OpenVAS Vulnerability Scanner on Ubuntu 24.04: Docker Deployment with HTTPS

Why this matters

Proactive vulnerability management is a foundational part of reducing cyber risk. Deploying OpenVAS in a secure, reproducible way helps organizations identify and remediate weaknesses before they are exploited, improving the resilience of production systems.

Overview

In this guide, I use the official Greenbone container documentation and apply several practical adjustments to enable HTTPS for the OpenVAS web interface.

While Greenbone provides guidance for SSL/TLS configuration, the current workflow documentation is partially outdated and does not work as-is. This article consolidates the working steps, highlights the required changes, and documents the troubleshooting needed to successfully deploy OpenVAS (GVM) with HTTPS using Docker on Ubuntu 24.04.

Prerequisites

• Ubuntu 24.04
• Docker and Docker Compose
• sudo privileges

Step 1: Install Docker

If Docker is not already installed, follow the official Greenbone instructions and verify Docker is running before continuing.

Step 2: Create an SSL certificate

sudo openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 \
  -keyout serverkey.pem \
  -out servercert.pem \
  -nodes -days 397

Step 3: Set correct ownership

sudo chown 1001:1001 *.pem

Step 4: Store the certificate securely

sudo mkdir $HOME/.ssl
sudo mv serverkey.pem servercert.pem $HOME/.ssl
ls -l $HOME/.ssl

Step 5: Create the working directory

export DOWNLOAD_DIR=$HOME/greenbone-community-container
mkdir -p $DOWNLOAD_DIR
cd $DOWNLOAD_DIR

Step 6: Download the modified Docker Compose file

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jhurta05/openvas-docker-https/refs/heads/main/docker-compose.yml

Step 7: Update certificate paths

Edit docker-compose.yml and ensure lines 241–245 point to the correct certificate paths.

sudo nano docker-compose.yml

Step 8: Ensure UID/GID 1001 exists

cat /etc/passwd | grep 1001

Expected format:

ubuntu:x:1001:1001:Ubuntu:/home/ubuntu:/bin/bash

Step 9: Pull Docker images

sudo docker compose pull

Step 10: Start OpenVAS

sudo docker compose up

Step 11: Access the web interface

Access the web interface at https://IP_ADDRESS/

Default credentials: Username: admin Password: admin

Conclusion

Deploying OpenVAS with Docker and HTTPS provides a secure and repeatable way to integrate vulnerability scanning into modern environments. This approach simplifies maintenance while helping teams continuously identify and reduce security risk.