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CTCH 690 9040: Unit 2 Assignment: Project 1 Part B: Conducting a Security Assessment

CTCH 690 9040: Unit 2 Assignment: Project 1 Part B: Conducting a Security Assessment

Unit 2 Assignment: Project 1 Part B: Conducting a Security Assessment

Overview

The objective of this task for the City of Gotham is to conduct a security assessment. Regular security assessments are essential for every organization to conduct across their networks, computers, and applications. These assessments serve the primary goal of identifying and verifying the presence of vulnerabilities. Subsequently, organizations can act to patch, mitigate, or eliminate these vulnerabilities.

A vulnerability assessment is designed to pinpoint and classify risks associated with security weaknesses in assets within an environment. A vulnerability assessment offers remediation steps to address and resolve identified issues.

The primary objective of a vulnerability assessment is to comprehensively understand, identify, and categorize the risks posed by evident issues within an environment, all without resorting to exploiting them for additional access.

There are numerous tools available for conducting security assessments, and among them, you will download and install Nessus and OpenVAS in the assignment for this unit.

Instructions

Perform the following exercises in MARS, the virtual learning environment. Follow the steps in each exercise, taking screenshots as you go along and inputting the information and documentation in a Word document using the template provided in the submission instructions.

Exercise 1

Objective: Execute a thorough security assessment on a specially configured virtual network environment with embedded vulnerabilities.

Instructions

Getting Started with Nessus

In this first step, you will see how to install Nessus. Please note that Nessus has already been installed for you in MARS; however, if you want to attempt to install Nessus, you may follow the steps below.

Downloading Nessus

  1. To download Nessus, head to its Download Page, and select the appropriate binary for your system. For this walkthrough, you’ll download the Debian package tailored for Ubuntu: Tenable Nessus Download Page
Tenable Nessus downloads page showing selection of the Debian package for Ubuntu.

 

  1. Now open a terminal, and type “dpkg -i Nessus-10.7.1-ubuntu1404_amd64.deb”.
Terminal output showing installation of the Nessus .deb package and a series of cryptographic self‑tests, all passing.

 

  1. After installing Nessus, begin by starting the Nessus service.
Command to start the Nessus service
sudo systemctl start nessusd.service
Nessus installation output with highlighted command /bin/systemctl start nessusd.service in the terminal.

 

  1. To access Nessus, navigate to https://localhost:8834.
A Firefox warning page states “Potential Security Risk Ahead” for https://localhost:8834 with an arrow pointing to the “Advanced…” button.

 

  1. Click on “Advanced…”, and click on “Accept the Risk and Continue”.
A Firefox warning page shows an option to “Accept the Risk and Continue” highlighted with an arrow.

 

  1. In Nessus, click on “Continue”.
A Nessus welcome screen displays a “Continue” button highlighted with an arrow.

 

  1. Select the “Register for Nessus Essentials”, and then click “Continue”.
Nessus setup screen with ‘Register for Nessus Essentials’ selected and the Continue button highlighted.

 

  1. Fill in the required information, and click “Register”.
Nessus form to enter name and email with Register button highlighted.

 

  1. On the page with the activation code, click “Continue”.
Nessus license screen showing activation code and Continue button.

 

  1. Create a new user account.
Nessus create‑account screen with username and password fields.

 

  1. Now this step will take a few minutes to complete. You will see a page showing that Nessus is initializing with a progress bar indicating that the plugins are downloading.
Nessus initialization screen with a progress bar showing plugins downloading.

Exercise 2

Objective: Analyze a complex virtual environment consisting of interconnected virtual machines for security testing.

Instructions

Once the setup is finished, dive into creating scans, scan policies, plugin rules, and customizing settings. The Settings page offers a variety of options, including configuring a Proxy Server or SMTP server, managing standard accounts, and adjusting advanced settings for the user interface, scanning, logging, performance, and security.

Nessus Advanced Settings page showing tabs and a list of configuration options.

 

  1. In the “New Scan” section, you can choose from a basic Host Discovery scan for identifying live hosts and open ports or select from various scan types including Basic Network Scan, Advanced Scan, Malware Scan, Web Application Tests, and scans focused on specific CVEs and audit & compliance standards. You can find a description of each scan type to help you decide.
Nessus dashboard displaying a grid of scan templates.

 

  1. For this exercise, select the “Advanced Scan” option. Click on “Basic > General”.
  2. File the required fields. In this exercise, you will scan three machines.
    • 10.11.14.84 Kali Linux
    • 10.11.14.85 Ubuntu
    • 10.11.14.86 Windows
Nessus scan settings showing the Name field set to ‘Lab Exercise’ and the Targets field containing multiple IP addresses, both highlighted in red.

 

  1. Click on “Assessment > Malware”, and turn on the option for “Malware” scan.
Nessus advanced scan page with the Assessment section and Malware option highlighted.

 

  1. Once you turn on the option for “Malware”, the button will turn blue.
Nessus malware settings screen with the ‘Scan for malware’ toggle highlighted.

 

  1. You are all set! Scroll down, and click “Save”.
Red arrow pointing to the Save and Launch buttons.

 

  1. You will be redirected to “My Scans” page. Here is the scan that you previously created. Click on “Launch”.
My Scans list with the ‘Lab Exercise’ scan highlighted.

 

  1. The scan is started. Click on the scan name.
My Scans list showing ‘Lab Exercise’ and its last scan time highlighted.

 

  1. It will show the current scan running.
Scan results list with one host showing a highlighted vulnerability count.

 

  1. The scan might take from minutes to hours depending on the system configuration and number of IP addresses provided.

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Submission

  • Submit the following reports in the form of a screenshot:
    • Nessus Scan Report
    • OpenVAS Scan Report
    • Compare and contrasts the results from the two tools
  • Submit your Exercise 4 in the Unit 2 Assignment template

Before submitting your completed assignment template, check out the following resources to help you revise your own writing:

If you do not know whether you need to cite in this assignment, review Manage Information Ethically. Finally, if you require quantitative-related support, review the following webpages:

Exercise 3

Objective: Document vulnerabilities and security gaps within the target virtual network.

Instructions

Nessus Reports

After a scan is completed, you have the option to export a report in PDF, HTML, or CSV formats. The PDF and HTML reports offer an Executive Summary or a custom report. The Executive Summary includes a list of hosts, the total number of vulnerabilities per host, and a “Show Details” option displaying severity, CVSS score, plugin number, and issue name for each vulnerability. The plugin number links to the full plugin writeup from the Tenable plugin database. The PDF report is suitable for easier sharing, while the CSV report allows customization of exported columns. This is useful for importing scan results into other tools like Splunk or for sharing with internal stakeholders responsible for remediation or data analysis.

A red arrow points to the “Report” button on a completed Nessus scan results page.

 

  1. Select the format of the report (pdf recommended), and click “Generate Report”.
Generate Report window with the report format options, report template list, and the Generate Report button highlighted.

 

  1. Once the report is generated, go to the downloads folder and open it. It will look like this:
Nessus report cover page titled “Lab Exercise” appears beneath the Tenable Nessus logo.
A table of contents lists three hosts along with their corresponding page numbers.
A host summary displays colored counts of critical, high, medium, low, and informational vulnerabilities.

Getting Started with OpenVAS

Now, you will see how to install OpenVAS. Please note that OpenVAS has already been installed for you in MARS; however, if you want to attempt to install OpenVAS, you may follow the steps below.

OpenVAS, developed by Greenbone Networks, is a widely accessible vulnerability scanner. It forms a component of Greenbone’s Vulnerability Manager, which is freely available to the public. OpenVAS offers comprehensive network scanning functionalities, encompassing both authenticated and unauthenticated testing methods.

Installing Package

Install
sudo apt-get update && apt-get -y full-upgrade 
sudo apt-get install gvm && openvas

 

  1. To initiate the installation process, execute the following command “gvm-setup”.
Initiate
gvm-setup
  1. Executing this command will start the setup process, which may take up to 30 minutes to complete.

 

Starting OpenVas

  1. Lastly, start OpenVAS by executing the appropriate command. Open a terminal and type “gvm-start”.
Start
gvm-start
A terminal displays output from running sudo gvm-start as the services initialize.

 

  1. Open a web browser, and navigate to https://127.0.0.1:9392.
  2. Click on “Advanced”, and then click on “Accept the Risk and Continue”.
A Firefox warning page shows a user selecting “Advanced” and then “Accept the Risk and Continue.”

 

  1. You will see the “Greenbone Security Assistant” dashboards.
A Greenbone Security Assistant dashboard displays several empty and filled charts summarizing security data.

 

OpenVAS Scan

The OpenVAS Greenbone Security Assistant application offers several tabs for interaction. In this section, focus on the “Scans” tab. When you navigate to this tab, you’ll find a list of past scans and the option to create a new task for running a scan. Tasks operate based on the scanning configurations set up by the user.

  1. For this exercise, only scan ubuntu machine, but take your time to scan other machines as well. Click on “Scan Configs”.
A Greenbone menu highlights the “Scan Configs” option above a list of available scan configuration templates.

 

  1. Click on the “Scans” tab, and select “Tasks”.
A dialog box shows an IP address entered for a quick scan with a red arrow pointing to the “Start Scan” button.
  1. The scan will start and take a couple of minutes, depending on the number of hosts and system configurations.

 

Exporting The Results

  1. OpenVAS presents the scan results in a report accessible from the Scans page, as depicted below.
A Greenbone report page shows a single scan result with charts and a highlighted date entry.
A Greenbone report page lists detected vulnerabilities with their severity ratings and details.
A Greenbone dialog shows PDF selected as the report format with an arrow pointing to the OK button.

 

  1. A very nice and clean report was generated. Please take your time. and go through the report.
A scan report cover page displays the title “Scan Report,” the date, a summary paragraph, and a table of contents.
A scan report page lists host results with a table of services and a highlighted high‑severity vulnerability summary.
Vulnerability report section showing detection quality, impact, solution, affected software, and references.

Documentation Requirements:

  1. Take Proper Screenshots:
    • Ensure that screenshots are clear, focused, and relevant to the task being documented.
    • Use the appropriate screen capture tool to capture screenshots.
    • Include annotations or captions as needed to provide context or highlight important information in the screenshots.
  2. Make Clear Reports:
    • Create a comprehensive report that documents all relevant activities, findings, and observations.
    • Organize the report with clear headings, sections, and sub-sections for easy navigation and readability.
    • Use concise and descriptive language to describe each step, action, or observation.
    • Include screenshots, logs, and other supporting evidence to substantiate findings and observations.
    • Review the report thoroughly to ensure accuracy, coherence, and completeness before finalizing it.
  3. Take Your Time and Go Through the Report:
    • Take sufficient time to review and validate the content of the report.
    • Double-check all commands executed, logs generated, and activities documented to ensure accuracy.
    • Verify that all screenshots are clear, relevant, and properly annotated to provide context.
    • Review the report from the perspective of a reader to ensure clarity and comprehensiveness.
    • Address any inconsistencies, errors, or omissions identified during the review process before finalizing the report.

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Submission

  • Submit the following reports in the form of a screenshot:
    • Nessus Scan Report
    • OpenVAS Scan Report
    • Compare and contrasts the results from the two tools
  • Submit your Exercise 4 in the Unit 2 Assignment template

Before submitting your completed assignment template, check out the following resources to help you revise your own writing:

If you do not know whether you need to cite in this assignment, review Manage Information Ethically. Finally, if you require quantitative-related support, review the following webpages:

Tutorial for Project 1 Part B: Conducting a Security Assessment

Unit 2 Assignment Directions: Project 1 Part B: Conducting a Security Assessment

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