tenable nessus
53 TopicsImprovement to Printer OS Fingerprinting
Updated: April 3, 2026 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. With this update, the printer's OS information will now be surfaced if it is available, regardless of the selected value for this setting. 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, 2026Tenable Post-Quantum Cryptography Inventory Support
Summary The advent of quantum computing presents a significant threat to current cryptographic algorithms. Organizations worldwide are beginning the critical transition to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) resistant algorithms to ensure long-term data security. Government mandates, such as the U.S. National Security Memorandum 10 (NSM-10), outlines deadlines for PQC migration and specific actions agencies must take to migrate vulnerable systems. Our PQC support is designed to help customers inventory use of TLS and SSH quantum-resistant and vulnerable algorithms within their infrastructure using remote Nessus-based scans. Cipher Inventory and Reporting Post-Quantum Cipher Plugins Two remote-based scan informational reporting plugins for TLS and SSH protocols inform customers of their transition posture according to NIST Post-Quantum Encryption Standards. Services Using Post Quantum Cryptography: Reports on services equipped with at least one post-quantum cipher. It will specify which post-quantum ciphers were discovered, reporting by port and protocol. Services Not Using Post Quantum Cryptography: Reports on services that support no post-quantum ciphers. These plugins will be enabled by default and included in existing scans. Cryptographic Inventory Plugin Reporting To enable a JSON-based inventory of each target by service and cipher, enable through either a preference on your Advanced Network Scan or by running the Cryptographic Inventory scan template. These preferences will initially be supported in Nessus and Tenable Vulnerability Management. They are planned to be added to Tenable Security Center at a later date. Warning: Enabling this preference through the Advanced Network Scan is expected to increase the overall size of the plugin output per target and resulting Nessus database size. If you do not need to produce this inventory at all or on your regular scan cadence, it’s recommended to instead run the Cryptographic Inventory scan template to decrease the potential impact to your normal scan results. Options to Enable Inventory Reporting Advanced Scan Preference Post Quantum Cryptography Scan Template Cryptographic Inventory Plugin Details The plugin enabled with the preference or scan template is an information plugin called Target Cipher Inventory. Within the output of this plugin, you will find a JSON structure containing the TLS and SSH inventories for the scanned target. You can export this inventory based on plugin output using the Tenable API if needed. For TLS, the structure contains: Attribute Definition Encaps Protocol encapsulation employed such as TLSv1, TLSv2, TLSv3 Port Port used for TLS communication Curve Group Encryption method Ciphersuite Algorithm used to secure the TLS connection For SSH, the structure contains: Attribute Definition Proto Protocol of SSH Port Port used for SSH communication Name Algorithm used to secure the protocol Type Use of the named algorithm such as “message auth” Release Date Tenable Vulnerability Management and Tenable Nessus: December 8, 2025 Tenable Security Center: - December 8, 2025 for the informational plugins - Cryptographic Inventory scan template release to be determinedCyberArk PVWA Credentials from CCP
Summary Tenable is proud to announce an enhancement to credentialed scanning using CyberArk Auto-Discovery. Specifically, as it relates to how customers can manage Password Vault Web Access (PVWA) credentials in the CyberArk Vault, and fetch them from the Central Credential Provider (CCP). When using CyberArk Auto-Discovery, the scanner accesses the Password Vault Web Access (PVWA) API to enumerate accounts to be dynamically added as targets to the scan, and the scanner uses a username and password to authenticate to this API. This new feature offers the ability to store the username and password combination in CyberArk itself, eliminating the need to manually manage these credentials. New Feature The feature adds a new drop-down menu, named “PVWA REST API Authentication Type”, which has two options, “Username and Password” and “Gather from CCP”. “Username and Password” is the default and previous behavior of manually entering the PVWA username and password. “Gather from CCP” provides the ability to gather these values from the vault, by instead providing the Account Name (unique credential identifier) of the account containing PVWA credentials. Please note that this change only affects configurations using CyberArk Auto-Discovery as a Windows, Database or SSH authentication method, because these are the only integrations that interface with the PVWA. The following other integrations are unaffected by this change: CyberArk (without auto-discovery) CyberArk Secrets Manager CyberArk (Legacy) Additionally, this change requires a minimum Nessus scanner version of 10.10. Attempting to use this feature with an older Nessus version will fail with an error in the debugging log report which reads: Please note that fetching PVWA creds from the Central Credential Provider requires Nessus scanner version 10.10 or later. For more information, please refer to the CyberArk integrations documentation: https://docs.tenable.com/Integrations.htm Impact There is no change necessary for customer configurations. Customers with existing Auto-Discovery credentials will continue to use username and password authentication, but will have the option to try the new feature by selecting “Gather from CCP”. Release Date April 1st 2026 for T.VM and Nessus, TDB for T.SCImprovement: 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, 20261.4KViews4likes11CommentsRuby 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, 2026Release 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, 2026Windows Patch Management Remediation Guidance
SUMMARY Tenable Research is making changes to Windows-based patch management integrations that affect vulnerability remediation. This announcement only applies to customers who are using the WSUS and SCCM patch management credentials. Vulnerabilities identified by WSUS and SCCM integrations will now be identified as “local checks”, which will cause them to now affect vulnerability remediation, also known as vulnerability mitigation. CHANGE Prior to this change, vulnerabilities identified by these scans could not be remediated except by a Host credentialed scan - in other words, a Windows (SMB) credential. After this change, vulnerabilities identified by these Windows patch management scans may be remediated with a subsequent Windows patch management scan. Windows patch management credentials will identify only a subset of the vulnerabilities that a Host credentialed scan will. Therefore, a scenario could arise in which a patch management scan incorrectly remediates vulnerabilities previously identified by a Host credentialed scan. To prevent incorrectly remediating vulnerabilities, Tenable advises customers using a combination of patch management and Host credentials to combine them in a single scan, rather than running them in separate scans. IMPACT Customers who are not using patch management credentials are not affected by this change. Customers using patch management credentials but not Host credentials do not need to take any action, but will now see vulnerabilities identified by Windows and SCCM integrations being remediated. The guidance to combine credentials in a single scan applies to customers who are using Windows-based patch management credentials in combination with Windows Host (SMB) credentials. TARGET RELEASE DATE February 23, 2026Research Release Highlight - SSH Session Reuse
Summary Nessus scan will support an opt-in feature to reuse SSH sessions during a scan where possible when running Nessus versions 10.9.0 and greater. This update was made in response to numerous customer requests for reducing the number of new SSH connections established during remote network scans and the associated increase in network traffic. Change A new scan configuration template option will be available for customers to actively enable the [Reuse SSH connections] configuration in their scan policies in Advanced Settings under Advanced Performance Options. Customers can return to the classic SSH connection functionality by changing [Reuse SSH connections] to the default “off” setting in their scan policies. Customers must be running a version of Nessus 10.9.0 or greater that supports this feature and have a Plugin Feed that displays the scan configuration policy user interface and NASL plugin set with the SSH session reuse functionality. Impact Customers should see a significant decrease in the total number of SSH sessions established during a Nessus scan as well as a reduction in load on Enterprise authorization, access, and accounting (AAA) tooling such as RADIUS servers and other connection management services. There should be no difference in scan results between scans that leverage SSH Session Reuse and scans that do not. If customers experience any such issues, the feature can easily be toggled off to return SSH connections during scans to the classic connection functionality. Target Release Date January 15, 2026New CyberArk Secrets Manager PAM Integration
Summary Tenable is proud to announce integration with the CyberArk Secrets Manager solution. This integration gathers credentials from the CyberArk Secrets Manager to be used for target authentication. The integration will be available in Tenable Vulnerability Management and Nessus Manager, with plans to release this feature in Tenable.SC at a future date. Customers will benefit from streamlined privileged access in credentialed vulnerability scans. The CyberArk Secrets Manager, formerly known as “Conjur”, is a component in Privilege Cloud and Identity Security Platform Shared Services (ISPSS) deployments. The Tenable integration is compatible with both SaaS (cloud) and Enterprise (on-premises) deployments. Documentation for this Integration will be available on our documentation page under Integrations. Supported Authentication Types The CyberArk Secrets Manager integration can be used as an authentication method with the following credentials: SSH, including least privilege, privilege escalation, and SSH key authentication). SMB (Windows), including domain configuration. SNMPv3 Database integration, including the following database types: Oracle SQL Server MySQL MongoDB PostgreSQL DB2 Cassandra Sybase ASE VMware vCenter API VMware ESX SOAP API Nutanix Prism Central Impact There is no impact to existing scan configurations. Customers with CyberArk Secrets Manager are encouraged to use the integration for credentialed scans. Target Release Date January 20, 2026, TBD for SCCisco Meraki API Host Guidance
Summary Tenable is announcing changes to our documentation for the Cisco Meraki API integration. Customers using a “unique” host in the “Cisco Meraki Host” field of the credential should use “api.meraki.com”, or a region-specific instead if applicable. Please refer to the documentation for full guidance. Tenable and Cisco Meraki Integration Guide Impact Customers using the Cisco Meraki API integration are encouraged to check their configurations and update them accordingly. This change in guidance addresses cases where some customers were experiencing HTTP 308 redirects, resulting in integration failures. This is also closely related to cases where customers were experiencing HTTP 403 errors, which has been addressed by changes in the Cisco Meraki API Web Application Firewall (WAF). Release Date Dec 15th, 2025