Mailing List Archive

Unable to get Nessus to run local checks on Windows servers
Hello,



I'm having trouble determining why the SMB credentials I've configured
are not able to login and run the local checks on our Windows 2003 SP 2
servers. I can login using the same credentials over remote desktop but
the Nessus scans gets locked out. I have ensured the user name and
password is correct and that the account is part of the local admin
group. We do not control the domain so I cannot get a domain account.
Will a local admin account work?



Thanks,

Lee Anne
Re: Unable to get Nessus to run local checks on Windows servers [ In reply to ]
Hart, Lee Anne (AHRQ/IOD) wrote:
> Hello,
>
>
>
> I'm having trouble determining why the SMB credentials I've configured
> are not able to login and run the local checks on our Windows 2003 SP 2
> servers. I can login using the same credentials over remote desktop but
> the Nessus scans gets locked out. I have ensured the user name and
> password is correct and that the account is part of the local admin
> group. We do not control the domain so I cannot get a domain account.
> Will a local admin account work?
>

Hi Lee,

Nessus includes several checks that tell you why local checks may
have failed. Reading these may provide some insight as to what the
problem is. You may also have ports not being open to allow a network
login.

If you want to have someone from Tenable's support group work on this
with you, please open up a support ticket with us. If you are not
a primary point of contact for HHS, please coordinate with whoever
purchased your Professional Feeds about opening a ticket.

Ron Gula
Tenable Network Security







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RE: Unable to get Nessus to run local checks on Windows servers [ In reply to ]
Some time near the end of 2008, it seems that Microsoft "patched" something that changed the behavior of SMB access to remote registries. The team that handles Windows/AD at the company I'm at spent about a week trying to figure out what the issue was. We also used to use a local admin account and connect remotely to servers, but it no longer works. It seems that in an AD environment, one must use an AD account to access remote registries.

We eventually moved down the path of having a domain account created for nessus to use, and when a scan is needed, a server admin will drop the AD account in to the local admin group. This solved our access/scanning issue, but it doesn't make ad-hoc scanning any easier. However, it was a suitable compromise between complete failure, and a full admin level AD account.

There's more info out there in the exact technical details, but I dealt with this last several months ago, and all that info has fallen out of RAM.

Hope that helps at least.




David Jones
Principal Financial Group
I/S Information Security
711 High Street
Des Moines, IA 50392-0257

Email: jones.david.h@principal.com
Phone: 515.362.2224

-----Original Message-----
From: nessus-bounces@list.nessus.org [mailto:nessus-bounces@list.nessus.org] On Behalf Of Hart, Lee Anne (AHRQ/IOD)
Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 10:00 AM
To: nessus@list.nessus.org
Subject: Unable to get Nessus to run local checks on Windows servers

Hello,



I'm having trouble determining why the SMB credentials I've configured are not able to login and run the local checks on our Windows 2003 SP 2 servers. I can login using the same credentials over remote desktop but the Nessus scans gets locked out. I have ensured the user name and password is correct and that the account is part of the local admin group. We do not control the domain so I cannot get a domain account. Will a local admin account work?



Thanks,

Lee Anne



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