OpenVAS stands for Open Vulnerability Assessment System and is a network
security scanner with associated tools like a graphical user front-end. The
core component is a server with a set of network vulnerability tests (NVTs)
to detect security problems in remote systems and applications.

OpenVAS products are Free Software under GNU GPL and a fork of Nessus.

This package provides the OpenVAS core libraries. To build a complete OpenVAS
scanner installation, however, you have to compile and install the packages in
the following sequence:
 1. openvas-libraries
 2. openvas-scanner
 3. openvas-client

The openvas-client GUI is needed to interact with the OpenVAS scanner, however
there are some new optional modules:
 1. openvas-scanner for storing and organizing scans on a central server in a
 SQL database
 2. openvas-administrator for User-, Feed- and Settings-Management
 3. greenbone-security-assistant for a web-based Vulnerability Management

As a last note, keep in mind that this is a major version transition: the
older openvas-libnasl and openvas-plugins packages no longer exists,
openvas-server has been replaced by the openvas-scanner package and there are
the new optional modules. A straight upgradepkg (with removal of deprecated
packages) *SHOULD* work but also consider to backup your old configuration and
starting over from a fresh OpenVAS installation.