cd drive question and nessus question

[Longman, Bill]

> I was wondering if it is good for just a single machine as 
> well as networks. 
> I'm pretty new to linux and would like to know if the reports 
> telll you how 
> to fix the security issues up or if they just tell you what possible 
> problems the system has. Would there be anywhere to get help 
> to fix up the 
> problems nessus finds or is it all done by changing the 
> configuration files 
> for linux?

I see, now. Well, it's suited to scanning hosts on a network, so you can
easily scan your own IP address. It's probably not too useful to scan your
localhost interface, since that's an implicitly trusted network. If you
can't trust yourself, who can you trust?

Yes, it's great for giving you some idea of the holes in your machine's
network armor. Most of the results are very helpful, telling you what the
issue is, why you should resolve it and often times, a link to more
information about the exploit. It does not give you explicit, step by step
directions on how to fix the exploits, generally, but it does provide a
"Solution" and a "Risk factor" for the problem.

You can even turn on the logging mechanism which will keep track of the
scans that you perform. That way, you can compare the results over time. The
default timeframe to keep the results is very short (I think it's a day),
but you can turn it up to a couple of days and improve your security
baseline by comparing the results after you've tweaked the system.

Bill