optimizing scan by OS

hi,

i'm trying to reduce how long a scan takes ...

i'm scanning a single Windows box at the moment ... 

i notice that nessus launches 4130 attacks against my windows box (i have 
checked 'Enable All' on the Plugin list window)

vishnu:/var/nessus/logs # grep launching nessusd.messages | wc -l
4130

and poking through nessusd.messages, i see attacks like 
macos_x_directory_svc_dos.nasl and cisco_aironet_dos.nasl and 
ascend_kill.nasl ... and a range of attacks which are unlikely to have any 
effect on this windows box.

is there a way to instruct Nessus to rely on nmap's OS guess and to not 
bother with the attacks which are unlikely to be relevant?

i realize that i could customize the plug-in set for this particular scan, 
enabling only plug-ins which i think are relevant ... but at some point, i 
want to scan my entire /16 network, and i'm wanting a more generic way to 
reduce the time involved.

i'm poking through 'Chapter 8 Under the Hood' in the Nessus book ... i
suspect that the answer to my question is "no" ... i see milestones for
host detection, service detection ... but no 'OS Detection' milestone ...

but i figured i would ask, just to make sure.

--sk

stuart kendrick
fhcrc
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