NMAP

Nmap is a Security Scanner, Port Scanner, & Network Exploration Tool

• Background

• Installation

• Usage

  • Basic Usage

  • Scan Types

  • Targeting

  • Host Discovery

  • Port Discovery

  • OS Discovery

  • Service Discovery

  • Evasion

  • Output

  • Scripting

  • Timing Templates

  • Timing and Performance

• Resources

Background

Nmap is a popular security tool that can be used as a network exploration and port scanner. It can help you identify hosts and services on a network, as well as other valuable information like operating system details, open ports, services running on those ports, and potential vulnerabilities.

Installation

• Download: https://nmap.org/download.html

• Linux:

  sudo apt-get update && upgrade
  sudo apt-get install nmap

Usage

Basic Usage

• Base Syntax: nmap [ScanType] [Options] {targets}

• Access Help: nmap -h

• Nmap Discovery Steps: 1. Enumerate Targets -> 2. Discover Live Hosts -> 3. Reverse DNS Lookup -> 4. Scan Ports -> 5. Detect Versions -> 6. Detect OS -> 7. Tracert -> 8. Run Scripts -> 9. Write Output

• TCP Flags:

  • URG: urgent incoming data

  • ACK: TCP receipt acknowledgement

  • PSH: promptly push data into application

  • RST: reset connection

  • SYN: synchornize initiates TCP handshake

  • FIN: sender has no more data to send

Scan Types

Description	Switch	Example
TCP SYN port scan (Default )	-sS	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sS
TCP connect port scan (Default without root)	-sT	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sT
UDP port scan	-sU	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sU
TCP ACK Port Scan	-sA	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sA
TCP Window port scan	-sW	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sW
TCP Maimon port scan	-sM	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sM
TCP Fin scan	-sF	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sF
TCP Null scan	-sN	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sN
TCP Xmas scan	-sX	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sX
ARP scan	-PR	nmap 192.168.1.1 -PR

Targeting

Description	Switch	Example
Scan a single IP		nmap 192.168.1.1
Scan specific IPs		nmap 192.168.1.1 192.168.2.1
Scan a range		nmap 192.168.1-255.1-254
Scan a domain		nmap scanme.nmap.org
Scan using CIDR notation		nmap 192.168.1.0/24
Scan targets from a file	-iL	nmap -iL targets.txt
Scan 100 random hosts	-iR	nmap -iR 100
Exclude listed hosts	–exclude	nmap –exclude 192.168.1.1

Host Discovery

Description	Switch	Example
Don't Scan. List targets only	-sL	nmap 192.168.1.1-3 -sL
Disable port scanning. Host discovery only.	-sn	nmap 192.168.1.1/24 -sn
Disable host discovery. Port scan only.	-Pn	nmap 192.168.1.1-5 -Pn
TCP SYN discovery on port x (port 80 default)	-PS	nmap 192.168.1.1-5 -PS22-25,80
TCP ACK discovery on port x (port 80 default)	-PA	nmap 192.168.1.1-5 -PA22-25,80
UDP discovery on port x (port 40125 default)	-PU	nmap 192.168.1.1-5 -PU53
ARP discovery on local network	-PR	nmap 192.168.1.1-1/24 -PR
Don't do DNS resolution	-n	nmap 192.168.1.1 -n
Specify DNS server. Example 192.168.1.2	–dns-servers	nmap 192.168.1.1 –dns-servers 192.168.1.2
Perform DNS resolution, even for offline hosts.	-R	nmap 192.168.1.1 -R
ICMP timestamp request	-PP	nmap 192.168.1.1 -PP
ICMP address mask	-PM	nmap 192.168.1.1 -PM
ICMP echo request	-PE	nmap 192.168.1.1 -PE

Port Discovery

Description	Switch	Example
Port scan for single port	-p	nmap 192.168.1.1 -p 21
Port range	-p	nmap 192.168.1.1 -p 21-100
Port scan multiple TCP and UDP ports	-p	nmap 192.168.1.1 -p U:53,T:21-25 80
Port scan all ports	-p	nmap 192.168.1.1 -p-
Port scan from service name	-p	nmap 192.168.1.1 -p http,https
Fast port scan (100 ports)	-F	nmap 192.168.1.1 -F
Port scan the top x ports	–top-ports	nmap 192.168.1.1 –top-ports 2000
Omitting beginning range starts scan at 1	-p-65535	nmap 192.168.1.1 -p-65535
Omitting ending range runs scan through 65535	-p-	nmap 192.168.1.1 -p0-

OS Discovery

Description	Switch	Example
Remote OS detection using TCP/IP fingerprinting	-O	nmap 192.168.1.1 -O
OS host detection if open and closed ports >=1	-O –osscan-limit	nmap 192.168.1.1 -O –osscan-limit
Makes Nmap guess more aggressively	-O –osscan-guess	nmap 192.168.1.1 -O –osscan-guess
Maximum OS detection tries against a target	-O –max-os-tries	nmap 192.168.1.1 -O –max-os-tries 1
OS detection, version detection, script scanning, traceroute	-A	nmap 192.168.1.1 -A
Run traceroute	–traceroute	nmap traceroute 192.168.1.1

Service Discovery

Description	Switch	Example
Attempts to determine version of service running on port	-sV	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sV
Intensity level 0 to 9. Higher increases correctness	-sV –version-intensity	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sV –version-intensity 8
Light mode. Lower possibility of correctness. Faster	-sV –version-light	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sV –version-light
Intensity level 9. Higher possibility of correctness. Slower	-sV –version-all	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sV –version-all
OS detection, version detection, script scanning, traceroute	-A	nmap 192.168.1.1 -A

Evasion

Description	Switch	Example
Use fragmented IP packets (-ff increases fragmentation)	-f	nmap 192.168.1.1 -f
Set your own offset size	–mtu	nmap 192.168.1.1 –mtu 32
Send scans from spoofed/decoy IPs	-D	nmap -D 192.168.1.101,192.168.1.102,192.168.1.103,192.168.1.23 192.168.1.1
Above example explained	-D	nmap -D decoy-ip1,decoy-ip2,your-own-ip,decoy-ip3,decoy-ip4 remote-host-ip
Spoofed scan of Facebook from Microsoft (-e eth0 -Pn may be required)	-S	nmap -S www.microsoft.com www.facebook.com
Use given source port number	-g	nmap -g 53 192.168.1.1
Relay connections through HTTP/SOCKS4 proxies	–proxies	nmap –proxies http://192.168.1.1:8080, http://192.168.1.2:8080 192.168.1.1
Appends random data to sent packets	–data-length	nmap –data-length 200 192.168.1.1
Spoof MAC address	–spoof-mac	nmap –spoof-mac 00000ABB28FC
Idle/zombie scan. Example using 192.168.1.2 as zombie to scan 192.168.1.1	-sI	nmap -sI 192.168.1.2 192.168.1.1
Custom scan flags. Example with SYN and FIN flags set	--scanflags	nmap --scanflags SYNFIN 192.168.1.1

Output

Description	Switch	Example
Normal output to the file normal.file	-oN	nmap 192.168.1.1 -oN normal.file
XML output to the file xml.file	-oX	nmap 192.168.1.1 -oX xml.file
Grepable output to the file grep.file	-oG	nmap 192.168.1.1 -oG grep.file
Output in the three major formats at once	-oA	nmap 192.168.1.1 -oA results
Grepable output to screen. -oN -, -oX – also usable	-oG –	nmap 192.168.1.1 -oG –
Append a scan to a previous scan file	–append-output	nmap 192.168.1.1 -oN file.file –append-output
Increase the verbosity level (-vv or more for greater effect)	-v	nmap 192.168.1.1 -v
Increase debugging level (-dd or more for greater effect)	-d	nmap 192.168.1.1 -d
Display the reason a port is in a state, same output as -vv	–reason	nmap 192.168.1.1 –reason
Only show open (or possibly open) ports	–open	nmap 192.168.1.1 –open
Show all packets sent and received	–packet-trace	nmap 192.168.1.1 -T4 –packet-trace
Shows the host interfaces and routes	–iflist	nmap –iflist
Resume a scan	–resume	nmap –resume results.file

Scripting

Description	Switch	Example
View all local scripts	ls	ls /urs/share/nmap/scripts
Search local scripts with wildcards. Example http	ls -l	ls -l /usr/share/nmap/scripts/*http*
Default NSE scripts. Useful/safe for discovery	-sC	nmap 192.168.1.1 -sC
Default NSE scripts. Useful/safe for discovery	–script default	nmap 192.168.1.1 –script default
Use Single script. Example banner	–script	nmap 192.168.1.1 –script=banner
Use wildcard. Example http	–script	nmap 192.168.1.1 –script=http*
Use two scripts. Example http and banner	–script	nmap 192.168.1.1 –script=http,banner
Use a category. Example auth	–script	nmap 192.168.1.1 –script=auth
Default with intrusive scripts removed	–script	nmap 192.168.1.1 –script not intrusive
NSE script with arguments	–script-args	nmap –script snmp-sysdescr –script-args snmpcommunity=admin 192.168.1.1
Display help for script. Example banner	–script-help	nmap –script-help banner
Get page titles from HTTP services	-script	nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -script=http-title
Get HTTP headers of web services	-script	nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -script=http-headers
Find apps from known paths	-script	nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -script=http-enum
Get IP info	-script	nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -script=asn-query,whois,ip-geolocation-maxmind
Heartbleed vulnerability detection	-script	nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -script=ssl-heartbleed -sV -p 443
CVE detection	-script	nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -script-vuln -Pn
Malware scan	-script	nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -script=http-malware-host -sV
Malware scan using Google malware check	-script	nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -script=script http-google-malware -p80 target.com
SMB vulnerability detection	-script	nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -script=smb-check-vulns -script-args=unsage=1 -v -p

Timing Templates

Description	Switch	Example
Paranoid (0) Intrusion Detection System evasion	-T0	nmap 192.168.1.1 -T0
Sneaky (1) Intrusion Detection System evasion	-T1	nmap 192.168.1.1 -T1
Polite (2) slows down to use less bandwidth and less target machine resources	-T2	nmap 192.168.1.1 -T2
Normal (3) which is default speed	-T3	nmap 192.168.1.1 -T3
Aggressive (4) speeds scans; assumes you are on a fast network	-T4	nmap 192.168.1.1 -T4
Insane (5) speeds scan; assumes you are on an extraordinarily fast network	-T5	nmap 192.168.1.1 -T5

Timing and Performance

Description	Switch	Example
Give up on target after this long	–host-timeout <time>	1s; 4m; 2h
Specifies probe round trip time	–min-rtt-timeout/max-rtt-timeout/initial-rtt-timeout <time>	1s; 4m; 2h
Parallel host scan group sizes	–min-hostgroup/max-hostgroup <size<size>	50; 1024
Probe parallelization	–min-parallelism/max-parallelism <numprobes>	10; 1
Maximum number of port scan probe retransmissions	–max-retries <tries>	3
Send packets no slower than <number> per second	–min-rate <number>	100
Send packets no faster than <number> per second	–max-rate <number>	100

Resources

• Nmap Reference Guide

• Nmap Officical Book

• NMAP Scripts Portal

• NMAP Script Usage

• NMAP Firewall Evasion Techniques

• Kali Nmap Guide

• Common Ports

• Nmap Cheat Sheet

• SANS Nmap Cheat Sheet

• Additional Scanning Tools:

  • arp-scan

  • masscan

  • ZMap