Nessus 4.4.1 now comes pre-installed on
BackTrack 5 and requires that the user activate the installation. Before you activate Nessus on your BackTrack 5 installation, be certain you have installed Nessus either to the hard drive on the computer you plan to use or inside of a virtual machine that you plan to keep on the same host system. If you activate Nessus on a bootable USB thumb drive, DVD or a virtual machine and move it to a new host system, the Nessus activation code will no longer be valid.
The Nessus activation ties itself to the physical system on which it is installed. If you do decide to move the virtual machine to a new system, or jump around to different systems using a bootable USB thumb drive or DVD, you will have to re-activate Nessus. If you are using a Nessus ProfessionalFeed, you are allowed to reset your activation by clearing the current connection between a host and an activation code.
By logging into the Tenable Customer Support Portal and going to "Activation Codes", you can reset the activation code-to-host pairing. ProfessionalFeed users are currently limited to one reset every 30 days. HomeFeed users will need to re-register Nessus when moving between physical hosts.
Step 1 - Obtaining An Activation Code
Once you have Nessus installed on BackTrack 5, you will need to obtain a Nessus activation code. If you wish to purchase a ProfessionalFeed, you can visit the
Tenable Store. If you are using Nessus at home or wish to evaluate Nessus,
you can register a HomeFeed. It’s important to note that the HomeFeed is limited to 16 IP addresses per scan (whereas the ProfessionalFeed allows you to scan an unlimited number of IP addresses). The ProfessionalFeed also gives you access to features such as Configuration and Sensitive Data Auditing, SCADA plugins, Nessus Technical Support and access to the Tenable Customer Portal.
Step 2 - Activating Nessus
Be certain that your BackTrack 5 installation has access to the Internet and activate Nessus using your newly obtained activation code as follows:
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As shown above, this will also initially download the appropriate plugins based on which feed you've chosen.