Software Update: Nessus 8.13.0

Nessus is a security scanner that can scan a network for known exploits and open services. Results can then be displayed in various reports to be displayed. The software can also integrated with other packages, such as CyberArk for credential management and emm solutions from Microsoft, Apple, BlackBerry, MobileIron and VMware. Nessus comes in three different flavors: the free-to-use Home edition, and the paid Professional and Manager editions. Tenable has released Nessus 8.13.0 with the following changes:

New Features

The following are the new features included in Nessus 8.13.0:

• Additional operating system support – Nessus is now supported on Amazon Linux 2 and Apple macOS Big Sur (11).
• Agent Remote Configuration – You can configure some agent settings remotely from Nessus Manager, rather than having to configure the setting directly on the agent. For more information, see Modify Remote Agent Settings in the Nessus User Guide.
• New Predefined Reports for Nessus Professional– Added three new predefined reports for Nessus Professional customers, allowing users to create HTML or PDF reports that preconfigure the most useful summaries for vulnerability management. Users can create:
  • A report summarizing a list of IPs with what vulnerabilities were found in the scan.
  • A report summarizing all known/default accounts found on systems during the scan.
  • A report for vulnerabilities older than one year, which gives insight on when the vulnerabilities were initially reported to be exploitable.

Changed Functionality and Performance Enhancements

The following additional enhancements are included in Nessus 8.13.0:

• Nessus updated to use OpenSSL 1.1.1h.
• Prevented downgrading to prior versions if a master password is configured in order to prevent the DB from getting into a corrupted state.
• Increased the default time before Agents are required to relink in Nessus Agent clustering configurations if the parent node is down or unreachable.
• Added capability for Nessus cluster child nodes to link to the Nessus Manager parent node through a proxy.
• Added in-report data descriptions for Nessus Professional pre-defined reports, as well as visual markings to identify Live Results.
• Updated build artifacts to create a separate build for Amazon Linux 2.

Bug Fixes

• Updated the Nessus UI to use jQuery v3.5.1, to address a vendor-reported cross-site scripting vulnerability
• Updated Nessus to use the same username validation for all user creation methods, including mkcert-client
• Fixed an issue that could cause filtered compliance scan results to not export correctly
• Fixed an issue that could cause Nessus Manager with clustering enabled to create very large, fragmented DB files
• Fixed a potential issue with viewing Agent scan results in Nessus Manager for Agents with multiple NICs configured
• Fixed a condition that was causing a benign but misleading error log message for Tenable.io linked scanners
• Added cleanup of orphaned scan policy files on Nessus scanners generated from Tenable.sc launched scans
• Added a setting to allow global disabling of gzip compression for any responses from the Nessus web server.