OpenVAS – Status code: 503, Status message: Service temporarily down

Posted on 02/09/2016 by bisser.todorov — 7 Comments ↓

If you try to start a task you’ll get:

Operation: Start Task
Status code: 503
Status message: Service temporarily down

In /var/lib/openvasmd.log you can find something like this:

lib serv:WARNING:2016-09-02 08h21.18 UTC:4546: Failed to shake hands with peer: The TLS connection was non-properly terminated.
lib serv:WARNING:2016-09-02 08h21.18 UTC:4546: Failed to shutdown server socket
event task:MESSAGE:2016-09-02 08h21.18 UTC:4546: Task 256f8360-1ec7-4675-a6ab-415fd5fb9483 could not be started by admin

The fix is mentioned in a text document you can find here or just following the steps bellow:

1. Stop scanner

   systemctl stop openvas-scanner

2. Stop manager

   systemctl stop openvas-manager

3. Make the certs with the command (pressing enter will fill in the defaults in the brackets):

   openvas-mkcert -f

4. Make the client certs with the command:

   openvas-mkcert-client -i -n

5. Get the scanner uid with the command (gives you an uid like “08b69003-5fc2-4037-a479-93b440211c73”):

   openvasmd --get-scanners

6. Update scanner and keys with the command (you will need to replace the uid in this command with the uid provided from the previous step):

   openvasmd --modify-scanner "08b69003-5fc2-4037-a479-93b440211c73" --scanner-ca-pub /var/lib/openvas/CA/cacert.pem --scanner-key-pub /var/lib/openvas/CA/clientcert.pem --scanner-key-priv /var/lib/openvas/private/CA/clientkey.pem

   For Debian it can be slightly different. Thanks mansuamen:

   openvasmd –modify-scanner “08b69003-5fc2-4037-a479-93b440211c73” –scanner-ca-pub /usr/local/var/lib/openvas/CA/cacert.pem –scanner-key-pub /usr/local/var/lib/openvas/CA/clientcert.pem –scanner-key-priv /usr/local/var/lib/openvas/private/CA/clientkey.pem

7. Sync the feeds using the command:

   openvas-nvt-sync

8. Start the scanner using the command:

   systemctl start openvas-scanner

9. Rebuild openvas databases using the command:

   openvasmd --rebuild

10. Start openvas manager using the command:

    systemctl start openvas-manager

11. Start Greenbone using the command:

    systemctl start gsad