Tag Archive for: OpenVAS

Greenbone AG

Availability of CVE Vulnerability Data in Greenbone Products

Greenbone AG has been consistently committed to an independent and resilient supply chain for the provision of vulnerability data for many years. Against the background of current discussions on the financing and sustainability of the CVE programme of the US organisation MITRE, we would like to inform you about our measures to ensure the continuous provision of important information about vulnerabilities in IT systems.

Since 1999, the CVE system has formed the central basis for the clear identification and classification of security vulnerabilities in IT. Funding for the central CVE database is currently secured by the US government until April 2026. Against this background, Greenbone took structural measures at an early stage to become less dependent on individual data sources.

With our OPENVAS brand, Greenbone is one of the world’s leading open source providers in the IT security ecosystem. We make an active contribution to the development of sustainable, decentralised infrastructures for the provision of vulnerability information – and are already focusing on future-proof concepts that effectively protect our customers from security risks.

Our sovereign data approach includes the following measures, among others:

  • Broad source diversification: Our Systems and our security research team monitor a large number of international information sources in order to be able to react promptly to new threats independently of the official CVE process – even if there is no official CVE entry yet.
  • Integration of alternative databases: We integrate independent vulnerability catalogues such as the European Vulnerability Database (EUVD) into our systems in order to create a stable and geographically diversified information basis.
  • Promotion of open standards: We actively support the dissemination of the CSAF standard (Common Security Advisory Framework), which enables the decentralised and federated distribution of vulnerability information.

These measures ensure that our customers retain unrestricted access to up-to-date vulnerability information, even in the event of changes in the international data ecosystem. This ensures that your IT systems remain fully protected in the future.

Greenbone stands for independent, sovereign and future-proof weak-point supply – even in a changing geopolitical environment.

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Greenbone AG

Greenbone Detection Stays Strong Despite NIST NVD Outage

Despite the NVD (National Vulnerability Database) outage of the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), Greenbone’s detection engine remains fully operational, offering reliable, vulnerability scanning without relying on missing CVE enrichment data.

Since 1999 The MITRE Corporation’s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) has provided free public vulnerability intelligence by publishing and managing information about software flaws. NIST has diligently enriched these CVE reports since 2005; adding context to enhance their use for cyber risk assessment. In early 2024, the cybersecurity community was caught off guard as the NIST NVD ground to a halt. Now roughly one year later, the outage had not been fully resolved [1][2]. With an increasing number of CVE submissions each year, NIST’s struggles have left a large percentage without context such as a severity score (CVSS), affected product lists (CPE) and weakness classifications (CWE).

Recent policy shifts pushed by the Trump administration have created further uncertainty about the future of vulnerability information sharing and the many security providers that depend upon it. The FY 2025 budget for CISA includes notable reductions in specific areas such as a 49.8 million Dollar decrease in Procurement, Construction and Improvements and a 4.7 million Dollar cut in Research and Development. In response to the funding challenges, CISA has taken actions to reduce spending, including adjustments to contracts and procurement strategies.

​To be clear, there has been no outage of the CVE program yet. On April 16, the CISA issued a last minute directive to extend its contract with MITRE to ensure the operation of the CVE Program for an additional 11 months just hours before the contract was set to expire. However, nobody can predict how future events will unfold. The potential impact to intelligence sharing is alarming, perhaps signaling a new dimension to a “Cold Cyberwar” of sorts.

This article includes a brief overview of how the CVE program operates, and how Greenbone’s detection capabilities remain strong throughout the NIST NVD outage.

An Overview of the CVE Program Operations

The MITRE Corporation is a non-profit tasked with supporting US homeland security on multiple fronts including defensive research to protect critical infrastructure and cybersecurity. MITRE operates the CVE program, acting as the Primary CNA (CVE Numbering Authority) and maintaining the central infrastructure for CVE ID assignment, record publication, communication workflows among all CNAs and ADPs (Authorized Data Publishers) and program governance. MITRE provides CVE data to the public through its CVE.org website and the cvelistV5 GitHub repository, which contains all CVE Records in structured JSON format. The result has been highly efficient, standardized vulnerability reporting and seamless data sharing across the cybersecurity ecosystem.

After a vulnerability description is submitted to MITRE by a CNA, NIST has historically added:

  • CVSS (Common Vulnerability Scoring System): A severity score and detailed vector string that includes the risk context for Attack Complexity (AC), Impact to Confidentiality (C), Integrity (I), and Availability (A), as well as other factors.
  • CPE (Common Platform Enumeration): A specially formatted string that acts to identify affected products by relaying the product name, vendor, versions, and other architectural specifications.
  • CWE (Common Weakness Enumeration): A root-cause classification according to the type of software flaw involved.

CVSS allows organizations to more easily determine the degree of risk posed by a particular vulnerability and strategically conduct remediation accordingly. Also, because initial CVE reports only require a non-standardized affected product declaration, NIST’s addition of CPE allows vulnerability management platforms to conduct CPE matching as a fast, although somewhat unreliable way to determine whether a CVE exists within an organization’s infrastructure or not.

For a more detailed perspective on how the vulnerability disclosure process works and how CSAF 2.0 offers a decentralized alternative to MITRE’s CVE program, check out our article: How CSAF 2.0 Advances Automated Vulnerability Management. Next, let’s take a closer look at the NIST NVD outage and understand what makes Greenbone’s detection capabilities resilient against the NIST NVD outage.

The NIST NVD Outage: What Happened?

Starting on February 12, 2024, the NVD drastically reduced its enrichment of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) with critical metadata such as CVSS, CPE and CWE product identifiers. The issue was first identified by Anchore’s VP of Security. As of May 2024, roughly 93% of CVEs added after February 12 were unenriched. By September 2024, NIST had failed to meet its self-imposed deadline; 72.4% of CVEs and 46.7% of new additions to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEVs) were still unenriched [3].

The slowdown in NVD’s enrichment process had significant repercussions for the cybersecurity community not only because enriched data is critical for defenders to effectively prioritize security threats, but also because some vulnerability scanners depend on this enriched data to implement their detection techniques.

As a cybersecurity defender, it’s worthwhile asking: was Greenbone affected by the NIST NVD outage? The short answer is no. Read on to find out why Greenbone’s detection capabilities are resilient against the NIST NVD outage.

Greenbone Detection Strong Despite the NVD Outage

Without enriched CVE data, some vulnerability management solutions become ineffective because they rely on CPE matching to determine if a vulnerability exists within an organization’s infrastructure.  However, Greenbone is resilient against the NIST NVD outage because our products do not depend on CPE matching. Greenbone’s OPENVAS vulnerability tests can be built from un-enriched CVE description. In fact, Greenbone can and does include detection for known vulnerabilities and misconfigurations that don’t even have CVEs such as CIS compliance benchmarks [4][5].

To build Vulnerability Tests (VT) Greenbone employs a dedicated team of software engineers who identify the underlying technical aspects of vulnerabilities. Greenbone does include a CVE Scanner feature capable of traditional CPE matching. However, unlike solutions that rely solely on CPE data from NIST NVD to identify vulnerabilities, Greenbone employs detection techniques that extend far beyond basic CPE matching. Therefore, Greenbone’s vulnerability detection capabilities remain robust even in the face of challenges such as the recent outage of the NIST NVD.

To achieve highly resilient, industry leading vulnerability detection, Greenbone’s OPENVAS Scanner component actively interacts with exposed network services to construct a detailed map of a target network’s attack surface. This includes identifying services that are accessible via network connections, probing them to determine products, and executing individual Vulnerability Tests (VT) for each CVE or non-CVE security flaw to actively verify whether they are present. Greenbone’s Enterprise Vulnerability Feed contains over 180,000 VTs, updated daily, to detect the latest disclosed vulnerabilities, ensuring rapid detection of the newest threats.

In addition to its active scanning capabilities, Greenbone supports agentless data collection via authenticated scans. Gathering detailed information from endpoints, Greenbone evaluates installed software packages against issued CVEs. This method provides precise vulnerability detection without depending on enriched CPE data from the NVD.

Key Takeways:

  • Independence from enriched CVE data: Greenbone’s vulnerability detection does not rely on enriched CVE data provided by NIST’s NVD, ensuring uninterrupted performance during outages. A basic description of a vulnerability allows Greenbone’s vulnerability test engineers to develop a detection module.
  • Detection beyond CPE matching: While Greenbone includes a CVE Scanner feature for CPE matching, its detection capabilities extend far beyond this basic approach, utilizing several methods that actively interact with scan targets.
  • Attack surface mapping: The OPENVAS Scanner actively interacts with exposed services to map network attack surface, identifying all network reachable services. Greenbone also performs authenticated scans to gather data directly from endpoint internals. This information is processed to identify vulnerable packages. Enriched CVE data such as CPE is not required.
  • Resilience to NVD enrichment outages: Greenbone’s detection methods remain effective even without NVD enrichment, leveraging CVE descriptions provided by CNAs to create accurate active checks and version-based vulnerability assessments.

Greenbone’s Approach is Practical, Effective and Resilient

Greenbone exemplifies the gold standard of practicality, effectiveness and resilience, achieving a benchmark that IT security teams should be striving to achieve. By leveraging active network mapping, authenticated scans and actively interacting with target infrastructure, Greenbone ensures reliable, resilient detection capabilities in diverse environments.

This higher standard enables organizations to confidently address vulnerabilities, even in complex and dynamic threat landscapes. Even in the absence of NVD enrichment, Greenbone’s detection methods remain effective. With only a general description Greenbone’s VT engineers can develop accurate active checks and product version-based vulnerability assessments.

Through a fundamentally resilient approach to vulnerability detection, Greenbone ensures reliable vulnerability management, setting itself apart in the cybersecurity landscape.

NVD / NIST / MITRE Alternatives

The MITRE issue is a wake-up call for digital sovereignty, and the EU has already (and fast) reacted. A long-awaited alternative, the EuVD by the ENISA, the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, is there, and will be covered in one of our upcoming blog posts.

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Greenbone AG

#GreenboneGoesGlobal: Strong Presence at ITASEC 2025 in Bologna

ITASEC, Italy’s most important conference for cyber security, takes place in Bologna from February 3 to 8, 2025. As a platinum sponsor, Greenbone is sending a strong signal for European cooperation and digital security. This step demonstrates our commitment to a global presence and direct customer interaction.

Street scene in the old town of Bologna with a view of the medieval 'Due Torri' towers, venue of the IT security conference ITASEC 2025

The “Due Torri”, two medieval towers, shape the image of the historic old town of Bologna. (Photo: Markus Feilner, CC-BY 2016)

 

New Perspectives in Italy and Worldwide

“At Greenbone, we are increasingly realizing how important our vulnerability management is for customers throughout Europe and how important it is for these customers to be able to communicate with us directly on site,” explains Chief Marketing Officer Elmar Geese. To meet this demand, Greenbone has established the Italian subsidiary OpenVAS S.R.L. At the same time, Greenbone is expanding into other regions. A new subsidiary in the Netherlands and an increased engagement in the Asian market are on the agenda.

We will not only be present at ITASEC with a booth, but will also contribute to the content: Dirk Boeing, Senior Consultant and cybersecurity expert at Greenbone, will speak on February 6th at 11:00 a.m. on the panel “Security Management in the NIS2 Era”.

Visit Us in Bologna!

The annual ITASEC takes place on the campus of the “Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna”, the oldest university in Europe, which has been writing science history since 1088 – an ideal place for a conference dedicated to security in the digital future. The fair is organized by the CINI Cybersecurity National Lab, with a special focus in 2025 on the topic of security and rights in cyberspace. This is also reflected in the cooperation with the SERICS conference (Security and Rights in the Cyber Space), which is supported by the SERICS foundation as part of the almost 200 billion euro Italian „National Recovery and Resilience Plan“ (NRRP).

ITASEC at the University of Bologna offers an excellent opportunity to experience Greenbone live and learn more about our solutions. And this is just the beginning: in 2025 we will be in Italy, for example, at CyberSec Italia in Rome on March 5 and 6. And from March 18 to 19, Greenbone will be at the „Digitaler Staat“ congress in Berlin, and from March 19 at secIT in Hanover. We look forward to your visit!

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Joseph Lee

December 2024 Threat Report: Sunsetting a Record Year for IT Risk

In 2024, geopolitical instability, marked by conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, emphasized the need for stronger cybersecurity in both the public and private sector. China targeted U.S. defense, utilities, internet providers and transportation, while Russia launched coordinated cyberattacks on U.S. and European nations, seeking to influence public opinion and create discord among Western allies over the Ukrainian war. As 2024 ends, we can look back at a hectic cybersecurity landscape on the edge.

2024 marked another record setting year for CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) disclosures. Even if many are so-called “AI Slop” reports [1][2], the sheer volume of published vulnerabilities creates a big haystack. As IT security teams seek to find high-risk needles in a larger haystack, the chance of oversight becomes more prevalent. 2024 was also a record year for ransomware payouts in terms of volume and size, and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks.

It also saw the NIST NVD outage, which affected many organizations around the world including security providers. Greenbone’s CVE scanner is a CPE (Common Platform Enumeration) matching function and has been affected by the NIST NVD outage. However, Greenbone’s primary scanning engine, OpenVAS Scanner, is unaffected. OpenVAS actively interacts directly with services and applications, allowing Greenbone’s engineers to build reliable vulnerability tests using the details from initial CVE reports.

In 2025, fortune will favor organizations that are prepared. Attackers are weaponizing cyber-intelligence faster; average time-to-exploit (TTE) is mere days, even hours. The rise of AI will create new challenges for cybersecurity. Alongside these advancements, traditional threats remain critical for cloud security and software supply chains. Security analysts predict that fundamental networking devices such as VPN gateways, firewalls and other edge devices will continue to be a hot target in 2025.

In this edition of our monthly Threat Report, we review the most pressing vulnerabilities and active exploitation campaigns that emerged in December 2024.

Mitel MiCollab: Zero-Day to Actively Exploited in a Flash

Once vulnerabilities are published, attackers are jumping on them with increased speed. Some vulnerabilities have public proof of concept (PoC) exploit code within hours, leaving defenders with minimal reaction time. In early December, researchers at GreyNoise observed exploitation of Mitel MiCollab the same day that PoC code was published. Mitel MiCollab combines voice, video, messaging, presence and conferencing into one platform. The new vulnerabilities have drawn alerts from the Belgian national Center for Cybersecurity, the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) in addition to the American CISA (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency). Patching the recent vulnerabilities in MiCollab is considered urgent.

Here are details about the new actively exploited CVEs in Mitel MiCollab:

  • CVE-2024-41713 (CVSS 7.8 High): A path traversal vulnerability in the NuPoint Unified Messaging (NPM) component of Mitel MiCollab allows unauthenticated path traversal by leveraging the “…/” technique in HTTP requests. Exploitation can expose highly sensitive files.
  • CVE-2024-35286 (CVSS 10 Critical): A SQL injection vulnerability has been identified in the NPM component of Mitel MiCollab which could allow a malicious actor to conduct a SQL injection attack.

Since mid-2022, CISA has tracked three additional actively exploited CVEs in Mitel products which are known to be leveraged in ransomware attacks. Greenbone is able to detect endpoints vulnerable to these high severity CVEs with active checks [4][5].

Array Networks SSL VPNs Exploited by Ransomware

CVE-2023-28461 (CVSS 9.8 Critical) is a Remote Code Execution (RCE) vulnerability in Array Networks Array AG Series and vxAG SSL VPN appliances. The devices, touted by the vendor as a preventative measure against ransomware, are now being actively exploited in recent ransomware attacks. Array Networks themselves were breached by the Dark Angels ransomware gang earlier this year [1][2].

According to recent reports, Array Networks holds a significant market share in the Application Delivery Controller (ADC) market. According to the ​​IDC’s WW Quarterly Ethernet Switch Tracker, they are the market leader in India, with a market share of 34.2%. Array Networks has released patches for affected products running ArrayOS AG 9.4.0.481 and earlier versions. The Greenbone Enterprise Feed has included a detection test for CVE-2023-28461 since it was disclosed in late March 2023.

CVE-2024-11667 in Zyxel Firewalls

CVE-2024-11667 (CVSS 9.8 Critical) in Zyxel firewall appliances are being actively exploited in ongoing ransomware attacks. A directory traversal vulnerability in the web management interface could allow an attacker to download or upload files via a maliciously crafted URL. Zyxel Communications is a Taiwanese company specializing in designing and manufacturing networking devices for businesses, service providers and consumers. Reports put Zyxel’s market share at roughly 4.2% of the ICT industry with a diverse global footprint including large Fortune 500 companies.

A defense in depth approach to cybersecurity is especially important in cases such as this. When attackers compromise a networking device such as a firewall, typically they are not immediately granted access to highly sensitive data. However, initial access allows attackers to monitor network traffic and enumerate the victim’s network in search of high value targets.

Zyxel advises updating your device to the latest firmware, temporarily disabling remote access if updates cannot be applied immediately and applying their best practices for securing distributed networks. CVE-2024-11667 affects Zyxel ATP series firmware versions V5.00 through V5.38, USG FLEX series firmware versions V5.00 through V5.38, USG FLEX 50(W) series firmware versions V5.10 through V5.38 and USG20(W)-VPN series firmware versions V5.10 through V5.38. Greenbone can detect the vulnerability CVE-2024-11667 across all affected products.

Critical Flaws in Apache Struts 2

CVE-2024-53677 (CVSS 9.8 Critical), an unrestricted file upload [CWE-434] flaw affecting Apache Struts 2 allows attackers to upload executable files into web-root directories. If a web-shell is uploaded, the flaw may lead to unauthorized Remote Code Execution. Apache Struts is an open-source Java-based web-application framework widely used by the public and private sectors including government agencies, financial institutions and other large organizations [1]. Proof of concept (PoC) exploit code is publicly available, and CVE-2024-53677 is being actively exploited increasing its risk.

The vulnerability was originally tracked as CVE-2023-50164, published in December 2023 [2][3]. However, similarly to a recent flaw in VMware vCenter, the original patch was ineffective resulting in the re-emergence of vulnerability. CVE-2024-53677 affects the FileUploadInterceptor component and thus, applications not using this module are unaffected. Users should update their Struts2 instance to version 6.4.0 or higher and migrate to the new file upload mechanism. Other new critical CVEs in popular open-source software (OSS) from Apache:

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) follows a structured process across its projects that encourages private reporting and releasing patches prior to public disclosure so patches are available for all CVEs mentioned above. Greenbone is able to detect systems vulnerable to CVE-2024-53677 and other recently disclosed vulnerabilities in ASF Foundation products.

Palo Alto’s Secure DNS Actively Exploited for DoS

CVE-2024-3393 (CVSS 8.7 High) is a DoS (Denial of Service) vulnerability in the DNS Security feature of PAN-OS. The flaw allows an unauthenticated attacker to reboot PA-Series firewalls, VM-Series firewalls, CN-Series firewalls and Prisma Access devices via malicious packets sent through the data plane. By repeatedly triggering this condition, attackers can cause the firewall to enter maintenance mode. CISA has identified CVE-2024-3393 vulnerability as actively exploited and it’s among five other actively exploited vulnerabilities in Palo Alto’s products over only the past two months.

According to the advisory posted by Palo Alto, only devices with a DNS Security License or Advanced DNS Security License and logging enabled are affected. It would be an easy assumption to say that these conditions mean that top-tier enterprise customers are affected. Greenbone is able to detect the presence of devices affected by CVE-2024-3393 with a version detection test.

Microsoft Security in 2024: Who Left the Windows Open?

While it would be unfair to single out Microsoft for providing vulnerable software in 2024, the Redmond BigTech certainly didn’t beat security expectations. A total of 1,119 CVEs were disclosed in Microsoft products in 2024; 53 achieved critical severity (CVSS > 9.0), 43 were added to CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog, and at least four were known vectors for ransomware attacks. Although the comparison is rough, the Linux kernel saw more (3,148) new CVEs but only three were rated critical severity and only three were added to CISA KEV. Here are the details of the new actively exploited CVEs in Microsoft Windows:

  • CVE-2024-35250 (CVSS 7.8 High): A privilege escalation flaw allowing an attacker with local access to a system to gain system-level privileges. The vulnerability was discovered in April 2024, and PoC exploit code appeared online in October.
  • CVE-2024-49138 (CVSS 7.8 High): A heap-based buffer overflow [CWE-122] privilege escalation vulnerability; this time in the Microsoft Windows Common Log File System (CLFS) driver. Although no publicly available exploit exists, security researchers have evidence that this vulnerability can be exploited by crafting a malicious CLFS log to execute privileged commands at the system privilege level.

Detection and mitigation of these new Windows CVEs is critical since they are actively under attack. Both were patched in Microsoft’s December patch release. Greenbone is able to detect CVE-2024-35250 and CVE-2024-49138 as well as all other Microsoft vulnerabilities published as CVEs.

Summary

2024 highlighted the continuously challenging cybersecurity landscape with record-setting vulnerability disclosures, ransomware payouts, DoS attacks and an alarming rise in active exploitations. The rapid weaponization of vulnerabilities emphasizes the need for a continuous vulnerability management strategy and a defense-in-depth approach.

December saw new critical flaws in Mitel, Apache and Microsoft products. More network products: Array Networks VPNs and Zyxel firewalls are now being exploited by ransomware threat actors underscoring the urgency for proactive patching and robust detection measures. As we enter 2025, fortune will favor those prepared; organizations must stay vigilant to mitigate risks in an increasingly hostile cyber landscape.

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Andreas Bergler

Greenbone at it-sa 2024: Three Exciting Days at the Trade Fair and a Record Number of Visitors 

it-sa 2024 in Nuremberg was a great success not only for the organizers but also for us: three days full of inspiring conversations, new contacts and important insights into the current security requirements of existing and potential customers. As one of the most important trade fairs for IT security in Europe, it-sa was the ideal platform for us to present the latest developments to a broad audience. Our keynote, held by CEO Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner, attracted numerous trade visitors. Under the title “Be secure and stay secure”, he provided insights into the importance of our portfolio for proactive corporate security.

The Greenbone team at the partner stand at it-sa 2024 in Nuremberg.”

The Greenbone team at it-sa 2024 was pleased to welcome twice as many visitors as in the previous year.

 

Keynote: Vulnerability Management as the Basis for Cyber Security

In his keynote, Jan-Oliver Wagner spoke about the growing importance of vulnerability management as the fundamental building block of a comprehensive security strategy. Companies and organizations of all sizes are facing the challenge of dealing with the ever-increasing threat of cyber attacks. Especially because the number of attacks has increased dramatically in recent years and that high tens of millions have already been paid in cyber extortion, it is clear that cybersecurity is no longer just “nice to have”, but essential for survival. 

Jan-Oliver Wagner called for threats to be detected as early as possible and for risks to be managed proactively. He presented vulnerability management as “the first line of defense” against attackers. With Greenbone solutions, companies can continuously check their IT infrastructure for security vulnerabilities: “Vulnerability management is the basis of a sustainable and highly effective security strategy.” Security teams are often faced with the difficult task of assessing risks appropriately and making the right decisions. “The goal is to stay one step ahead of attackers. Our solutions not only identify security vulnerabilities, but also help prioritize which vulnerabilities need to be addressed most urgently.”

Inspiring Conversations and New Contacts: the Trade Fair Highlights

The trade fair enabled us to engage directly with industry visitors, customers and partners, answer their questions and better understand their perspectives. With many technical discussions in just three days, the number of visitors to our partner stand at ADN more than doubled compared to last year, reports Ingo Conrads, Chief Sales Officer: “We were particularly pleased about the many new prospects and partners with whom we were able to discuss many new business opportunities.” 

Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner, CEO of Greenbone, during his keynote speech 'Be secure and stay secure' at it-sa 2024 in Nuremberg.

Greenbone CEO Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner giving the keynote “Be secure and stay secure” at it-sa 2024.

Many visitors already knew Greenbone as a brand, partly by OpenVAS in the past. But new products such as Greenbone Basic were also a discovery for many, showing how comprehensive and scalable our solutions have become – from entry-level to enterprise products for the public sector. The diversity of our portfolio and our services in particular generated surprise and interest. An overview of the various possible uses of our solutions is available on our website.

Thank You for the Successful Trade Fair!

it-sa 2024 was a great success and an inspiring experience for us. Once again, the trade fair showed how important vulnerability management has become and that Greenbone is making an important contribution to IT security. Many thanks to our distribution partner ADN for the excellent cooperation at the partner stand – and many thanks to all visitors for the interesting discussions and valuable feedback!

Together we are working to ensure that companies are secure – and stay secure. 

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Greenbone AG

Greenbone Enterprise Products Lead all Network Vulnerability Scanners

OpenVAS began in 2005 when Nessus transitioned from open source to a proprietary license. Two companies, Intevation and DN Systems adopted the existing project and began evolving and maintaining it under a GPL v2.0 license. Since then, OpenVAS has evolved into Greenbone, the most widely-used and applauded open-source vulnerability scanner and vulnerability management solution in the world. We are proud to offer Greenbone as both a free Community Edition for developers and also as a range of enterprise products featuring our Greenbone Enterprise Feed to serve the public sector and private enterprises alike.

As the “old-dog” on the block, Greenbone is hip to the marketing games that cybersecurity vendors like to play. However, our own goals remain steadfast – to share the truth about our product and industry leading vulnerability test coverage. So, when we reviewed a recent 2024 network vulnerability scanner benchmark report published by a competitor, we were a little shocked to say the least.

As the most recognized open-source vulnerability scanner, it makes sense that Greenbone was included in the competition for top dog. However, while we are honored to be part of the test, some facts made us scratch our heads. You might say we have a “bone to pick” about the results. Let’s jump into the details.

What the 2024 Benchmark Results Found

The 2024 benchmark test conducted by Pentest-Tools ranked leading vulnerability scanners according to two factors: Detection Availability (the CVEs each scanner has detection tests for) and Detection Accuracy (how effective their detection tests are).

The benchmark pitted our free Community Edition of Greenbone and the Greenbone Community Feed against the enterprise products of other vendors: Qualys, Rapid7, Tenable, Nuclei, Nmap, and Pentest-Tools’ own product. The report ranked Greenbone 5th in Detection Availability and roughly tied for 4th place in Detection Accuracy. Not bad for going up against titans of the cybersecurity industry.

The only problem is, as mentioned above, Greenbone has an enterprise product too, and when the results are recalculated using our Greenbone Enterprise Feed, the findings are starkly different – Greenbone wins hands down.

Here is What we Found

Bar chart from the 2024 benchmark for network vulnerability scanners: Greenbone Enterprise achieves the highest values with 78% availability and 61% accuracy

 

Our Enterprise Feed Detection Availability Leads the Pack

According to our own internal findings, which can be verified using our SecInfo Portal, the Greenbone Enterprise Feed has detection tests for 129 of the 164 CVEs included in the test. This means our Enterprise product’s Detection Availability is a staggering 70.5% higher than reported, placing us heads and tails above the rest.

To be clear, the Greenbone Enterprise Feed tests aren’t something we added on after the fact. Greenbone updates both our Community and Enterprise Feeds on a daily basis and we are often the first to release vulnerability tests when a CVE is published. A review of our vulnerability test coverage shows they have been available from day one.

Our Detection Accuracy was far Underrated

And another thing. Greenbone isn’t like those other scanners. The way Greenbone is designed gives it strong industry leading advantages. For example, our scanner can be controlled via API allowing users to develop their own custom tools and control all the features of Greenbone in any way they like. Secondly, our Quality of Detection (QoD) ranking doesn’t even exist on most other vulnerability scanners.

The report author made it clear they simply used the default configuration for each scanner. However, without applying Greenbone’s QoD filter properly, the benchmark test failed to fairly assess Greenbone’s true CVE detection rate. Applying these findings Greenbone again comes out ahead of the pack, detecting an estimated 112 out of the 164 CVEs.

Summary

While we were honored that our Greenbone Community Edition ranked 5th in Detection Availability and tied for 4th in Detection Accuracy in a recently published network vulnerability scanner benchmark, these results fail to consider the true power of the Greenbone Enterprise Feed. It stands to reason that our Enterprise product should be in the running. Afterall, the benchmark included enterprise offerings from other vendors.

When recalculated using the Enterprise Feed, Greenbone’s Detection Availability leaps to 129 of the 164 CVEs on the test, 70.5% above what was reported. Also, using the default settings fails to account for Greenbone’s Quality of Detection (QoD) feature. When adjusted for these oversights, Greenbone ranks at the forefront of the competition. As the most used open-source vulnerability scanner in the world, Greenbone continues to lead in vulnerability coverage, timely publication of vulnerability tests, and truly enterprise grade features such as a flexible API architecture, advanced filtering, and Quality of Detection scores.

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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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Greenbone AG

More than 100,000 Vulnerability Tests in the Greenbone Security Feed

The goal of vulnerability management is to detect all security gaps in an IT network before an attacker does so. The Greenbone Security Feed (GSF) provides the vulnerability tests (VTs) that the scanner of the Greenbone solutions performs for this purpose. As a component of the Greenbone Security Manager (GSM) and the Greenbone Cloud Services (GCS), it is updated daily and provides protection against major and well-known vulnerabilities such as SUPERNOVA, BlueKeep and PrintNightmare.
We are happy to announce that the success story is growing steadily and that since this month our Greenbone Security Feed contains more than 100,000 vulnerability tests!

Let’s take a look at the history of the feed.

In 2005, the development of the Nessus vulnerability scanner decided to stop working under open source licenses and switch to a proprietary business model. By that time, members from Intevation and DN-Systems – the two companies that would later found Greenbone – were already contributing developments to Nessus. In 2006, several forks of Nessus were created in response to the discontinuation of the open source solution. Of these forks, only one remains active: OpenVAS, the Open Vulnerability Assessment System.

In late 2008, Greenbone was formed to push OpenVAS. In the same year, two other companies became active: Secpod from India and Security Space from Canada. Both focused on providing vulnerability testing and partnered with Greenbone to create a reliable and up-to-date feed of vulnerability tests.

This started with the removal of source code and vulnerability tests where the license was unclear or incompatible. Several thousand vulnerability tests were eliminated to get a clean baseline with just under 3000 vulnerability tests at the time.

Shortly after, the content of the feed grew rapidly and steadily to over 10,000 vulnerability tests. 50,000 tests were then contained in the feed after about 8 years of development in 2016. The next 50,000 followed after only 5 more years and represent the current state with more than 100,000 vulnerability tests.

Number of VTs over time

Number of VTs over time

How Is the Feed Composed Anyway?

It is also interesting to see how these 100,000 vulnerability tests in the feed are put together. In our SecInfo Portal, you can easily take a look at all the included tests yourself.

About half of the tests detect vulnerabilities with a high severity class – i.e., with a severity between 7.0 and 10.0. Another 40,000 tests such with the severity class “Medium” (severity 4.0 to 6.9).

Distribution of the more than 100,000 vulnerability tests among the severity classes

Distribution of VTs by severity class

Vulnerabilities for the same area are grouped into families. Among the largest families of vulnerability tests are mainly those for local security checks, i.e., authenticated scans. In these, the target is scanned both from the outside via the network and from the inside using a valid usage login. Thus, more details about vulnerabilities can be found on the scanned system. Vulnerability tests for such authenticated scans already account for over 60,000 tests. The largest VT families with a total of almost 30,000 vulnerability tests are “Fedora Local Security Checks” and “SuSE Local Security Checks”.

Number of VTs in the top 10 VT Families

Number of VTs in the top 10 VT Families

Globally Known Vulnerabilities Are also Covered

The general public is unaware of many vulnerabilities. But every now and then, particularly significant and spectacular cyber attacks make it into the media – especially when many large companies or governments are affected.

Greenbone reacts immediately when such incidents become known and starts developing a corresponding vulnerability test. Such notable vulnerabilities in recent years include Heartbleed (2014), POODLE (2014), DROWN (2016), Meltdown (2018), Spectre (2018), BlueKeep (2019) and PrintNightmare (2021). Most people probably also particularly remember the Solarwinds attack in 2019 and 2020. The attackers had exploited a previously unknown vulnerability to inject the malicious webshell “SUPERNOVA”.
All of these vulnerabilities can be detected via tests in the Greenbone Security Feed.

In the future, we will continue to work on expanding the scope of our feed to provide users with the opportunity to detect vulnerabilities at an early stage and not give attacks a chance. So with our solutions constantly updated to cover the latest and most critical vulnerabilities, you can relax. The next 100,000 vulnerability tests will follow – stay tuned!


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