Nessus MCP Server

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for interacting with Nessus vulnerability scanner. This server exposes Nessus functionality as MCP tools, resources, and prompts — enabling AI assistants like Claude to manage scans, analyze vulnerabilities, and generate reports.

Features

🔧 Tools (30+)

📚 Resources

• nessus://server/info — Server metadata

• nessus://scans/list — All scans overview

• nessus://templates/list — Available scan templates

💡 Prompts

• vulnerability_report — Generate a vulnerability assessment report

• compare_scans — Compare two scan results

• scan_creation_wizard — Guided scan creation

Related MCP server: OpenVAS-MCP

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+

• Nessus scanner running (tested with Nessus Expert 10.x)

• MCP SDK (pip install mcp)

Setup

# Clone or copy the server files
cd nessus-mcp

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Set environment variables (or use defaults)
export NESSUS_URL="https://localhost:8834"
export NESSUS_USERNAME="XXXX"
export NESSUS_PASSWORD="XXXX"

# Test the server
python nessus_mcp_server.py

Configuration

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows or ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "nessus": {
      "command": "python",
      "args": ["C:\\path\\to\\nessus_mcp_server.py"],
      "env": {
        "NESSUS_URL": "https://localhost:8834",
        "NESSUS_USERNAME": "your_username",
        "NESSUS_PASSWORD": "your_password"
      }
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

claude mcp add nessus -- python /path/to/nessus_mcp_server.py

Environment Variables

Usage Examples

List all scans

> Use nessus_list_scans to show me all current scans

Create and launch a scan

> Create a basic network scan targeting 192.168.1.0/24 named "Internal Network Audit"
> Then launch it

Analyze scan results

> Show me the details of scan 5, focusing on critical and high severity findings

Search for specific vulnerabilities

> Search scan 5 for any SSL/TLS related vulnerabilities

Export results

> Export scan 5 as a CSV file

Get plugin details

> Show me details about Nessus plugin 10287

Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     stdio      ┌──────────────────┐    HTTPS/REST    ┌─────────────┐
│  Claude / LLM   │ ◄────────────► │  Nessus MCP      │ ◄──────────────► │   Nessus    │
│  (MCP Client)   │                │  Server           │                  │   Scanner   │
└─────────────────┘                └──────────────────┘                  └─────────────┘

• Transport: stdio (standard input/output)

• Auth: Session-based token authentication with Nessus API

• SSL: Self-signed certificate validation is disabled (standard for local Nessus)

Security Notes

• Credentials are passed via environment variables (not hardcoded in production)

• SSL certificate verification is disabled to support Nessus's self-signed certificates

• The server authenticates once and reuses the session token

• For production use, consider implementing token rotation and secure credential storage

API Coverage

This server covers the core Nessus REST API endpoints:

License

MIT License