Nessus Activation Code Installation

After you have registered a Nessus Home, Nessus Professional, or Nessus Manager product, you will receive an Activation
Code.

Nessus Activation Codes are used for new installations of Nessus products and for updating an existing installation of Nessus
products.

Obtain an Activation Code for Nessus

To obtain the Activation Code for the Nessus Subscription, please log in to your Tenable Support Portal, and then click the
Activation Code link from the left navigation menu.

Activating New Installations

During new installations of Nessus, you will be asked to provide your Nessus Activation Code.

Update an Existing Activation

The Nessus product Activation Code is displayed and managed from the General Settings of the Nessus UI.

Click on the Gear icon from the Nessus top navigation menu to be directed to the Overview page.

Copyright © 2016. Tenable Network Security, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable Network Security and Nessus are registered trademarks of Tenable Network Security, Inc. SecurityCenter Continuous View,
Passive Vulnerability Scanner, and Log Correlation Engine are trademarks of Tenable Network Security, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their respective owners.
From the Overview page, next to the displayed Activation Code, click on the pencil icon , enter your new Activation Code,
and then click the Save button.

Once your Activation Code is validated, Nessus will download updated files. Once this is complete, you will be prompted to
log in to Nessus.

Copyright © 2016. Tenable Network Security, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable Network Security and Nessus are registered trademarks of Tenable Network Security, Inc. SecurityCenter
Continuous View, Passive Vulnerability Scanner, and Log Correlation Engine are trademarks of Tenable Network Security, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their
2
respective owners.
Registering Nessus without Internet Access
If your Nessus installation is unable to connect to the Internet, use the following procedure to register and update plugins.

On the offline system running Nessus, type the following command:

Platform Command to Run

Linux # /opt/nessus/sbin/nessuscli fetch –-challenge

FreeBSD # /usr/local/nessus/sbin/nessuscli fetch –-challenge

Mac OS X # /Library/Nessus/run/sbin/nessuscli fetch --challenge

Windows C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus>nessuscli.exe fetch --challenge

This will produce a string called “challenge” that looks similar to following:

569ccd9ac72ab3a62a3115a945ef8e710c0d73b8

Next, on a system with Internet access, navigate to http://plugins.nessus.org/v2/offline.php and paste the “challenge” string
as well as the Activation Code that you received previously into the appropriate text boxes. This will produce a URL that will
give you direct access to the Nessus plugins. Save this URL because you will use it every time you update your plugins. In
addition, it will produce a file called nessus.license. Copy this file to the host running Nessus in the appropriate
directory:

Platform Directory

Linux # /opt/nessus/etc/nessus/

FreeBSD # /usr/local/nessus/etc/nessus

Mac OS X # /Library/Nessus/run/etc/nessus

Windows C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus\conf

Once the nessus.license file has been copied, run the nessuscli fetch command to install the file:

Platform Directory

Linux # /opt/nessus/sbin/nessuscli fetch --register-offline

/opt/nessus/etc/nessus/nessus.license

FreeBSD # /usr/local/nessus/sbin/nessuscli fetch --register-offline

/usr/local/nessus/etc/nessus/nessus.license

Mac OS X # /Library/Nessus/run/sbin/nessuscli fetch --register-offline

/Library/Nessus/run/etc/nessus/nessus.license

Copyright © 2016. Tenable Network Security, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable Network Security and Nessus are registered trademarks of Tenable Network Security, Inc. SecurityCenter
Continuous View, Passive Vulnerability Scanner, and Log Correlation Engine are trademarks of Tenable Network Security, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their
3
respective owners.
 Windows C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus>nessuscli.exe fetch --register-offline
"C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus\conf\nessus.license"

You can obtain the newest plugins by going to the URL that was provided in the previous step. Here, you will receive a TAR
file (e.g., all-2.0.tar.gz). Copy the file to the Nessus scanner system and then type the appropriate command for your
platform:

Platform Command

Linux # /opt/nessus/sbin/ nessuscli update all-2.0.tar.gz

FreeBSD # /usr/local/nessus/sbin/nessuscli update all-2.0.tar.gz

Mac OS X # /Library/Nessus/run/sbin/nessuscli update all-2.0.tar.gz

Windows C:\Program Files\Tenable\Nessus>nessuscli.exe update all-2.0.tar.gz

If you have any questions, feel free to request help using email support from the Tenable Support Portal, post a question to
the Nessus Discussion Forums, or review the Nessus User Guide.

Best Regards,
The Tenable Network Security Team

About Tenable Network Security

Tenable Network Security transforms security technology for the business needs of tomorrow through comprehensive
solutions that provide continuous visibility and critical context, enabling decisive actions to protect your organization.
Tenable eliminates blind spots, prioritizes threats, and reduces exposure and loss. With more than one million users and
more than 20,000 enterprise customers worldwide, organizations trust Tenable for proven security innovation. Tenable's
customers range from Fortune Global 500 companies, to the U.S. Department of Defense, to mid-sized and small businesses
in all sectors, including finance, government, healthcare, higher education, retail, and energy. Transform security with
Tenable, the creators of Nessus and leaders in continuous monitoring, by visiting tenable.com.

Copyright © 2016. Tenable Network Security, Inc. All rights reserved. Tenable Network Security and Nessus are registered trademarks of Tenable Network Security, Inc. SecurityCenter
Continuous View, Passive Vulnerability Scanner, and Log Correlation Engine are trademarks of Tenable Network Security, Inc. All other products or services are trademarks of their
4
respective owners.