• I often get a “shadow” mouse where I can see the Windows cursor and the Ubuntu cursor at the same time. This would make it difficult for me to know what I was clicking on.
• I usually have my Ubuntu VM at fullscreen on one monitor and Windows running in the other. In order to release the mouse from the VM I would have to hit Ctrl+Alt, which makes it tough to use the VM and Windows side-by-side. Also hitting Ctrl+Alt would exit the VM from fullscreen mode.
• The cursor would often flash in a seizure inducing way.

All of these issues can be easily fixed by installing the vmmouse driver. Which can be done with the following command:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse

After it is installed you can reboot or simply restart gdm with:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

You can now run the VM in fullscreen and seamlessly move the mouse in and out of the VM without having to press ctrl+alt all the time. It also fixes the other issues mentioned above.

Prerequisites

First we need to install all of the dependent packages:

sudo apt-get install build-essential libgnutls-dev libpcap0.8-dev bison libgtk2.0-dev
libglib2.0-dev libgpgme11-dev libssl-dev htmldoc

Note: libgtk2.0-dev is only required for the OpenVAS client. htmldoc is only required if you plan on exporting reports to PDF from the OpenVAS client.

Getting the Files

Once those packages have installed we need to download the files required for OpenVAS. The links below may be outdated, make sure you obtain the latest version.

cd /tmp
wget http://wald.intevation.org/frs/download.php/572/openvas-libraries-2.0.2.tar.gz
wget http://wald.intevation.org/frs/download.php/561/openvas-libnasl-2.0.1.tar.gz
wget http://wald.intevation.org/frs/download.php/562/openvas-server-2.0.1.tar.gz
wget http://wald.intevation.org/frs/download.php/576/openvas-plugins-1.0.6.tar.gz
wget http://wald.intevation.org/frs/download.php/575/openvas-client-2.0.3.tar.gz

Now that we have downloaded the required files we must sompile and install the packages in the following order:

1. openvas-libraries
2. openvas-libnasl
3. openvas-server
4. openvas-plugins

Install OpenVAS Libraries

Start by untarring the openvas-libraries and compiling/installing it:

tar -xvf openvas-libraries-2.0.2.tar.gz
cd openvas-libraries-2.0.2/
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install

Install OpenVAS libnasl

Next untar the openvas-libnasl and compile/install it:

cd ..
tar -xvf openvas-libnasl-2.0.1.tar.gz
cd openvas-libnasl-2.0.1/
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install

Install OpenVAS Server

Next untar the openvas-server and compile/install it:

cd ..
tar -xvf openvas-server-2.0.1.tar.gz
cd openvas-server-2.0.1/
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install

The OpenVAS libraries, libnasl, and server packages should now be installed. We now have to make sure that /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin are in our PATH. We can do that by typing in:

echo ${PATH}

In the output from the above command you should see /usr/local/bin and /usr/local/sbin somewhere. If you don’t you will have to add those entries to the PATH environmental variable manually.

Install OpenVAS Plugins

Our next step is to compile/install the plugins:

cd ..
tar -xvf openvas-plugins-1.0.6.tar.gz
cd openvas-plugins-1.0.6/
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install

Note: The plugins may take a while to make… be patient.

Now we have to setup the symbolic links:

sudo ldconfig

Generate a Certificate

We are now ready to generate a certificate for our OpenVAS Server, make sure to enter values relevant to your location.

sudo openvas-mkcert

Create a User

Now we need to add a user:

sudo openvas-adduser

Enter a username and choose your authentication method. Hit ctrl-d when you are prompted for rules if you dont want any scanning restrictions.

sudo openvas-nvt-sync

And at last… the moment of truth! Start up the OpenVAS server daemon:

sudo openvasd -D

Install the OpenVAS Client

Now that the server is setup you can setup the client to run the scans:

cd ..
tar -xvf openvas-client-2.0.3.tar.gz
cd openvas-client-2.0.3/
sudo ./configure
sudo make
sudo make install
sudo OpenVAS-Client

The client can be installed on any computer that has access to the server. Once it is installed you just have to connect, setup a scan and you’re done! Stay tuned for another blog post on configuring scans with the OpenVAS Client.