Unable to start scans.

[TheMetal1123]

First Powershell is most assuredly not my wheelhouse. However this project has fallen in my lap and its my job to figure it out. I am attempting to automate scans, but I keep getting:

PS C:> Start-NessusScan -SessionId 0 -ScanId 1772
InvokeNessusRestRequest : {"error":"API is not available"}
At C:\Users\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\Posh-Nessus\Scan.ps1:434 char:23

• ... $Scans = InvokeNessusRestRequest -SessionObject $Connection -Path ...

•             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  

  • CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [InvokeNessusRestRequest], WebException
  • FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebCmdletWebResponseException,InvokeNessusRestRequest

[darkoperator]

On the latest version of Nessus the ability to create and launch scans was removed. What version of nessus are you running against?

…

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On Mar 12, 2018, at 1:45 PM, TheMetal1123 ***@***.***> wrote: First Powershell is most assuredly not my wheelhouse. However this project has fallen in my lap and its my job to figure it out. I am attempting to automate scans, but I keep getting: PS C:\Users\P00190021\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\MDK_Scripts> Start-NessusScan -SessionId 0 -ScanId 1772 InvokeNessusRestRequest : {"error":"API is not available"} At C:\Users\P00190021\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\Posh-Nessus\Scan.ps1:434 char:23 ... $Scans = InvokeNessusRestRequest -SessionObject $Connection -Path ... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CategoryInfo : InvalidOperation: (System.Net.HttpWebRequest:HttpWebRequest) [InvokeNessusRestRequest], WebException FullyQualifiedErrorId : WebCmdletWebResponseException,InvokeNessusRestRequest — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[TheMetal1123]

That would be the latest version..... Now I don't feel like such an idiot!

[TheMetal1123]

Are you aware of anyway to update the target list of IPs through the API?

[ConnorGriffin]

@TheMetal1123 There doesn't appear to be a way to update the target list using the module in its current state. I have added rudimentary support for editing the scan details (most of the items on here). I have never worked with ACLs, target/agent groups, or file targets, so I can't test those features. Renaming, adding descriptions, and changing scheduling seems to work fairly well, though the syntax is iffy. Our version is Nessus Professional 6.11.3 (#104) WINDOWS.

You should be able to check the API details of your Nessus instance by going to https://nessusserver:8834/api#/overview

I added the following function to Scan.ps1 in the module folder. I may submit a pull request if i have time to test and clean up this feature, and test against the latest Nessus. I think we may be a couple major versions behind. It looks like Tenable completely dropped API support for self-hosted customers, opting to use basic features as a selling point of their cloud solution, so that's pretty disappointing.

Anyway, here's the function that I just copied into C:\Users\<username>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules\Posh-Nessus\Scan.ps1.

Updating the target list:
Edit-NessusScanDetail -SessionId 0 -ScanId 2003 -TextTargets '10.135.7.40, 10.135.7.63, 10.135.7.8, 10.251.0.1/24'

Renaming a scan, changing the description, changing the email list, and setting an every 2 weeks schedule starting on March 15th at noon:
Edit-NessusScanDetail -SessionId 0 -ScanId 2003 -Name 'EditedScanName' -Description 'TestDescription' -Frequency Weekly -Interval 2 -StartTime '2018-03-15 12:00:00' -Emails '[email protected]','[email protected]'

The scheduling syntax is weird, and I don't think I did a good job of getting it into the module, but... eh. You can check the API documentation to see what the script is asking for. For example, If you want a weekly on Monday and Friday, $ByDay should be 'MO,FR'.