The Silicon Underground

Reading and analyzing a Nessus vulnerability scanner report is an underrated skill. Frankly, I see a lot of misuse and abuse surrounding Nessus scans. So let’s talk about how to read and analyze a Nessus scan for the purpose of understanding and solving problems.

You can read it in the user interface but I recommend exporting a CSV so you can sort and filter. The exact CSV format has changed a bit over the years so they may not be in this exact order. But this will get you started. The most important columns are all here. You’ll find it very similar to reading a Qualys scan report.

For reference, I used the sample file here: https://github.com/derekmorr/nessus-csv/blob/master/nessus_test.csv

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The Lockheed Martin Cyber Kill Chain is a popular model in information security. The model illustrates the typical cyber attack. Like the CIA triad, the Cyber Kill Chain is a fundamental concept that helps people understand what motivates security professionals. Understanding it and being able to explain it makes us more effective at our jobs.

Here’s an explanation of the Cyber Kill Chain, along with a couple of examples, one real, and one imagined.

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I had a discussion with somebody this week about vulnerabilities that don’t have CVEs. I learned from this conversation that there are a lot of misconceptions about those. So let’s talk about vulnerabilities without CVEs, and what to do about them.

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I am 75% confident your vulnerability management metrics are too complicated. I’m 75% confident because I’d need to see examples from about twice as many organizations than I’ve seen in order to be 95% confident. But I’ve probably seen 150 more samples than most people. But I have bad news for you. I’m 75% confident your vulnerability management metrics are too simplistic. How can you be both? Measuring the wrong things puts you in situations like that. So let’s talk about NIST’s recommended vulnerability management metrics, and how to more closely align with their recommendations.

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I was involved in an interesting discussion about how long it takes to get a security job. But here’s an even more important question. How long does it take to get a security job with no experience? That’s a tougher question. I’ll also argue there’s no such thing as no experience. But to keep the search engines happy, here’s how long it takes to get a security job with no experience (except there’s no such thing as no experience!).

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Just turning on automatic updates is one of those bumper sticker-style solutions to IT problems that won’t go away. It sounds really good, and of course it would be cheap. And since nobody’s doing it, it sounds like a new idea. As someone who’s been working in this space more than 20 years, I can tell you there’s a reason nobody does it. And it’s a good reason. It’s even a reason most proponents of bumper sticker-style solutions love to cite as a reason not to do something: unintended consequences.

While allowing systems to auto update seems like a cheap way to solve a difficult IT problem, the unintended consequences can be devastating. There are reasons to do automatic updates in limited circumstances, but it’s easy to cause bigger problems than you solve.

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