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OpenVAS

Computer vulnerability scanning software

Wikipedia contributorsAdapted for Fathomly · View authors
1 min read
Source updated September 11, 2026

OpenVAS (Open Vulnerability Assessment Scanner, originally known as GNessUs) is the scanner component of Greenbone Vulnerability Management (GVM), a software framework of several services and tools offering vulnerability scanning and vulnerability management.

Greenbone Community Edition is free software, and most components are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). Plugins for Greenbone Vulnerability Management are written in the Nessus Attack Scripting Language, NASL. Greenbone also offer OpenVAS BASIC and OpenVAS SCAN on a subscription basis.

01History

Greenbone Vulnerability Manager began under the name of OpenVAS, and before that the name GNessUs, as a fork of the previously open source Nessus scanning tool, after its developers Tenable Network Security changed it to a proprietary (closed source) license in October 2005. OpenVAS was originally proposed by pentesters at SecuritySpace, discussed with pentesters at Portcullis Computer Security and then announced by Tim Brown on Slashdot.

Greenbone Vulnerability Manager is a member project of Software in the Public Interest.

The OpenVAS 8 Structure
The OpenVAS 8 Structure

02Structure

There is a daily updated feed of Network Vulnerability Tests (NVTs). As of January 2019, there were over 50,000 NVTs. As of October 2024, there were 160,000 NVTs.

03Documentation

The OpenVAS protocol structure aims to be well-documented to assist developers. The OpenVAS Compendium is a publication of the OpenVAS Project that delivers documentation on OpenVAS.

Watch videos about OpenVASExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “OpenVAS”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

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