openvas.oaplib 0.0.1dev-r7499

An OAP (OpenVAS Administration Protocol) client interface for Python

Author:

Hartmut Goebel <[e-mail]>

Version:

Version 0.0.1

Copyright:

GNU Public Licence v3 (GPLv3)

Homepage:

http://www.openvas.org/

OpenVAS (Open Vulnerability Assessment System) is a network security scanner with associated tools. OpenVAS Version 3 introduces a new core component: The OpenVAS-Administrator. It is intended to simplify the configuration and administration of an OpenVAS server both on a local installation as well as on a remote system.

OpenVAS Administration Protocol (OAP) is the protocol based on XML to talk to the OpenVAS-Administrator. openvas.oaplib is a pure-Python implementation of OAP which allows easy access to the OpenVAS-Administrator.

Example:

admin = openvas.oaplib.OAPClient(host=sensor)
admin.open(username, password)
admin.create_target(job_name, targets, comment)
task_id = admin.create_task(job_name, comment, config=config_name,
                              target=job_name)
report_id = admin.start_task(task_id)
# ... later ...
report = admin.get_report(report_id)
print etree.tostring(report)

openvas.opmlib also supports a low-level interface where you can send OAP XML directly:

help_text = admin.xml('<help/>')

Requirements and Installation

openvas.oaplib requires

• Python 2.5 or higher (Python 3.x is not supported)

• setuptools for installation (see below).

• argparse (already included in Python starting with Python 2.7)

• pyOpenSSL or egenix-pyopenssl

Hints for installing on Windows:

Following the links above you will find .msi and .exe-installers. Simply install them and continue with installing openvas.oaplib.

Hints for installing on Linux:

Most current Linux distributions provide packages for the requirements. Look for packages names like python-setuptools, python-argparse and python-openssl. Simply install them and continue with installing openvas.oaplib.

Hint for installing on other platforms:

Many vendors provide Python. Please check your vendors software repository. Otherwise please download Python from http://www.python.org/download/ and follow the installation instructions there.

After installing Python, install setuptools. You may want to read More Hints on Installing setuptools first.

Using setuptools, compiling and installing the remaining requirements is a piece of cake:

# if the system has network access
easy_install argparse pyOpenSSL

# without network access download pyOpenSSL
# from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/pyOpenSSL and run
easy_install argparse-*.zip pyOpenSSL-*.tar.gz

Installing openvas.oaplib

When you are reading this you most probably already downloaded and unpacked openvas.oaplib. Thus installing is as easy as running:

python ./setup.py install

Otherwise you may install directly using setuptools/easy_install. If your system has network access installing openvas.oaplib is a breeze:

easy_install openvas.oaplib

Without network access download openvas.oaplib from http://pypi.python.org/pypi/openvas.oaplib and run:

easy_install openvas.oaplib-*.tar.gz

More Hints on Installing setuptools

openvas.oaplib uses setuptools for installation. Thus you need either

• network access, so the install script will automatically download and install setuptools if they are not already installed

or

• the correct version of setuptools preinstalled using the EasyInstall installation instructions. Those instructions also have tips for dealing with firewalls as well as how to manually download and install setuptools.

Custom Installation Locations

openvas.oaplib is just a single script (aka Python program). So you can copy it where ever you want (maybe fixing the first line). But it’s easier to just use:

# install to /usr/local/bin
python ./setup.py install --prefix /usr/local

# install to your Home directory (~/bin)
python ./setup.py install --home ~

Please mind: This effects also the installation of pfPDf (and setuptools) if they are not already installed.

For more information about Custom Installation Locations please refer to the Custom Installation Locations Instructions before installing openvas.oaplib.