OpenVAS / Greenbone

Greenbone

Open-source vulnerability scanner forked from Nessus, maintained by Greenbone.

Vulnerability Management Free & Open Source Platform / Suite Learning Linux

Cyber Kill Chain & Defender Lifecycle

Attacker — Kill Chain

1 Reconnaissance

2 Weaponization

3 Delivery

4 Exploitation

5 Installation

6 Command & Control

7 Actions on Objectives

Defender — IR Lifecycle

8 Detection / Monitoring

9 Containment & Eradication

10 Post-incident Forensics

Description

OpenVAS (now packaged as the Greenbone Community Edition) is the leading open-source vulnerability scanner. It originated from the last GPL release of Nessus and remains a credible alternative when budget is the constraint or when an organisation needs an on-premises scanner without licence calls home.

Architecture pieces a CySA+ candidate should recognise:

GVM (Greenbone Vulnerability Management) – top-level platform.
OpenVAS Scanner – the actual scanning engine.
NVT Feed – Network Vulnerability Tests updated daily.
GSA – web UI for managing scans, hosts, targets, reports.

Use cases

Internal scans in air-gapped or budget-constrained environments
Educational labs and CySA+ practice ranges
Continuous monitoring of legacy DMZs