Scan taking too long at 80% / cupsd saturating 100% of a thread

Scanning / scan configuration
#1

Environment

OpenVAS community compiled from source:

  • gsa-22.4.1
  • gsad-22.4.1
  • gvmd-22.4.1
  • gvm-libs-22.4.2
  • notus-scanner-22.4.2
  • openvas-scanner-22.4.1
  • openvas-smb-22.4.0
  • ospd-openvas-22.4.3
  • pg-gvm-22.4.0

Feeds status:

  • NVT 20230123T1013 Current
  • SCAP 20230123T0510 Current
  • CERT 20230123T0415 Current
  • GVMD_DATA 20230123T1006 Current

No errors in GVM components logs.

Here is my OpenVAS installation script I made : https://pastebin.com/tzernaFy

Description

Hello, I have a difficulty when performing a simple “Task wizard” scan (127.0.0.1) on a Debian 11 system (the one on which OpenVAS is installed). At 80% of the scan, the scan become very slow, each 2% takes 2 hours to complete.

When I fire up htop, I see that /usr/sbin/cupsd -l is saturating 1 thread of my CPU at 100%, the remaining threads are near 0%. And I saw no OpenVAS related binary on the first page of htop (with the default CPU-usage-descending-order).

I have the same behavior on the 2 systems I tested, one being a Debian 11 physical laptop, the other is a Debian 11 virtual machine (VBox).

Is there any link between OpenVAS and cupsd ?

Do you know why it is taking so much time to complete this part of the scan ?

Thank you very much

#2

Hello and welcome to this community forum.

The following from Greenbone Enterprise Appliance documentation: 2 Read Before Use could be relevant:

Be aware of the following general side effects:

  • Scans may increase latency on the target and/or the scanned network. In extreme cases, this may result in situations similar to a denial of service (DoS) attack.
  • Scans may trigger bugs in fragile or insecure applications resulting in faults or crashes.