform a Vulnerability Assessment Use Nessus to find programming errors that allow intruders to gain unauthorized access. Obtain and Install Nessus Install from source or binary, set up up clients and user accounts, and update your plug-ins. Modify the Preferences Tab Specify the options for Nmap and other complex, configurable components of Nessus. Understand Scanner Logic and Determine Actual Risk Plan your scanning strategy and learn what variables can be changed. Prioritize Vulnerabilities Prioritize and manage critical vulnerabilities, information leaks, and denial of service errors. Deal with False Positives Learn the different types of false positives and the differences between intrusive and nonintrusive tests. Get Under the Hood of Nessus Understand the architecture and design of Nessus and master the Nessus Attack Scripting Language (NASL). Scan the Entire Enterprise Network Plan for enterprise deployment by gauging network bandwith and topology issues. Nessus is the premier Open Source vulnerability assessment tool, and has been voted the "most popular" Open Source security tool several times. The first edition is still the only book available on the product. Written by the world's premier Nessus developers and featuring a foreword by the creator of Nessus, Renaud Deraison.

This book focuses on installing, configuring and optimizing Nessus, which is a remote security scanner for Linux, BSD, Solaris, and other Unices. It is plug-in-based, has a GTK interface, and performs over 1200 remote security checks. It allows for reports to be generated in HTML, XML, LaTeX, and ASCII text, and suggests solutions for security problems. As with many open source programs, Nessus is incredibly popular, incredibly powerful, and incredibly under-documented. There are many Web sites (including nessus.org) where thousands of users congregate to share tips, tricks, and hints, yet no single, comprehensive resource exists. This book, written by Nessus lead developers, will document all facets of deploying Nessus on a production network.

This book focuses on installing, configuring and optimizing Nessus, which is a remote security scanner for Linux, BSD, Solaris, and other Unices. It is plug-in-based, has a GTK interface, and performs over 1200 remote security checks. It allows for reports to be generated in HTML, XML, LaTeX, and ASCII text, and suggests solutions for security problems. As with many open source programs, Nessus is incredibly popular, incredibly powerful, and incredibly under-documented. There are many Web sites (including nessus.org) where thousands of users congregate to share tips, tricks, and hints, yet no single, comprehensive resource exists. This book, written by Nessus lead developers, will document all facets of deploying Nessus on a production network. * Nessus is the premier Open Source vulnerability assessment tool, and was recently voted the "most popular" open source security tool of any kind. * This is the first book available on Nessus and it is written by the world's premier Nessus developers led by the creator of Nessus, Renaud Deraison. * The dramatic success of Syngress' SNORT 2.0 INTRUSION DETECTION clearly illustrates the strong demand for books that offer comprehensive documentation of Open Source security tools that are otherwise Undocumented.

Nessus, Snort, and Ethereal Power Tools covers customizing Snort to perform intrusion detection and prevention; Nessus to analyze the network layer for vulnerabilities; and Ethereal to sniff their network for malicious or unusual traffic. The book contains an appendix detailing the best of the rest open source security tools. Each of these tools is intentionally designed to be highly customizable so that users can torque the programs to suit their particular needs. Users can code their own custom rules, plug-ins, and filters that are tailor-made to fit their own networks and the threats which they most commonly face. The book describes the most important concepts of coding and customizing tools, and then provides readers with invaluable working scripts that can either be used as is or further refined by using knowledge gained from the book. Snort, Nessus, and Ethereal are the three most popular open source security tools in the world Only book that teaches readers how to customize these tools for their specific needs by coding rules, plugins, and filters Companion Web site provides all working code and scripts from the book for download

This book will take readers from the discovery of vulnerabilities and the creation of the corresponding exploits, through a complete security assessment, all the way through deploying patches against these vulnerabilities to protect their networks. This is unique in that it details both the management and technical skill and tools required to develop an effective vulnerability management system. Business case studies and real world vulnerabilities are used through the book. It starts by introducing the reader to the concepts of a vulnerability management system. Readers will be provided detailed timelines of exploit development, vendors’ time to patch, and corporate path installations. Next, the differences between security assessment s and penetration tests will be clearly explained along with best practices for conducting both. Next, several case studies from different industries will illustrate the effectiveness of varying vulnerability assessment methodologies. The next several chapters will define the steps of a vulnerability assessment including: defining objectives, identifying and classifying assets, defining rules of engagement, scanning hosts, and identifying operating systems and applications. The next several chapters provide detailed instructions and examples for differentiating vulnerabilities from configuration problems, validating vulnerabilities through penetration testing. The last section of the book provides best practices for vulnerability management and remediation. * Unique coverage detailing both the management and technical skill and tools required to develop an effective vulnerability management system * Vulnerability management is rated the #2 most pressing concern for security professionals in a poll conducted by Information Security Magazine * Covers in the detail the vulnerability management lifecycle from discovery through patch.

Seagren shows readers how to secure their network from top to bottom without spending a penny on security software using best of breed open source software including Snort, Nessus, and Ethereal.