# NASL - NASL Attack Scripting Language

## GENERAL

The NASL Attack Scripting Language (NASL) is a language which is part of the OpenVAS Project and interpreted by the NASL interpreter. It is a simple language with focus on detecting vulnerabilities on network devices. Therefore it provides many built-in functions to attack hosts to discover vulnerabilities. A NASL script can be either run directly with the NASL interpreter [openvas-nasl](openvas-nasl.md) or within a scan with [openvas](../openvas/openvas.md).
