Analyzing the Results
In this section we will analyze the results of our first vulnerability scan.
Due to the continuous updates of Nessus and its plugins,
the scan results can differ slightly.
We can click on the scan in the My Scans list
to get to the results dashboard.
The initial view displays the Hosts page,
which lists all scanned hosts and provides a visual representation
of the vulnerability data.
This allows us to identify important findings in one glance
and gives us an overview of the security status of each system.
On the bottom right,
Nessus displays a visual representation of the distribution
of all targets’ vulnerability information.
Above it,
we can find general information about the vulnerability scan.
To get the list of findings from a specific host,
we can click on a list entry.
The Severity column
gives us a quick indicator if this is a critical finding or not.
We also notice that there are three findings with MIXED severity.
Nessus uses this severity when it groups findings.
The Count column shows us how many findings the corresponding group contains.
We can click on a grouped finding
to display a list of all findings in this group.
Let’s click on Apache Httpd (Multiple Issues),
which is listed as Web Servers under the Family column.
The information on the findings is now shown separately instead of grouped.
We can get more information by clicking on a finding.
Let’s click on Apache Path Traversal Vulnerability.
Each finding contains a huge amount of information
about the vulnerability itself,
as well as the plugin that detected it.
Furthermore, we get a lot of information about the associated risk,
status of exploits, and other references.
Next, let’s navigate back to the results dashboard to explore our scan further.
Analyzing the findings of a single target
provides us with a lot of detailed information.
However, we often want to get an overview
of the most important vulnerabilities of all targets.
To achieve this,
Nessus provides a handy feature to get a prioritized overview of vulnerabilities
called Vulnerability Priority Rating (VPR),
which we can access by clicking on the VPR Top Threats tab.
The findings in the VPR list consist of the top ten vulnerabilities of the scan.
In our example, the list only contains nine vulnerabilities
as Nessus didn’t find more with our configuration.
The next page we’ll examine is Remediations.
If Nessus detects a vulnerability,
the plugins often contain a remediation strategy,
or information on how to mitigate the vulnerability.
In the case of the Apache vulnerabilities,
we get instructions to upgrade to Apache version 2.4.54 or later.
The last report page is History.
This page lists all vulnerability scans with this configuration.
We can use it to review or compare results of previous scans.
We now have an understanding of how to view the results of a Nessus scan.
Next, let’s create a PDF report of our vulnerability scan.
We can do this by using the functions in the Report dashboard.
Apart from the creation of a report,
the functions also cover the change of the scan configuration,
launch of another scan,
or exporting data.
We can also configure an Audit Trail,
which allows us to analyze why a specific plugin behaved in a certain way.
It can be used to reduce the number of false negatives.
Let’s create a PDF report for our first vulnerability scan by clicking Report.
Once we click on the button,
a new window allows us to use different report templates.
Each template generates the report with a different structure,
For this example,
we’ll use the Detailed Vulnerabilities By Host template,
which presents detailed findings grouped by each host.
We’ll then select PDF as format and click Generate Report.
After this, we can download or open the PDF report.
We could also use the Complete List of Vulnerabilities by Host template
to create a summary of the vulnerabilities instead of including detailed information.
In the last two sections we performed a vulnerability scan,
reviewed the results,
and generated a PDF report with detailed information for all hosts.
We can get more familiar with Nessus by customizing the scan configurations
and analyzing how the scanning behavior and results differ.