Network Security Tools

Installing Nessus

You can install the Nessus server on Unix- and Linux-compatible systems. The easiest way to install Nessus is to run the following command:

[notroot]$ lynx -source http://install.nessus.org | sh

This command downloads the file served by http://install.nessus.org/ and runs it using the sh interpreter. If you want to see the contents of the file that is executed, simply point your web browser to http://install.nessus.org/.

If you don’t want to run a shell script from a web site, issue the build commands yourself. Nessus source code is available at http://nessus.org/download/. First, install nessus-libraries:

[notroot]$ tar zxvf nessus-libraries-x.y.z.tar.gz
[notroot]$ cd nessus-libraries
[notroot]$ ./configure
[notroot] make
[root]# make install

Next, install libnasl:

[notroot]$ tar zxvf libnasl-x.y.z.tar.gz
[notroot]$ cd libnasl
[notroot]$ ./configure
[notroot]$ make
[root]# make install
[root]# ldconfig

Then, install nessus-core:

[notroot]$ tar zxvf nessus-core.x.y.z.tar.gz 
[notroot]$ cd nessus-core [notroot]$ ./configure
[notroot]$ make 
[root]# make install

Tip

If you are installing nessus-core on a server that does not have the GTK libraries and you don’t need the Nessus GUI client, run ./configure with the --disable-gtk option.