Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills/skills/scanning-infrastructure-with-nessus/references/standards.md

Standards and References - Scanning Infrastructure with Nessus

Industry Standards

• NIST SP 800-115: Technical Guide to Information Security Testing and Assessment
• NIST SP 800-53 RA-5: Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning control family
• PCI DSS v4.0 Requirement 11.3: Internal and external vulnerability scanning
• CIS Controls v8 Control 7: Continuous Vulnerability Management
• ISO 27001:2022 A.8.8: Management of technical vulnerabilities

Tenable Documentation

• Tenable Nessus User Guide: https://docs.tenable.com/nessus/
• Nessus REST API Reference: https://docs.tenable.com/nessus/api/
• Nessus Command Line Reference (January 2026): https://docs.tenable.com/nessus/command-line-reference/
• Nessus Plugin Families: https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/families
• Tenable Agent CLI Commands: https://docs.tenable.com/agent/Content/NessusCLIAgent.htm

CVE and Vulnerability Databases

• National Vulnerability Database (NVD): https://nvd.nist.gov/
• MITRE CVE Program: https://cve.mitre.org/
• Tenable Plugin Database: https://www.tenable.com/plugins
• CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities: https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog

Compliance Audit Files

• CIS Benchmarks: https://www.cisecurity.org/benchmark
• DISA STIGs: https://public.cyber.mil/stigs/
• PCI DSS ASV Scanning: https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/assessors_and_solutions/approved_scanning_vendors

Scan Configuration Standards

Parameter	Recommended Value	Notes
Port Range	1-65535 (full)	For comprehensive scanning
Scan Speed	Normal	Balance between speed and accuracy
Max Concurrent Hosts	30	Adjust based on network capacity
Max Concurrent Checks per Host	5	Prevent host overload
Network Timeout	5 seconds	Increase for high-latency networks
Plugin Timeout	320 seconds	Default; increase for slow targets