====== Starting Nessus ======

This script automates the start of nessus in Linux when you have a common set of parameters and only changing scan-destinations. It take the nessus parameters (rc-file, username, password, port, host) and file destination as coded parts and the ip/netmask location and unit as parameters. Then it will put the resulting file in a "report"-directory under /opt/nessus/scan_src/ (the rc-file should be located here too).

<code>
#!/bin/bash

debug=0
THISFILE=`basename $0 .sh`
LOG=/var/log/$THISFILE.log
PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/opt/nessus/bin:/opt/nessus/sbin
timestamp=`date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%s`
NSSRC=/opt/nessus/scan_src
DATE=`date -I`
NRC=/opt/nessus/scan_src/my-nessusrc.nessusrc
NUSER=nessususer
NPASSWD=123456
NTYPE=nessus
NSERVER=localhost
NPORT=1241
NESSUSREP=$4.nessus

if [ ! -e $LOG ]; then touch $LOG ; if [ ! -w $LOG ]; then echo 'permission denied' ; exit 77 ; fi ; fi ;
echo ''
echo ''                                                                                                                 >> $LOG
echo '================================================================='                                                >> $LOG
echo ''                                                                                                                 >> $LOG
echo 'starting ' $THISFILE ' at ' $timestamp										>> $LOG
echo ''															>> $LOG
#################################################################
#  Test if the needed programms and files are there and accessible

/bin/pidof nessusd													>> $LOG 2>&1
if [ $? -eq 1 ] ; then /opt/nessus/sbin/nessusd -D ; fi

# nessus scan_src directory
echo "if [ ! -d \'/opt/nessus/scan_src\' ] ; then exit 101 ; fi"							>> $LOG
if [ ! -d '/opt/nessus/scan_src' ] ; then exit 101 ; fi
echo "if [ ! -x \'/opt/nessus/scan_src/\'  ] ; then exit 77 ; fi"							>> $LOG
if [ ! -x '/opt/nessus/scan_src/'  ] ; then echo "!!! FAIL !!!!"							>> $LOG ; exit 77 ; fi

# the programms we need
if [ ! -x /usr/bin/nmap ] ; then echo "ERROR: nmap not found. Probably not installed on your system?"			>> $LOG ; exit 77 ; fi
if [ ! -x /opt/nessus/bin/nessus ]; then echo "ERROR: Nessus not found. Probably not installed on your system?" 	>> $LOG ; exit 77 ; fi

# Helper function
help () { echo "try: "$THISFIE" IP bitmask organisation Target [L]\n"; exit 0; }

# if everything is allright we start here or echo the error-msg
if [ $1 = "--help" -o $1 = "-h" ] ; then help ;	exit 0 ;
elif [ $# -ge 4 ] ; then	  
#	if [ `mkdir -p /opt/nessus/scan_src/reports/$3/$DATE` -o -d /opt/nessus/scan_src/reports/$3/$DATE ] ; then echo ; else exit 73 ; fi
#	if [ `mkdir -p /opt/nessus/scan_src/tmp/$3/$DATE` -o -d /opt/nessus/scan_src/tmp/$3/$DATE ] ; then echo ; else exit 73 ; fi
#	if [ `touch /opt/nessus/scan_src/tmp/$3/$DATE/$4.b` -o -e /opt/nessus/scan_src/tmp/$3/$DATE/$4.b ] ; then echo ; else exit 73 ; fi

	#### we only need this if the above did not work probably
	mkdir -p /opt/nessus/scan_src/reports/$3/$DATE
	mkdir -p /opt/nessus/scan_src/tmp/$3/$DATE
	REPORTS="/opt/nessus/scan_src/reports/$3/`date -I`"
	TMP="/opt/nessus/scan_src/tmp/$3/`date -I`"
	chmod 640 $REPORTS
	chmod 640 $TMP
	touch /opt/nessus/scan_src/tmp/$3/$DATE/$4.c
	C=/opt/nessus/scan_src/tmp/$3/$DATE/$4.c
	NESSUSOPT="-V -c $NRC -T $NTYPE -qx $NSERVER $NPORT $NUSER $NPASSWD $C $REPORTS/$NESSUSREP"
	#### 
	# if an fith arg is given we change the nmap scan type
	echo "$1/$2" > $C 
	cat $C														>> $LOG
	echo	'___________'											 	>> $LOG
	echo	'now starting the nessus-scan'										>> $LOG
	echo	'___________'												>> $LOG
	# now the real scan
	/opt/nessus/bin/nessus $NESSUSOPT										>> $LOG 2>&1
	echo	'nessus did work well. you should have '$NESSUSREP' in' $REPORTS				 	>> $LOG
	echo	'have a nice day! FIN'										 	>> $LOG
	echo	'___________'												>> $LOG
else
	help	#the function we defined above
	exit 64
fi

echo 'successful terminating ' $THISFILE ' at ' `date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%s`							>> $LOG
exit 0
</code>

Submitted by Lorenz Kaminski