Using Credentials with network scanners

Question

I'm testing out both Tenable's Nessus scanner as well as eEye's Retina for scanning network devices. I am trying to supply credentials to get deeper, more accurate results, however there seems to be no difference in the results whether I supply the credentials or not. I've read the documentation and it seems like I've tried all the logical settings in the Credential options. I've submit along with usernames and passwords for many different accounts and types of accounts (both SSH Credentials and Web Application Credentials) on the devices as well as their respective domain names (when applicable).

Is there possibly a good test for either (or both) scanners to tell where these credentials are being provided (if at all) and if any of them are successfully getting authentication?

Answer 1

If you are scanning some windows systems you can check the security event log to see if the authentication attempts from the scanner were valid or not. If the connection attempts from the scanners were authenticated then the scanners had access provided by the credentials, now whether the scanners were configured properly to "scan deeper" is another issue.