OpenVas for Kali Linux on the Raspberry Pi

I’m working on creating a semi-portable security platform. I decided to experiment with installing and using the armel version of Kali Linux (the new backtrack OS) on the raspberry pi. Initially, I faced a lot of problems getting OpenVAS to work on the device. This is one of the very few if only open source armel vulnerability scanners I could find. The following steps cover my successful attempt to setting up OpenVAS for anyone else interested in working with this tool in Kali on a Pi. Be prepared to spend a good amount of time waiting for the plugins to install and the database to update.

  1. Downloaded and installed a fresh armel image of Kali (http://www.kali.org/downloads/). I used this image (Username: root, password: toor).
  2. Use a disk imager to image a SD card with the Kali image to run on the Pi. I used Win32 Disk Imager.
  3. Insert the SD card into the pi and power it up.
  4. You may want to expand the partition created by the disk imager, a tutorial on how to expand an active partition can be found here.
  5. Set the correct date if needed:
    date <month><day><hour><minute><year>.<second>
  6. Create the openVAS certificate:
    openvas-mkcert
  7. Create the openVAS client certificate:
    openvas-mkcert-client -n om -i
  8. Download the openVAS NVT’s (This takes a few minutes):
    openvas-nvt-sync
  9. Start the openVAS scanner (This takes 30+ minutes.):
    openvassd
  10. Build the openVAS database (This can take an hour or more.):
    openvasmd --rebuild
  11. Create an admin account:
    openvasad -c 'add_user' -n openvasadmin -r Admin
  12. Update the  openVAS database with the latest definition (This can take an hour or more.):
    openvasmd --update
  13. Migrate the database (This can take an hour or more.):
    openvasmd --migrate
  14. Rebuild one last time to be safe (This can take an hour or more.):
    openvasmd --rebuild
  15. Start the openVAS manager on port 9390:
    openvasmd -p 9390 -a 127.0.0.1
  16. Start the openVAS admin:
    openvasad -a 127.0.0.1 -p 9393
  17. Start GSAD, this is the client tool for openVAS:
    gsad --http-only -p 9392
  18.  Use the web client to interact with the tool, it can be accessed on http://<IP OF PI>:9392. You can log in with the admin account created earlier.

Capture

That’s it! Now you can use this amazing tool to scan machines in a network!

After a reboot or shutdown, openVAS can be started with the commands:

  1. Start the openVAS scanner (This takes a few minutes this time.): openvassd
  2. Start the openVAS manager on port 9390: openvasmd -p 9390 -a 127.0.0.1
  3. Start the openVAS admin: openvasad -a 127.0.0.1 -p 9393
  4. Start GSAD on port 9392, this is the client tool for openVAS: gsad –http-only -p 9392

7 Replies to “OpenVas for Kali Linux on the Raspberry Pi”

  • Any chance you could post a generic password image of the working disk image? If we could just write it to a like SD Card and change the password, that would be slick.

  • Dear Sir,

    I am getting problem in starting openvas manager in kali linux on Rasberry Pi. I am also attaching log file of openvasmd.log
    I tried to resolve my problem by log but can succeeded. Kindly help me to resolve this problem.

    Below is my log details.

    root@kali:/var/log/openvas# openvasmd -v
    root@kali:/var/log/openvas# cat openvasmd.log
    md main: INFO:2015-04-12 10h22.23 utc:2207: OpenVAS Manager
    md main: DEBUG:2015-04-12 10h22.23 utc:2208: sql: ATTACH DATABASE ‘/var/lib/openvas/scap-data/scap.db’ AS scap;
    md main: DEBUG:2015-04-12 10h22.23 utc:2208: sql: ATTACH DATABASE ‘/var/lib/openvas/cert-data/cert.db’ AS cert;
    md main: DEBUG:2015-04-12 10h22.23 utc:2208: sql_x: SELECT value FROM main.meta WHERE name = ‘database_version’;
    md main: DEBUG:2015-04-12 10h22.23 utc:2208: sql_x end
    md main: DEBUG:2015-04-12 10h22.23 utc:2208: sql_x: SELECT count(*) FROM main.meta WHERE name = ‘nvts_feed_version’ OR name = ‘nvt_preferences_enabled’;
    md main: DEBUG:2015-04-12 10h22.23 utc:2208: sql_x end
    md main:CRITICAL:2015-04-12 10h22.23 utc:2208: main: database must be initialised (with –update or –rebuild)

    I tried openvasmd –rebuild or openvasmd –upgrade.

    • This was such a fragile install, I had to attempt multiple times before everything clicked into place. Including wiping the SD card and re-installing. For you, something may be cached. The order of steps mattered and the datetime set on the device played a roll as well.

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