Tenable Nessus Agents Offline After Buggy Plugin Updates
Cybersecurity company Tenable has acknowledged an incident impacting its Nessus vulnerability scanner agents. On December 31st, agents went offline for certain users across the Americas, Europe, and Asia due to buggy differential plugin updates.
The issue specifically affected systems running Nessus Agent versions 10.8.0 and 10.8.1. To prevent further complications, Tenable halted plugin updates for these versions and temporarily disabled them.
Tenable’s Response and Remediation
In response to the outage, Tenable released Nessus Agent version 10.8.2 to address the underlying issue causing the shutdowns. This update is critical for affected customers to restore their Nessus agents.
As of the latest Tenable status report, the company plans to resume plugin feed updates later today, allowing users to download the necessary plugins.
Manual Upgrades Required to Restore Agent Functionality
Customers running Nessus Agent versions 10.8.0 or 10.8.1 must manually upgrade to version 10.8.2 or downgrade to 10.7.3 to bring their agents back online.
Should you be utilizing agent profiles for upgrades or downgrades, a plugin reset is mandatory to recover offline agents.
This reset can be achieved through a dedicated script (provided in the Nessus Agent 10.8.2 release notes) or by using the nessuscli reset command.
In July 2024, a comparable incident caused major disruptions globally when a faulty CrowdStrike Falcon update triggered widespread outages. Countless organizations across various sectors, including banks, airlines, hospitals, and media outlets, experienced significant downtime.
The problematic CrowdStrike update resulted in numerous Windows systems crashing with blue screen of death (BSOD) errors, effectively halting operations for numerous businesses and impacting millions of users.
Proactive Measures for Vulnerability Management
This recent Tenable incident highlights the critical importance of staying vigilant and proactive in managing vulnerabilities. Regularly updating security tools, adhering to vendor recommendations, and implementing robust incident response plans are crucial for mitigating potential disruptions and ensuring business continuity.
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