Nmap
Tool and Usage
Project details
- Licenses
- GPLv2
- Multi-license
- Programming languages
- C, C++, Lua, Python
- Author
- Gordon Lyon
- Latest release
- 7.70
- Latest release date
Project health
Introduction
Nmap is short for "Network Mapper". It is a free and open source utility for network discovery and security auditing. It was release in September of 1997 by Gordon Lyon, commonly known under his pseudonym "Fyodor".
Usage and audience
Nmap is commonly used for network scanning or vulnerability scanning. Target users for this tool are pentesters, security professionals, and system administrators.
Example usage and output
Command: nmap -v -A 192.168.1.10
Starting Nmap 7.70 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2018-05-07 06:06 EDTNSE: Loaded 148 scripts for scanning.
NSE: Script Pre-scanning.
Initiating NSE at 06:06
Completed NSE at 06:06, 0.00s elapsed
Initiating Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 06:06
Completed Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 06:06, 0.53s elapsed
Initiating SYN Stealth Scan at 06:06
Scanning 192.168.1.10 [1000 ports]
Discovered open port 22/tcp on 192.168.1.10
Completed SYN Stealth Scan at 06:06, 0.04s elapsed (1000 total ports)
Initiating Service scan at 06:06
Scanning 1 service on 192.168.1.10
Completed Service scan at 06:06, 0.01s elapsed (1 service on 1 host)
Initiating OS detection (try #1) against 192.168.1.10
NSE: Script scanning 192.168.1.10
Nmap scan report for 192.168.1.10
Host is up (0.000048s latency).
Not shown: 999 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
22/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 7.6p1 Debian 4 (protocol 2.0)
| ssh-hostkey:
| 2048 70:6e:3c:f7:7c:a8:4f:dc:eb:d3:b1:71:e0:57:b3:90 (RSA)
| 256 a7:30:7e:fe:69:51:45:44:6e:6c:18:5a:65:53:dc:d2 (ECDSA)
|_ 256 bd:93:9b:5b:36:fb:20:39:6b:b7:fa:74:52:52:d9:f8 (ED25519)
Device type: general purpose
Running: Linux 3.X|4.X
OS CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel:3 cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel:4
OS details: Linux 3.8 - 4.14
Uptime guess: 23.946 days (since Fri Apr 13 07:24:21 2018)
Network Distance: 0 hops
TCP Sequence Prediction: Difficulty=262 (Good luck!)
IP ID Sequence Generation: All zeros
Service Info: OS: Linux; CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel
NSE: Script Post-scanning.
Initiating NSE at 06:06
Completed NSE at 06:06, 0.00s elapsed
Read data files from: /usr/bin/../share/nmap
OS and Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 2.78 seconds
Tool review and remarks
The review and analysis of this project resulted in the following remarks for this security tool:
Strengths
- + Project is mature (10+ years)
- + The source code of this software is available
- + Well-known author
- + Well-known tool
Weaknesses
- - Software usage is restricted (e.g. commercially)
Installation
Supported operating systems
Nmap is known to work on FreeBSD, Linux, Microsoft Windows, OpenBSD, and macOS.
Installation options
- Package
- Manual (compilation)
Nmap one-liners
| Ping sweep with Nmap | nmap -T5 -sP -n 192.168.1.0/24 |
| Using Nmap to display only the hosts with a specific port opened | |
| Show available Nmap scripts |
Nmap alternatives
Similar tools to Nmap:
Zenmap
Zenmap is the graphical user interface for the well-known network and vulnerability scanner Nmap. Read how it works in this review.
portSpider
portSpider is a security tool to scan network ranges and find open ports. The goal of the tool is to find vulnerable services.
VScan
Vscan is a security tool to perform vulnerability scanning with Nmap. It leverages NSE scripts to provide some flexibility in terms of vulnerability detection and exploitation.
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Categories
This tool is categorized as a network port scanner and vulnerability scanner.