How to Reset a Nessus Scanner

The other day I installed a new Nessus Vulnerability Scanner which is a security scanner that is often controlled Security Center, both of which are Tenable products. After I finished the install and configured the Nessus scanner to be managed by Security Center.  I tried to log back into the scanner and discovered I was locked out. So I figured I could just reinstall the Nessus scanner, after all it only take a few minutes to do. I reinstalled Nessus and I was still locked out, what gives. Below are the steps used to get back into the scanner. I later found an even easier way to get back into the Nessus scanner, which I also posted below.

Follow the steps below to uninstall the Nessus scanner and remove the configuration files.

1. Optional - Stop the nessusd service

root@earth> service nessusd stop

2. To uninstall Nessus remove the Nessus package

root@earth> rpm -e nessus-package

For some reason /opt/nessus still exists after the Nessus package is removed

3. Remove the Nessus directory.

root@earth> rm -r /opt/nessus

Note- Don't worry the Nessus the files will be recreated after the reinstall.

Note- If the /opt/nessus directory is not removed, then your account will still be locked. This is because the configuration files will still exist.

4. Now install Nessus

root@earth> rpm -ivh nessus.rpm

5. Go to the Web interface to finish the configuration of the scanner
https://nessus:8834

Installing Nessus and setting it up to be managed by Security Center takes very little time, but you

Create a new user and/or set the user password.

Add user to scanner

root@earth> /opt/nessus/sbin/nessuscli  adduser  newuser

Change password on the nessus scanner

root@earth> /opt/nessus/sbin/nessuscli  chpasswd username

I showed you in a previous post "Reset Admin account on Security Center" how to do this for Security Center.

Related posts on this site:
Reset Admin account on Security Center
Manually Update Plugins for your PVS
Manually Update Plugins on a Nessus Scanner