Tag Archive for: it security

Markus Feilner

Master’s thesis: Automated vulnerability detection and response in the network perimeter

The long-standing cooperation between Greenbone AG and the University of Osnabrück has once again resulted in a successful master’s thesis.

Graphic representation of the Greenbone Enterprise Appliance 450 with reference to new master's thesis in cooperation with the University of Osnabrück

Under the title “Development of an Automated Network Perimeter Threat Prevention System (DETERRERS)”, Nikolas Wintering wrote his master’s thesis in the Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science working group of the Department of Mathematics/Computer Science at the University of Osnabrück, developing a system for automated threat prevention at the network perimeter of a university campus network.

Particularly at risk: universities

Universities are vibrant centers of information exchange and collaboration; with their numerous hosts and a multitude of services, they offer a large attack surface for cyber threats. It is therefore enormously important for educational institutions to identify vulnerable points and automatically isolate them from the internet.

Automated vulnerability management

By automating the interactions between administrators, vulnerability scanners, and perimeter firewalls, administrators are thus supported in their work, and the university IT network is protected. Part of the system developed in the master’s thesis is also the automation of the risk assessment of the vulnerability scan results and the generation of host-based firewall configurations.

“Through the use of DETERRERS and the associated adaptation of the release processes, the security in the university network could be massively improved with very little additional effort for administrators. With the automated mitigation, it is also possible to react to new threats at short notice and thus quickly close a potential new attack surface without long manual runtimes.”
Eric Lanfer, M. Sc. (Osnabrück Computing Center, Networks Group)

Practical application and a free demonstrator

Based on a practical application in a campus network, Wintering evaluates how the risk assessment works, how the attack surface is reduced, and what effects the system has on the work of administrators. In the process, a demonstrator was also created, whose source code and functionality can be viewed and tested by interested parties on GitHub. In the long term, a continuation as an open-source project is planned.

“This is a very successful work with clear added value for practice. Making efficient security mechanisms usable in everyday life is often a big challenge, and this master’s thesis makes very convincing contributions to this.”
Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Nils Aschenbruck (University of Osnabrück, Institute of Computer Science, Distributed Systems Group)

Greenbone: experts for universities and more

Greenbone has been supplying numerous customers in the university environment with vulnerability management products for many years. Thanks to this extensive experience, we have always been able to identify and collect industry-specific requirements and incorporate them into the further development of our products.

The University of Osnabrück uses the Greenbone Enterprise Appliance 450, and we very much welcome the fact that this solution has now become part of a master’s thesis. We congratulate Nikolas Wintering on this successful scientific evaluation.


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Elmar Geese

Cyber Resilience Act makes vulnerability management mandatory

We live and work in the digital world. The issue of cybersecurity therefore affects us all – both companies and government administrations, as well as each and every one of us. This applies not only to our own direct use of digital systems, but also – sometimes even in particular – where others provide us with digitalized services that are sometimes desirable, but also irreplaceable. It becomes existential at the latest where we depend on critical infrastructure: Water, electricity, health, security and some more.

As technical networking increase, nearly every digital device becomes a potential gateway for cyberattacks. Cybersecurity is therefore a technical, social and consumer issue.

The German government sensibly relies on (quote from the coalition agreement of the SPD, Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and the FDP) “effective vulnerability management, with the aim of closing security gaps”. To establish a general resilience against cyber-attacks in Europe, the EU has launched the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA)

Cyber Resilience Act makes vulnerability management mandatory

In the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), the EU member states have agreed on a common position – this was announced by the Council of the EU in a press release at the end of July and reports optimistically:
“An agreement that advances EU’s commitment towards a safe and secure digital single market. IoT and other connected objects need to come with a baseline level of cybersecurity when they are sold in the EU, ensuring that businesses and consumers are effectively protected against cyber threats. This is an important milestone for the Spanish presidency, and we hope to bring forward negotiations with the Parliament as much as possible.”
(https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2023/07/19/cyber-resilience-act-member-states-agree-common-position-on-security-requirements-for-digital-products/)

The CRA is intended to anchor digital security sustainably in Europe through common cybersecurity standards for networked devices and services. Thus, the CRA not only has a high impact on the manufacturers of digital devices, the EU is also creating a new, norm-setting standard. As an IT security company, we have been supporting our customers in achieving the best possible security standard for 15 years. We see the new standardization by the CRA as an opportunity and are happy to help our customers to use it for even more security.

Continuously demonstrate safety

The new CRA regulations on vulnerability handling and detection, which are intended to “ensure the cybersecurity of digital products … and regulate obligations of economic operators such as importers or distributors with regard to these procedures”, pose challenges for many companies. Using tools such as Greenbone’s vulnerability management makes it much easier to comply with the new requirements. This also goes as far as checking whether suppliers, for example, meet the required and assured safety standards.

More responsibility

Companies are called upon by the CRA to carry out regular, permanent and sustainable vulnerability analyses and to have external audits carried out for products classified as “critical”. This can be especially difficult for older products. Greenbone also helps because we can examine such products, which are often imperfectly documented, even while they are in operation.

Where our customers already do this regularly, they are able to act quickly and gain valuable time to mitigate potential risks.

Become active now

The CRA introduces rules to protect digital products that were not previously covered by law, so companies face new and major challenges that affect the entire supply chain.

We can help you meet the requirements. The Greenbone Enterprise Appliances quickly enable compliance with the CRA. Our experts will be happy to advise you.


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Markus Feilner

Federal, state and EU governments invest millions in cybersecurity funding

Starting in 2024, the EU plans to spend one billion euros on the “Cybersolidarity Act”, and North Rhine-Westphalia is funding institutions that invest in IT security and hazard prevention with more than 70 million euros: Anyone who has not yet put the topic of vulnerability management on their agenda should do so as soon as possible – and take advantage of the funding that has been made available.

Visual representation of digital map with text: "300 million for crisis management in North Rhine-Westphalia", highlighting regional cybersecurity funding.

The EU will invest massively in vulnerability management: According to a DPA report, the Commission wants to “establish national and cross-border security centres across the EU” that will use artificial intelligence (AI) and data analysis to detect and report cyber threats and incidents in a timely manner.”
A “European Cybersolidarity Act” is to be, achieved to “strengthen the EU’s capabilities for effective operational cooperation, solidarity and resilience”, concretely this means “creating a secure digital environment for citizens and businesses and protecting critical facilities and essential services such as hospitals and public utilities.”

Concrete plans

The law provides for a cyber emergency mechanism, preparedness measures, the creation of a new EU cyber security reserve and financial support for mutual administrative assistance, as well as the creation of an “EU Cyber Security Skills Academy” (on the EU’s Digital Skills & Jobs platform). Two thirds of the 1.1 billion will be financed through the “Digital Europe” programme.

70 million in funding from NRW

However, the increasing attacks on critical infrastructures, authorities and companies are not leaving the governments of the federal states idle. The federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, is setting a good example: the black-green state government under Science Minister Brandes (CDU) is now concretely offering to support day-care centres, schools and universities not only with energy prices, but also with 77 million euros in cybersecurity in the same package. According to dpa, this includes many different aspects, from IT systems such as firewalls or two-factor authentication to emergency power generators and locking systems, but also “more personnel” in the field of cybersecurity. Existing funding pots for IT security, for example digital-sicher.nrw, remain unaffected.

Funding from the federal government and other states

The federal government is also currently providing support for security-conscious entrepreneurs and managers: the BMWK is currently setting up a transfer office for IT security in the economy, whose funding office is to provide targeted support for small and medium-sized enterprises. In Bavaria, which is dominated by the election campaign, information can be found at Bayern Innovativ or at the IT Security Cluster. Hesse boasts of offering a “nationwide unique support for small and medium-sized enterprises against cyber attacks”, and in Baden-Württemberg, they not only support AI cybersecurity projects, but in January they also launched half a million euros in funding for SMEs that want to invest in cybersecurity.

Greenbone’ support for cybersecurity

We at Greenbone have created a solution with the Greenbone Enterprise Appliances that closes this gap and ensures cybersecurity. Potential vulnerabilities are found before they are exploited. The vast majority of vulnerabilities that lead to damage in IT infrastructures are not new, but have been known for more than a year. What is often missing are solutions that offer active security by detecting such vulnerabilities before they are exploited by attackers, prioritising them and making suggestions for their elimination. This is exactly what Greenbone has been doing very successfully for over 10 years.

The Greenbone Enterprise Appliances offer solutions for different needs, adaptable to the individual company size in the form of a hardware solution or as a virtual solution. In addition, the package includes an all-round service from support with the application for funding and implementation to data analysis and remediation of vulnerabilities. Find out more about Greenbone’s cybersecurity here.


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Markus Feilner

Greenbone tests your web applications

Reduce the risk of an attack from the internet on your servers: Take advantage of Greenbone’s latest offer: With our Pentesting Web Applications, we help you to get the best possible security for your web applications.

The numbers speak for themselves: attacks on web applications are on the rise, have been for years, and there is no end in sight. The complexity of modern web presences and services requires a high level of security measures and cannot be managed without testing by experts.

The only thing that helps here is the technique of so-called “pentesting” of web applications, or more precisely “web application penetration testing”. With this attempt to penetrate protected systems from the outside (“penetration”), Greenbone’s experts create an active analysis of vulnerabilities and can thus evaluate the security of a web application. Although there are guidelines such as the highly recommended one from the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), which describes the procedure for testing, nothing can replace the expert who puts your system under the microscope himself. In this video you will get a first impression of the work of our security experts. 

Greenbone acts strictly according to the regulations of the DSGVO, is certified according to ISO 27001/9001. As with its vulnerability management products, with the web application pentests you also receive detailed reports on your security situation with clear instructions for action, which the Greenbone experts are happy to help you implement. The offer covers both the client and server side of your web applications and is based on the most modern and up-to-date guidelines, for example the OWASP Top 10 or the OWASP Risk Assessment Framework (RAF). Whether it is cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, information disclosure or command injection, whether there are gaps in the authentication mechanisms of your servers or websockets are the source of danger – Greenbone’s experts will find the vulnerabilities.

As the world’s leading provider of open source vulnerability management products, Greenbone always has the latest expertise in dealing with vulnerabilities and security risks, including here in “black box testing”, when our experts take a close look at your systems from the outside, just as an attacker would: with the perspective of a potential attacker, you will ideally find every existing vulnerability in your IT infrastructure and can take care of fixing them. Only those who know their vulnerabilities can implement security measures in a targeted manner. Find out more about Greenbone AG’s products and services here.

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Markus Feilner

Outlook Zero Day: Greenbone vulnerability management helps

At its latest patchday, software manufacturer Microsoft patched a severe zero-day vulnerability that had been exploited by intelligence agencies and Russian hacker groups, among others, in the summer of 2022. Early on, Greenbone was able to provide a test in the process, helping companies find unpatched systems and secure data centers and clients.

The CVE-2023-23397 was discovered by the Ukrainian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA), affects all versions of Microsoft Outlook on Windows and allows attackers to access SMB servers via emails with extended MAPI commands.

Fully automated attack in the background

This, Microsoft warns urgently, can happen fully automatically and in the background, without the user having opened or even previewed the malicious mail: The dangerous commands would be executed directly upon arrival – no credentials entered or careless mouse clicks done by the user are necessary.

Even though all users of Outlook for Windows are affected; systems with Android, iOS or macOS are not vulnerable. Attackers can only exploit this vulnerability if the (old) NTLM authentication is used, web interfaces such as Office 365 are also safe, as Microsoft explains.


Mitigation: Block SMB connections, add users to AD groups

Due to the high potential for damage, the vendor strongly urges customers to apply the appropriate patch. As intermediate, temporary solution, users should be included in the group of protected users in Active Directory and all outgoing SMB connections should be blocked.

Greenbone customers had been provided with an examined test shortly after Microsoft’s patchday. Details of our vulnerability test are available to Greenbone customers here – it is already integrated into Greenbone’s Security Feed and the vulnerability detection of our products.

Incidentally, in a blog post, Microsoft states that previous attacks via this vulnerability have been of limited scope, mostly targeting a “limited number of government, transportation, energy and military organizations in Europe” in 2022 and carried out by Russian-based actors. Media outlets such as Bleeping Computer, which first obtained the internal information from Microsoft, reported attacks from April to December 2022, also carried out by the well-known APT-28 group, for example.

Test Greenbone Vulnerability Management for free

As a “Trial” the Greenbone Enterprise Appliances are free of charge for 14 days. Users can try it out quickly, without special know-how directly in the web browser. A direct upgrade to a valid subscription is possible at any time. All Greenbone Enterprise Appliances use the daily updated Greenbone Enterprise Feed which helps to automatically test your IT network and all connected devices for more than 100,000 vulnerabilities and provides a daily updated, accurate status of the security situation in your company. Because the vulnerability check also provides information on the severity, you can easily prioritize the identified vulnerabilities and the measures to be taken.

Vulnerability management that inspects your IT infrastructure from the outside is indispensable in modern companies. Ideally, by acting like a potential attacker, you can find all vulnerabilities in your IT infrastructure the attacker could exploit. so to speak, and take care of its elimination. Only those who know their vulnerabilities can implement the right security measures.


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Markus Feilner

Greenbone launches new Community Portal

Greenbone, the global leader in open source vulnerability management solutions, has launched a community portal for its user and developer community, making the extensive information available for community editions clearer and easier to access.

Graphic with rocket and the welcome to the new Greenbone Community Portal

Who is the portal for?

At community.greenbone.net, vulnerability management experts invite users, developers and all IT professionals who are professionally involved in security and protection against hackers to browse forums, blogs, news and documentation and help shape the pages.

Central point of contact
“Our new Community Portal is the central place where users, experts, Greenbone employees and anyone else interested can meet and get up-to-the-minute information about the products, the company or new features,” explains Greenbone’s Community Manager DeeAnn Little: “We want the portal to be a home for the large, worldwide Greenbone community, with all the links and information anyone who works with our vulnerability management tools needs.”

What the new portal offers
For both Greenbone OpenVAS and the Greenbone Community Edition, you can find (under “Getting started“) numerous instructions on how to install and configure the community versions. In addition, there are news and updates, for example about the recently released Docker container releases of the Community Edition but also current figures about Greenbone installations on a world map and a completely revised forum with new categories and Blog.

For the community, with the community
“All this would not be possible without the numerous contributions from the Greenbone community, but at the same time this is only the first step,” explains Little: “In the future, we will also have our experts explain technical details and present new features here.

Greenbone invites the large community to give input and suggestions which topics are of relevance and interest for them Little explains:

“We welcome all input and all suggestions, ideas and ideas for improvement, which is exactly what the portal is here for. Send us your questions, any questions! What have we missed? What would you like to see? How can we make the portal, the forum and the new pages even better? What topics would you like to see – what should we report on?” You can leave your statement here, we will be glad to reveive it.

Greenbone Community Forum in a new look

Greenbone has also integrated the popular User Forum into the Community Portal. With the new look, it will continue to provide users of Greenbone’s software – regardless of their technical background – with a platform for ideas, mutual help, but also feedback.

Screenshot of the new Greenbone Community Forum with categories and current discussions

“The forum is a place where users can meet and help each other as equals – it’s a place of exchange where we can always learn, too,” Little explains. “Whether it’s a beginner’s question, more in-depth howtos, or getting started guides, many a user will find help from experienced users in the forum, even in exotic setups.”


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Elmar Geese

Follina (CVE-2022-30190): Greenbone’s Feeds Offer Protection

Once again, a flaw has surfaced in Microsoft Office that allows attackers to remotely execute malicious code on the systems of attacked users using manipulated documents. Known as Follina, CVE-2022-30190 has been known for years, but Microsoft has not fixed it to date. Greenbone has added an appropriate vulnerability test to their feeds to detect the new Follina vulnerability in Microsoft Office.

Visual showing a digital padlock and binary code with the text “Follina CVE-2022-30190 Zero Day”, symbolizing a critical Microsoft Office vulnerability.

Follina Requires Immediate Action

The CVE named “Follina” is critical and requires immediate action: just opening Microsoft Word documents can give attackers access to your resources. Because a flaw in Microsoft Office allows attackers to download templates from the Internet via ms-msdt:-URI handler at the first click, attackers can create manipulated documents that, in the worst case, can take over entire client systems or spy on credentials.

According to Microsoft, the “protected view” offers protection. However, because users can deactivate this with just one click, the US manufacturer advises deactivating the entire URL handler via a registry entry. As of today, all Office versions seem to be affected.

Greenbone Enterprise Feed Helps and Protects

The Greenbone Enterprise Feed and the Greenbone Community Feed now contain an authenticated check for Microsoft’s proposed workaround, helping you to protect yourself from the impact of the vulnerability. Our development team is monitoring the release of Microsoft patches and recommendations for further coverage. We will inform about updates here on the blog.

Securing IT Networks for the Long Term

If you want to know which systems in your network are (still) vulnerable to vulnerabilities – including the critical vulnerability associated with CVE-2022-30190– our vulnerability management helps you. It applies to systems that definitely need to be patched or otherwise protected. Depending on the type of systems and vulnerability, they can be found better or worse. Detection is also constantly improving and being updated. New gaps are found. Therefore, there may always be more systems with vulnerabilities in the network. Thus, it is worthwhile to regularly update and scan all systems. For this purpose, Greenbone’s vulnerability management offers appropriate automation functions.

Vulnerability management is an indispensable part of IT security. It can find risks and provides valuable information on how to eliminate them. However, no single measure, including vulnerability management, offers 100 % security. To make a system secure, many systems are used, which in their entirety should provide the best possible security.

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Elmar Geese

TISAX Certification for Greenbone

Greenbone is now a TISAX participant and its Information Security Management System (ISMS) and data protection processes are certified within the German automotive industry’s TISAX scheme. “We have taken this step as an effort in providing the best possible protection of sensitive and confidential information for our customers, as the next logical step after being successfully certified for worldwide accepted international industry standards like ISO 27001 and ISO 9001.” – Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner, CEO of Greenbone. The results are available on the ENX portal using the Scope ID S3LW9L and the Assessment ID A1P7V9. TISAX and TISAX results are not intended for general public.

TISAX-Logo

TISAX, the “Trusted Information Security Assessment Exchange”, is a mechanism for checking and exchanging test results according to industry-specific standards. Originally created as a system for the exchange of standardized test results in the automotive industry, it is optimized for the risk assessment of suppliers. Therefore, TISAX is being developed and governed by the ENX Association and published by the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). Its focus lies on secure information processing between business partners, protection of prototypes and data protection in accordance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for potential deals between car manufacturers and their service providers or suppliers.

As a crucial part of a secure supply chain, TISAX is a standard for Information Security Management Systems (ISMS), originally derived from the ISO/IEC 27001 standard in 2017, but has since diverged. For the automotive industry, TISAX brings standardization, quality assurance and guarantees information security measures are assessed by audit providers in accordance with the VDA standards. Audits according to TISAX, especially for service providers and suppliers, are carried out by so-called “TISAX audit service providers” and come with three levels of maturity an overview of which you can find in the TISAX Participant Handbook and on websites of certification providers like Adacor (German only).

Greenbone’s certifications increase our products’ value for our customers, not just by saving time and money, but also by proving our outstanding security level and high standards. Elmar Geese, CIO at Greenbone: “With TISAX, we document our independently audited security status. Customers do not need to do individual assessments, work with lengthy questionnaires or all the other things needed in a bottom-up audit. We guarantee that we meet their security requirements.”

Therefore, Greenbone follows the question catalogue of information security of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA ISA). The assessment was conducted by an audit provider. The result is exclusively retrievable via the ENX portal (Scope ID: S3LW9L, Assessment ID: A1P7V9).


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Jan-Oliver Wagner

Active and Passive Vulnerability Scans – One Step Ahead of Cyber Criminals

In networked production, IT and OT are growing closer and closer together. Where once a security gap “only” caused a data leak, today the entire production can collapse. Those who carry out regular active and passive vulnerability scans can protect themselves.

What seems somewhat strange in the case of physical infrastructure – who would recreate a break-in to test their alarm system – is a tried and tested method in IT for identifying vulnerabilities. This so-called active scanning can be performed daily and automatically. Passive scanning, on the other hand, detects an intrusion in progress, because every cyber intrusion also leaves traces, albeit often hidden.

Controlling the Traffic

Firewalls and antivirus programs, for example, use passive scanning to check traffic reaching a system. This data is then checked against a database. Information about malware, unsafe requests and other anomalies is stored there. For example, if the firewall receives a request from an insecure sender that wants to read out users’ profile data, it rejects the request. The system itself is unaware of this because the passive scan does not access the system but only the data traffic.

The advantage of this is the fact that the system does not have to use any additional computing power. Despite the scan, the full bandwidth can be used. This is particularly useful for critical components. They should have the highest possible availability. The fewer additional activities they perform, the better.

The disadvantage of passive scanning is that only systems that are actively communicating by themselves can be seen. This does not include office software or PDF readers, for example. But even services that do communicate do so primarily with their main functions. Functions with vulnerabilities that are rarely or not at all used in direct operation are not visible, or are only visible when the attack is already in progress.

Checking the Infrastructure

Active scans work differently and simulate attacks. They make requests to the system and thereby try to trigger different reactions. For example, the active scanner sends a request for data transfer to various programs in the system. If one of the programs responds and forwards the data to the simulated unauthorized location, the scanner has found a security hole.

Graphic comparing active and passive vulnerability scanning: On the left, the scanner sends requests to network devices (active scan); on the right, it passively monitors data traffic (passive scan).

The advantage: the data quality that can be achieved with active scanning is higher than with passive scanning. Since interaction takes place directly with software and interfaces, problems can be identified in programs that do not normally communicate directly with the network. This is also how vulnerabilities are discovered in programs such as Office applications.

However, when interacting directly, systems have to handle extra requests which may then affect the basic functions of a program. Operating technology such as machine control systems, for example, are not necessarily designed to perform secondary tasks. Here, scanning under supervision and, as a supplement, continuous passive scanning are recommended.

Scanning Actively, but Minimally Invasive

Nevertheless, active scanning is essential for operational cyber security. This is because the risk posed by the short-term overuse of a system component is small compared to a production outage or data leak. Moreover, active scans not only uncover vulnerabilities, they can also enhance passive scans. For example, the vulnerabilities that are detected can be added to firewall databases. This also helps other companies that use similar systems.

Active and Passive Scanning Work Hand in Hand

Since the passive scanner can also provide the active scanner with helpful information, such as information about cell phones or properties about network services, these two security tools can be considered as complementary. What they both have in common is that they always automatically get the best out of the given situation in the network. For the passive and active scanning techniques, it does not matter which or how many components and programs the network consists of. Both security technologies recognize this by themselves and adjust to it. Only with a higher level of security does the optimized tuning of network and scanners begin.

So it is not a question of whether to use one or the other. Both methods are necessary to ensure a secure network environment. A purely passive approach will not help in many cases. Proactive vulnerability management requires active scans and tools to manage them. This is what Greenbone’s vulnerability management products provide.


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Markus Feilner

New Vulnerability Scanner “Notus”

The employees of Greenbone are currently developing a completely new scanner for version comparisons. The new vulnerability scanner “Notus” should significantly accelerate the comparison of software versions, CVEs and patches in the future.

Scanner architecture of the new vulnerability scanner

 

A large part of modern vulnerability management consists of comparing software versions. If you want to find out whether your server is immune to a vulnerability, you need to know which version of a particular software is running on that machine. For example, version 1 may be affected by a vulnerability that is already fixed in version 2. Whether vulnerability scanners like the new vulnerability scanner “Notus” issue a warning depends, among other things, heavily on the result of these comparisons.

Björn Ricks, Unit Lead Services & Platforms at Greenbone explains, “Such tasks alone accounted for more than a third of a scanner’s work, and the scanner we have optimized specifically for version comparisons is designed to speed this up significantly.”

Performance Shortcomings of Classic Scanners

At the beginning of the work of a classic scanner is an advisory with a gap found by experts. Greenbone employees then search for matching (affected) software versions and those that have already corrected the error. This information must now be made available to the scanner.

“It then rattles off the relevant servers and records software running there. For the actual scan, it essentially only gets the info about affected and fixed packages,” Ricks explains. “With the OpenVAS scanner and its predecessors, we usually had to start a separate process per version check, meaning a separate manually created script. Generating these scripts automatically is costly.”

JSON Data Helps Speed up the Scanner

The new scanner, on the other hand, only loads the data it needs from files in JSON format, an easy-to-read plain-text standard. “This means the logic for the tests is no longer in the scripts. This has many advantages: fewer processes, less overhead, less memory required.” Ricks believes the approach is “significantly more efficient.”

Elmar Geese, COO of Greenbone explains, “Our new Notus scanner will be a milestone for our users, it will significantly improve performance. Our well-known high detection quality as well as performance are key goals of our product strategy, and the new scanner supports this in an optimal way.”

The “Notus” project consists of two parts: a “Notus” generator, which creates the JSON files containing information about vulnerable RPM/Debian packages, and the “Notus” scanner, which loads these JSON files and interprets the information from them. Greenbone plans to complete the new vulnerability scanner “Notus” in the next few months.

About Greenbone and OpenVAS

When the development team of the vulnerability scanner Nessus decided to stop working under open source licenses and switch to a proprietary business model in 2005, several forks of Nessus were created. Only one of them is still active: the Open Vulnerability Assessment System (OpenVAS).

The founding of Greenbone in 2008 aimed to drive the development of OpenVAS and provide users with professional vulnerability scanning support. Greenbone started to lead the further development of OpenVAS, added several software components and thus transformed OpenVAS into a comprehensive vulnerability management solution that still carries the values of free software. The first appliances hit the market in spring 2010.

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