OpenVAS

This article outlines the steps to set up the Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner, also known as OpenVAS, on a Kali virtual machine.

Tools/Skills Required

• Kali Virtual Machine (You can use the prebuilt Kali images available)

• Ability to use the command-line terminal in Kali

Steps to install OpenVAS on Kali

Begin by updating and upgrading the package repository on Kali using the following command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Then, download the package for OpenVAS using the following command:

sudo apt install gvm -y

Next, use the following command to install and setup OpenVAS:

sudo gvm-setup

You will be shown the password for the admin user. Ensure to make a note of this password:

If you encounter any errors at this point, navigate to the Troubleshooting section at the end of this article.

Issue the following command to validate the success of the setup process:

sudo gvm check-setup

If the installation has progressed as expected, you will be shown a message that the GVM installation is OK, as shown in the following screenshot:

Issue the following command to download the latest community feeds:

sudo greenbone-feed-sync

Once the feeds have been downloaded, issue the following command to start OpenVAS:

sudo gvm-start

You will be shown the login page. Provide the credentials for the admin user. Here, use the password displayed to you during the setup process:

After logging in, you will see a message that the feeds are being synced:

Navigate, to the Administration | Feed Status section to view the current status of the feeds:

The feed will be updated. This process may take a few minutes to a few hours to complete:

Once the status for all the feeds is marked as Current, as shown below, OpenVAS is ready to use for vulnerability assessments.

Troubleshooting

You may encounter errors as shown below during the installation of OpenVAS:

In this case, issue the following command to view the status of PostgreSQL clusters used by OpenVAS:

sudo pg_lsclusters

If the result is displayed in red, it means the cluster is currently unavailable. In this case, note the value in the Ver column. It is 17 in the following screenshot:

Then, issue the following command to make the PostgreSQL cluster available:

sudo pg_ctlcluster 17 main start

Ensure to provide the cluster version number that matches your setup.

Once this process completes, view the status of the PostgreSQL cluster again. If the result is displayed in green, it means the cluster is now online and available.

You can proceed with the OpenVAS setup.