Gsad Binding to port 9392 failed

Getting Started
1

I am new to OpenVAS, so appreciate your patience!

I recently installed a fresh instance of Kali Linux on an x86_64 box. Native installation - no containers or virtualisation. Everything up-to-date.

I configured OpenVAS, and performed a couple of successful scans, and thought everything was fine.

But now I find that the gsad daemon won’t start, when running gvm-check-setup. Everything else looks OK.

The error message from “journalctl -xe” is

Apr 17 09:32:02 roma gsad[333986]: gsad main:   INFO:2026-04-17 08h32.02 utc:333986: Starting GSAD version 24.16.0~git
Apr 17 09:32:02 roma gsad[333988]: gsad main:   INFO:2026-04-17 08h32.02 utc:333988: Starting HTTP server on 127.0.0.1 and port 9392
Apr 17 09:32:02 roma gsad[333986]: gsad main:   INFO:2026-04-17 08h32.02 utc:333986: Starting HTTPS server on 127.0.0.1 and port 9392
Apr 17 09:32:02 roma gsad[333986]: gsad main:CRITICAL:2026-04-17 08h32.02 utc:333986: Binding to port 9392 failed.
Apr 17 09:32:02 roma gsad[333988]: gsad main:   INFO:2026-04-17 08h32.02 utc:333988: gsad started successfully
Apr 17 09:32:02 roma systemd[1]: gsad.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE

I did add a file /etc/systemd/system/gsad.service.d/override.conf to allow for a remote browser, but I have since removed that file and its directory, and the machine has been rebooted several times since then.

One interesting thing I have just discovered. Having run gvm-check-setup, I tried doing a manual “systemctl start gsad”, and it (sort of) worked. The gsad daemon is running, but “systemctl status gsad” has the line

CRITICAL......Starting gsad redirect daemon failed!

However, the installation does seem to be working, and I can login via the browser to localhost:9392.

One other observation. The Postgresql database directory /var/lib/postgresql/18/main/base is using 18GB of space. Is that expected?

Thanks in advance – Peter

2

If you look closely, you’ll notice that it’s attempting to start both HTTP and HTTPS on the same port. This is not possible. Remove one of the services configured to use that port.

Eero

3

Thanks for that.

I see what you mean, but I didn’t change any configuration files to make that happen.

Given that I’m new to OpenVAS, could you tell me how to change this? I think initially I used “https://localhost:9392” to connect to the service.

Also, why does it work if I start gsad using systemctl, but not when it’s done via gvm-start or gvm-check-setup?

Thanks for your help – Peter

4

@pietro1685 probably bug in kali packaging. noticed same in my setup.

Configuration is in some file. need to check it..

Eero

5

@pietro1685

That message is misleading: HTTPS starts, but the HTTP redirect daemon fails, causing systemd to mark the service as failed/restarting.

This is a known misconfiguration, not a broken install.

:white_check_mark: Correct Fix (Recommended)

Disable the HTTP → HTTPS redirect daemon and let gsad run HTTPS only.

Edit the gsad systemd service

sudo systemctl edit gsad

add –no-redirect

[Service]

ExecStart=

ExecStart=/usr/sbin/gsad \

–foreground \

–listen=127.0.0.1 \

–port=9392 \

–no-redirect

save and exit. sorry for formatting..

Eero