Which of the following tools will scan a network to perform vulnerability checks and compliance auditing?

NMAP is a network discovery and port scanning tool that maps hosts and services but does not natively perform vulnerability checks or compliance auditing.

Metasploit is a penetration testing and exploitation framework used to launch attacks against known vulnerabilities, not to perform vulnerability scanning or compliance audits.

Nessus, developed by Tenable, is purpose-built to scan networks for known vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and compliance violations against frameworks such as PCI-DSS, CIS, and HIPAA. It uses a plugin-based architecture to perform credentialed and uncredentialed vulnerability checks across a wide range of operating systems, devices, and applications.

BeEF (Browser Exploitation Framework) is focused specifically on exploiting web browser vulnerabilities and has no network-wide vulnerability scanning or compliance auditing capability.