plugin_set PREFERENCE

hi,

in writing my own client (well ... not really ... i'm leaning heavily on 
Net::Nessus::ScanLite), i want to ask nessusd to employ only one port 
scanner ... the NMAP (NASL Wrapper) port scanner ... *and* to launch all 
plugins.

i realize that i could include a line like:

  plugin_set => '1;2;3;4 ...'

in a PREFERENCES message ... i.e., that i could specify every single 
plug-in by number ... skipping the port scanners i didn't want.

but by sniffing on NessusWX, i think i discovered another way to do this.


i can merely include:

  plugin_set => '14259',

in a PREFERENCES message ... and i get the results i wanted ... notably 
... nessusd employs only nmap.nasl (plugin #14259) *and* it launches all 
attacks.

that's wonderful ... that's what i want ...

but why does it work?

i would have thought that specifying only plug-in 14259 would have 
resulted in nessusd launching nmap.nasl ... and then quitting when it was 
done ... without launching any attacks.

i've been poking through nessus-core/dox/ntp/* ... thinking i would find 
this behavior documented there ... but no dice.  is this an undocumented 
feature?  if so, how likely is this feature likely to persist, as nessusd 
ages?

--sk

stuart kendrick
fhcrc

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