Improvement: Handling Component Installs for Vulnerability Assessment
Background On Friday, February 6, 2026, Tenable Research published a plugin update that changed the way component installs are assessed for vulnerabilities. Those changes are outlined in a previous release highlight: Component Installs Require Paranoid Checks, This update essentially reverts this change, while adding new functionality to allow users to choose whether or not they want component installs assessed for vulnerabilities. Component installs are no longer influenced by scan paranoia settings. What are “Component Installs”? Software components, such as applications or language modules/libraries, are installed and managed by a primary "parent" package or application. The crucial point is that these components often cannot be updated individually. Instead, their vulnerability assessment and upgrade are entirely dependent on an update of the parent package. For instance, the SQLite database component is installed as part of the Trend Micro Deep Security Agent and is updated only when the Agent itself is updated. Nessus uses several factors to determine if a detected product is a component, or a standalone installation, including: Was the product installed by a package manager? These products are not considered components, as they are managed by the package manager and not a “parent” application Is the component a “language library”, i.e. a library or module used by the interpreter of a programming language like Python or Node.js? These enumerated libraries are marked as components by default. Does the product reside in a directory that is recognized for installations that are not component-based? Changes By default, component installs are once again assessed for vulnerabilities, as was the case prior to the release of the aforementioned update. If users wish to turn this setting off, so that component installs will not be assessed by generic vulnerability detection plugins, they can do so via the newly created scan preference. The end result of this change should be that fewer “false positives”, i.e. reported vulnerabilities for components that are “owned” by another application, are shown in scan results. Components with vulnerabilities that cannot be addressed independently of the “parent” application will not show in scan results. However, some customers have expressed a desire to see these vulnerabilities in their scan results anyway, to ensure full awareness of the risk profile of every application in their environment. This is still possible through the updated scan configuration settings. To modify this setting in your scan policy, go to Settings > Assessment > Accuracy > Override Normal Accuracy > Assess component installs for potential vulnerabilities. This setting is ON (checkbox is ticked) by default, so users must enable the Override Normal Accuracy checkbox (which is OFF / unchecked by default) if they wish to disable the setting and ensure that component installs are not assessed by generic vulnerability detection plugins in this scan. Please note that this update makes no other changes to the existing paranoia logic, outside of what is described above. For now, “Managed”, “Managed by OS” and “Backported” installs are still controlled by the Show/Avoid potential false alarms radio button. How can I tell if the detected install is a component or not? In addition to the above, we have also updated the relevant detection plugins so they will show if the component flag is set or not. At present, this includes detection plugins for OpenSSL, Curl, LibCurl, Apache HTTPD, Apache Tomcat, SQLite, Python Packages, Node.js modules and, soon to follow, Ruby and Nuget libraries. Using plugin ID 174788, SQLite Detection (Windows), here is a before and after example of the expected plugin output. Before: After: Expected Impact With the new default setting in place, users should anticipate an increase in vulnerability findings for the products in scope, returning to a level similar to what was observed before the first update. If users do not wish to surface these additional potential vulnerabilities, they should disable the "Assess component installs for potential vulnerabilities” setting. If the new scan preference is disabled, the volume of findings will remain consistent with current levels, when scanning with normal accuracy (paranoia) settings. Affected Plugins 12288, global_settings.nasl (updated to support the new scan policy preference) Any plugin that operates downstream of those in the list below: SQLite: 174788 - sqlite_nix_installed.nasl 171077 - sqlite_win_installed.nasl OpenSSL: 168007 - openssl_nix_installed.nasl 168149 - openssl_win_installed.nasl Curl: 182774 - curl_nix_installed.nasl 171860 - curl_win_installed.nasl LibCurl: 182848 - libcurl_nix_installed.nasl Apache HTTPD: 141394 - apache_http_server_nix_installed.nasl 141262 - apache_httpd_win_installed.nasl Apache Tomcat: 130175 - apache_tomcat_nix_installed.nasl 130590 - tomcat_win_installed.nasl Python Packages: 164122 - python_packages_installed_nix.nasl 139241 - python_win_installed.nasl Node.js Modules: 178772 - nodejs_modules_linux_installed.nasl 179440 - nodejs_modules_mac_installed.nasl 200172 - nodejs_modules_win_installed.nasl Targeted Release Date Tenable Nessus and Vulnerability Management: Monday, March 9, 2026 (ETA 22:30 Eastern Standard Time) Tenable Security Center: Monday, March 16, 2026Component Installs Require Paranoid Checks (DEPRECATED)
Update - March 4, 2026 After considering customer feedback, we. have decided to re-evaluate these changes and come up with a better way of handling Component installs. For the latest information, please refer to the new release highlight: Improvement: Handling Component Installs for Vulnerability Assessment Summary With this update, products that are deemed to be components of another application, will now require the scan to be run in paranoid mode to trigger generic vulnerability detection plugins. In this context, “generic vulnerability detection plugins” refers to plugins that cover advisories published by the component vendor (e.g., plugin ID 242325, SQLite < 3.50.2 Memory Corruption) rather than the operating system or “parent” application that distributes the component, either as a part of the operating system or a dependent tool of the parent application. Overview Tenable covers software that can be either installed as base level software, or be included as component software of a larger product installation. Base level software can be updated without any impact to the base product functionality. Component software is typically updated as part of the vendor update for the larger packaged product, and the individual components are not updatable. Non-paranoid scans will report base software vulnerabilities that are actionable. Paranoid scans will report on base software vulnerabilities as well component software vulnerabilities that are not actionable, but still package a potentially vulnerable version of the component. To enhance the accuracy of our vulnerability detection and provide users with greater control over scan results, we are implementing an update affecting how we flag vulnerabilities in software components. Our detection plugins for OpenSSL, Curl, LibCurl, Apache HTTPD, Apache Tomcat, SQLite, PHP, Python packages and Node.js modules can now identify when these packages are installed as components of another parent application (e.g., SQLite bundled with Trend Micro’s Deep Security Agent), rather than as standalone installs. Key Changes: Non-Paranoid Scans: Scans running in the default mode will no longer flag generic vulnerability detection plugins for these component installs. This is because vulnerabilities in components generally cannot be patched directly; users must wait for the parent application's vendor to issue an update. OS Vendor Advisories Unaffected: This change does not affect plugins for OS vendor security advisories that cover the same vulnerabilities (e.g., plugin ID 243452, RHEL 9 : sqlite (RHSA-2025:12522)). Paranoid Scans: For scans running in paranoid mode, generic vulnerability detection plugins will still trigger for component installs if the detected version is lower than the expected fixed version. Expected Impact: Customers running non-paranoid scans should anticipate seeing a reduction in potential vulnerability findings for OpenSSL, Curl, LibCurl, Apache HTTPD, Apache Tomcat, SQLite, PHP, Python packages and Node.js modules that are installed as components. Technical Details: The changes are entirely contained within two shared libraries, vcf.inc and vdf.inc, utilized by the affected plugins. This update impacts approximately 750 plugins specific to OpenSSL, Curl, LibCurl, Apache HTTPD, Apache Tomcat, and SQLite. Targeted Release Date: Friday, February 6, 2026
New Dell OS10 Compliance Plugin and Audit files
Summary Customers can now measure compliance against Dell OS10 devices with new plugin ID Dell OS10 Compliance Checks (275781) on Tenable Vulnerability Management and Nessus. This plugin is published as a part of the Policy Compliance template and will use the existing SSH credential type. The plugin will retrieve all target data using "show" commands and will evaluate actual values against a given audit policy. Three audits implementing the DISA STIG will be released along with the plugin: DISA Dell OS10 Switch Layer 2 Switch STIG v1r1 20 checks DISA Dell OS10 Switch NDM STIG v1r1 39 checks DISA Dell OS10 Switch Router STIG v1r1 42 checks These audits contain a total of 101 checks. Some examples include: OS10-NDM-000010 The Dell OS10 Switch must limit the number of concurrent sessions to an organization-defined number for each administrator account and/or administrator account type. OS10-NDM-000410 The Dell OS10 Switch must enforce password complexity by requiring that at least one uppercase character be used. OS10-L2S-000240 The Dell OS10 Switch must not use the default VLAN for management traffic. OS10-RTR-001040 The Dell OS10 Router must be configured to suppress Router Advertisements on all external IPv6-enabled interfaces. Additional Notes For those that are interested in creating custom audit content for their environment, please see the plugin documentation for all supported keywords and uses at https://docs.tenable.com/nessus/compliance-checks-reference/Content/dell-os10.htm. Target Release Date Nessus/Tenable.VM - Immediate Tenable.sc - To be determined
Nessus now has Windows LAPS Support
Summary: Nessus now has the ability to leverage accounts managed by Microsoft Windows LAPS. How LAPS works: Since LAPS managed accounts have their passwords rotated routinely, users cannot just directly provide the credentials in their Scan Policy. Before this change, users would instead have to make an additional privileged account on each LAPS enabled Host to provide to Nessus. Currently Nessus supports Entra LAPS allowing a scan to pull LAPS Managed Credentials from a customer’s remote Entra instance. Now, Nessus can do the same for Windows LAPS, allowing customers with local LAPS setups to gain the same benefits! Without Windows LAPS support, customers must make dedicated account for Nessus to use to scan targets Change: With this LAPS support change, during the startup phase of a scan, Nessus will reach out to a customer provided Domain Controller hosting an AD forest with LAPS enabled, and pull a list of all Local Admin Accounts for devices managed by LAPS. Nessus will then attempt to use these retrieved LAPS managed accounts as credentials when attempting to access a target host. With Windows LAPS Support, Customers need only provide a single Credential that allows Nessus to retrieve the actual credentials for LAPS Managed Devices How to enable it: To make use of Nessus’ Windows LAPS support, a customer needs only to provide the necessary info to their scan/policy via the Windows LAPS Credential. They’ll need to provide us the IP of the DC, Credentials for an account on that DC with the necessary permissions*, and the DistinguishedName of the OU that contains their LAPS managed devices. *The Account for retrieving Windows LAPS credentials needs the following permissions General Recommend the Account be added to the BUILTIN/Administrators AD Group as it grants all required permissions, including: Access to the $Admin Able to log on to the DC remotely Able to run Powershell WMI and DCOM access to Root/CIMV2 WMI Namespace LAPS Permissions LapsADReadPasswordPermission rights to the LAPS OU Be an Authorized Password Decryptor in the LAPS GPO (without this, Nessus will not be able to retrieve passwords protected by LAPS Encryption). Members of the Domain Administrators group are Authorized Password Decryptors by default. For additional information see: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/laps/laps-overview Impact: Customers using Rotating Host passwords managed through Microsoft Windows LAPS can now leverage these credentials in their Nessus scans for more secure scanning configurations. Target Release Date: Nessus, T.VM On/About 09 JUN 2025 T.SC TBD
Ruby Gem Enumeration Detection Updates
Summary Tenable has updated the Ruby gem enumeration plugins to reduce false positives and to better identify vulnerabilities when multiple packages are present on the scan target. Change Before this update, the Ruby gem enumeration plugins did not attempt to associate detected packages with an RPM or DEB package managed by the Linux distribution. This would cause some packages to report vulnerabilities both based on a Linux distribution vendor’s advisory and a CVE advisory from the Ruby gem maintainer. Some gems that are symbolically linked across the filesystem could be detected multiple times. After this update, these issues have been addressed. Vulnerable Ruby gems on Linux assets will be assessed to determine if they are managed by a Linux distribution’s package manager, and if so, will be marked as “Managed” and will not report a vulnerability, unless the [Override normal Accuracy] setting to Show potential false alarms setting is enabled for the scan. Gems that are symbolically linked will be followed to the source file; duplicate detections will be eliminated. The gem enumeration plugins will no longer report the list of detected gems in plugin output; rather, they will use only internal storage mechanisms to record the detected gems, so that Ruby vulnerability plugins can continue to use that data for version checks. Some issues were identified in the Ruby gem enumeration plugins that could have prevented some gems from being detected when the scan config was set to perform thorough checks. Those issues were corrected in this update. Impact Most customers will notice a reduction in the volume of Ruby gem vulnerabilities reported due to removal of duplicate findings. Some may notice a change in detected vulnerabilities due to the updates to thorough mode scanning. Detection plugins 240646 - Ruby Gem Modules Installed (macOS) 207584 - Ruby Gem Modules Installed (Linux) 207585 - Ruby Gem Modules Installed (Windows) Target Release Date March 23, 2026
Release Highlight - Large Differential Feed Update Notification
Summary Due to integration of new binaries into the plugin feed, there will be a larger than normal differential plugin feed update. Potential Impacts: The addition of the binaries is expected to add approximately 37MB of new content to the plugin feed. The impact is expected to be minimal for Nessus customers. SC customers will see the biggest impact of approximately 230MB due to how the differential feed updates are built. The differential update does not apply to Nessus agents as the binaries were not added there. For Tenable Security Center customers, you can configure the plugins to update on a schedule or switch to manual updates for an optimal time window. Target Release Date March 4, 2026Improvement to Printer OS Fingerprinting
Summary Scanned printers will now have an OS artefact surfaced in their scan host metadata if the target has been identified as a printer when the “Scan Network Printers” policy option is disabled. This change will not cause any additional asset licenses to be consumed within Tenable VM or Tenable Security Center. Background Printers are notoriously unstable scan targets. Oftentimes, they can behave erratically when scanned, so some users prefer to avoid scanning them altogether. At present, there is a switch in the scan policies to prevent further scanning of a host when it's identified as a printer. To enable this setting, go to Settings -> Host Discovery -> Fragile devices - Scan Network Printers (Currently, this is a checkbox setting, default value “off”). With that said, how can the scanner know the target is a printer if it cannot be scanned? In reality, the scanner still performs very basic fingerprinting (usually via SNMP) in order to gather enough information to make an educated guess at the device type. When the scan target is thought to be a printer, it essentially gets marked as “Host/dead" in the scan KB. When this happens, the scanner will not perform any further active scanning. Changes With this update, the fingerprint used to identify the printer as such, will now be stored in the scan Knowledge Base (KB) so it can be processed by os_fingerprint2.nasl ("Post-scan OS Identification", plugin ID 83349) and surfaced as metadata in the scan result. The relevant policy setting located at Settings -> Host Discovery -> Fragile devices -> Scan Network Printers, now has two options when enabled: Surface Printer OS only : The printer will be marked as dead and only the OS information gathered from fingerprinting will be surfaced (default option when setting is not enabled) Full Network Scan : The printer will not be marked as dead and a full scan will be performed, as if this were any other device. Impact Users can now see the OS information for their printer devices that would have otherwise gone unreported if the scan is not configured to “Scan Network Printers”. As plugin ID 83349 generates no plugin output, only an “operating-system” tag will be added to the scan result (and stored in an exported .nessus file). This information will be visible only the in “Host/Asset Details” section of the Tenable product UI, i.e: Tenable Nessus: Scans -> [Folder] -> [Individual Scan Result] - > Host Details -> OS (sidebar) Tenable Vulnerability Management: Explore -> Assets -> [Asset] -> Details -> Operating System Scans -> Vulnerability Management Scans -> [Individual Scan Result] -> Scan Details -> Asset Details -> Operating System Tenable Security Center: Analysis -> IP Summary -> [IP address] -> System Information -> OS Scans -> Scan Results -> [Individual Scan Result] -> IP Summary -> [IP address] -> System Information -> OS Note, we expect this information to surface mainly in individual scan results. It would only be present in cumulative asset details if a licensed asset already exists for the target in question. This update will not cause additional assets to be created or consume any additional licenses. Affected Plugins 83349 - os_fingerprint2.nasl 11933 - dont_scan_printers.nasl 22481 - dont_scan_settings.nasl Targeted Release Date Wednesday, March 4, 2026New Plugin Family: UnionTech Local Security Checks
Summary Tenable will now provide vulnerability check plugins for UnionTech Unity Operating System (UOS). Impact Customers with UnionTech Unity Operating System (ServerA and ServerE) systems in their environments will be able to scan them for vulnerabilities. These plugins will have the family “UnionTech Local Security Checks”. These plugins will not have agent support at this time, but this support is expected in a future release. Target Release Date September 30, 2025Improved Resource Management Control
Summary Improved resource management control for plugins leveraging Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) on Nessus Agent 11.1.0 or higher. Impact Customers with Nessus Agent 11.1.0 and later versions will have the ability to granularly control the CPU resources consumed during scans. This update ensures that plugins respect the resource usage setting selected during scan configuration by launching commands as children of the Nessus Agent, rather than invoking them via WMI. The release of these plugins will continue through January, with a phased approach over three weeks. The first release will be January 13th, the second January 20th, and the final planned plugin update on February 9th. Target Release Date Phase 1 plugin set: January 13, 2026 Phase 2 plugin set: January 20, 2026 Phase 3 plugin set: February 9, 2026Distinct Agent Plugin Databases for RPM-Based Distributions
Summary Tenable will now provide separate agent plugin databases for RPM-based Linux distributions. Impact Historically, the majority of plugins for RPM-based Linux distributions have all been distributed via a single artifact. Starting with Nessus Agent 11.1.0, Tenable will now publish separate artifacts based on the following plugin families: Alma Linux Local Security Checks CentOS Local Security Checks Miracle Linux Local Security Checks Oracle Linux Local Security Checks Red Hat Enterprise Linux Local Security Checks Rocky Linux Local Security Checks As a result, customers will see a reduction in the overall size of the agent database (15-31% reduction at rest, 7-14% downloaded), directly leading to smaller updates and reduced resource consumption during the update process. This improvement will be available to all customers using Agent 11.1.0 or later versions. Target Release Date January 13, 2026
