In the previous article we set up Greenbone Security Assistant and in this article I will show you how to get started setting up your very first target to scan.
Go ahead and log in to your newly installed Greenbone Security Assistant and you should see something like the following.
Setting up a Target
On your Dashboard look to the top right and hover over “Configuration“, click on “Targets“, and you should see the following screen.
On the top left hand corner you see a icon that looks like a piece of paper with a star in it and you see the following screen.
Go ahead and give this target a meaning full name and provide a description for in the comment section. Enter the hosts IP address that you like to scan under Hosts in the Manual field as displayed. In the “Port List” select to start with the “OpenVAS Default” and under “Alive Test” select “Scan Config Default“. You can experiment with the different option by your self. Click on “Save” yo move on to the next step.
Greenbone Security Assistant: Setting up a Schedule
This next step we are going to set up a Schedule. I usually go and set up a TempSchedule which I use with new scans for testing and adjust the scan times on the fly, when I am happy I select a more permanent schedule for the new scan. Hover over “Configuration” and select “Schedule“.
You should see the following screen.
Provide a meaningful name for this schedule and a comment, select your Timezone and a date and time for the first scheduled run. I leave the rest the way it is since this is going to be constantly changed but if you like to set up a recurring schedule make sure your “Run Until” section has the option “Open End” checked and under “Recurrence” select your preferred interval of the scheduled scan. Click on “Save“
Greenbone Security Assistant: Setting up first Task
Now that we have set up a “Target” and a “Schedule” lets go ahead and set up our first Task. Hover over “Scans“, select “Tasks“.
In the top left hand corner you should see an icon that looks like and empty piece of paper with a star in it, and when hovering over it a context menu appears and you can select “New Task“.
On this screen we use the Target and Schedule we set up earlier. Enter a meaningful name and comment for this task. On “Scan Targets” click on the drop down menu and select Win7Test or what ever you created earlier and at the “schedule” option click on it and select the schedule you like to use from the drop down menu. I recommend that you select “Yes” at the option “Alterable Task” so you can make changes to the task later on and for the “Scanner” option select “OpenVAS Default” and under “Scan Config” select “Full and fast ultimate” to start with. I encourage you to play around with those two to see what they do and report back to you. We leave the remaining options as they are and click on “Save“
Greenbone Security Assistant: Your first scan report
After some time you should notice your first scan to be completed after it ran the first scheduled scan and the Dashboard should look something like the following.
Go ahead and hover over the “Scans” and select “Reports“
The reports screen provides you with a very basic overview on the reports of the scanned devices. Click on the “Date” of a scanned device and the report summary screen appears.
Click on the “Results” tab and you see the scan results for the scanned device.
On the results tab it shows you a simply result of the scan and if you like to know more about a reported issue click on it on the left on the vulnerability name and a detailed view appears.
Greenbone Security Assistant: Vulnerability Result
This detailed description tells you a lot about the discovered vulnerability and how to resolve the issue.
Conclusion
This concludes this article. As you have seen it is fairly easy to get targets and scheduled set up and with those set up ahead a time it is easy to create your first Scan Task and review the scan results. Hopefully this article could get you started with Greenbone Security Assistant and improving your network security. If you have suggestions on what you write about feel free to leave a comment or use the contact form and leave me a message. If you like to read more about Greenbone Security Assistant go here to read more.