/ 
Net-Nessus-0.09
River stage zero No dependents
/ Net::Nessus::Client

NAME

Net::Nessus::Client - A Nessus client module

SYNOPSIS

    # Connect to the Nessus Server
    require Net::Nessus::Client;
    my $client = Net::Nessus::Client->new('host' => 'localhost',
					  'port' => '1241',
					  'user' => 'joe',
					  'password' => 'my_password');

DESCRIPTION

The Nessus program is a Client/Server application offering a framework for lots of security related scanners, so-called plugins. The idea is not to create a separate scanner for any possible security hole, but to reimplement only the most important parts and let the Nessus Server (nessusd) do the most part of the work.

Clients are typically available as GUI applications, for example based on the GTK (nessus), Java or Win32 applications. This module is another Nessus client written in Perl, but without GUI.

You start using the module by opening a connection to a Nessus Server: This will create a Nessus client object for you. This object offers methods that you can later use, for example retrieving the list of available plugins, start a scan, set preferences and so on.

METHOD INTERFACE

Creating a client object

require Net::Nessus::Client;
my $client = Net::Nessus::Client->new(%attr);

(Class Method) The new method is the client constructor. It receives a set of attributes that are required for opening the connection, for example

A Perl exception is thrown in case of trouble.

host
port

Host name (or IP address) and port number of the Nessus servers machine. The defaults are localhost and 1241, as accepted by the IO::Socket modules new constructor. You may as well use other attributes of this constructor, for example Timeout. IO::Socket.

user
password

User name and password to use for logging into the Nessus server. There are no defaults, you must set these attributes.

ntp_proto

An optional version of the NTP protocol to run. Defaults to the highest available number, 1.1 as of this writing.

Example: Log into the Nessus server running at machine "gate.company.com", port 2367 as user "joe" with password "what_password" and NTP version 1.0:

require Net::Nessus::Client;
my $client = Net::Nessus::Client->new('host' => 'gate.company.com',
                                      'port' => 2367,
                                      'user' => 'joe',
                                      'password' => 'what_password',
                                      'ntp_proto' => '1.0');

Reading the plugin list

my $plugins = $self->Plugins();
my $prefs = $self->Prefs();
my $rules = $self->Rules();

(Instance Methods) Read the plugin list, the current preferences or the list of rules. The plugin list is an array of hash refs, each hash ref with attributes id, category and so on. The prefs are a single hash ref of name/value pairs and the rules are an array ref of strings.

When talking to an NTP/1.0 server, the Prefs() and Rules() methods will return undef.

Examples:

my $plugins = $self->Plugins();
print("The first plugins ID is ", $plugins->[0]->{'id'}, "\n");
print("The second plugins description is ",
      $plugins->[1]->{'description'}, "\n");
my $prefs = $self->Prefs();
print "\nThe current prefs are:\n";
while (my($var, $val) = each %$prefs) {
  print "  $var = $val\n";
}
my $rules = $self->Rules();
print "\nThe current rules are:\n";
foreach my $rule (@$rules) {
  print "  $rule\n";
}

Sending a message to the server

$client->Print($msg);

(Instance Method) The print method is used for sending a previously created message to the server. Depending on the message type you should continue calling the GetMsg method.

Example:

my $rules = ['n:*.fr;', 'y:*.my.de;'];
my $msg = Net::Nessus::Message::Rules($rules);
$client->print($msg);

Reading a message from the server

$msg = $client->GetMsg($type, $timeout);

(Instance method) The GetMsg method is reading a message from the server. If the argument $type is undef, then any message is accepted, otherwise any message other message type is treated as an error. Valid message types are PLUGIN_LIST, PREFERENCES and so on.

If the argument $timeout is given, then an error will be triggered, if the server is not sending any message for that much seconds. If no timeout is given, then the default timeout will be used.

Launching an attack

my $messages = $client->Attack(@hosts);
$client->ShowSTATUS($msg);
$client->ShowPORT($msg);
$client->ShowHOLE($msg);
$client->ShowINFO($msg);
$client->ShowPLUGINS_ORDER($msg);
$client->ShowBYE($msg);
$client->ShowERROR($msg);

(Instance Methods) An attack can be launched by calling the clients Attack method. While the attack is running, the Nessus server will send PLUGINS_ORDER, STATUS, PORT, HOLE and INFO messages and finally a BYE message. If the client receives such a message, he will call the corresponding Show method, for example ShowPLUGINS_ORDER or ShowPORT.

The default implementations of these messages will create a hash ref. The hash refs keys are port numbers, a special key being the word general. The hash refs values are hash refs again, the keys being the words PORT, HOLE and INFO. The values are array refs of corresponding messages. That is, you find all security holes (if any) of the targets FTP port as follows:

my @ftp_holes = @{$messages->{'21'}->{'PORT'}};

Finally the hosts are used to build a top hash ref, the values being as described above for the respective host.

AUTHOR AND COPYRIGHT

The Net::Nessus package is

  Copyright (C) 1998	Jochen Wiedmann
			Am Eisteich 9
			72555 Metzingen
			Germany

			Phone: +49 7123 14887
			Email: joe@ispsoft.de

  Copyright (C) 2004    Tiago Stock
                        Email: tstock@tiago.com

  All rights reserved.

You may distribute under the terms of either the GNU General Public License or the Artistic License, as specified in the Perl README file.

SEE ALSO

Net::Nessus::Client(3)