Featured News

Nmap 7.00 Released

The Nmap Project is pleased to announce the immediate, free availability of the Nmap Security Scanner version 7.00 from https://nmap.org/. It is the product of three and a half years of work, nearly 3200 code commits, and more than a dozen point releases since the big Nmap 6 release in May 2012. Nmap turned 18 years old in September this year and celebrates its birthday with 167 new NSE scripts, expanded IPv6 support, world-class SSL/TLS analysis, and more user-requested features than ever. We recommend that all current users upgrade. The top 6 improvements in Nmap 6 are:

For full details, see the release notes or skip straight to the download page.

Rebooting the Full Disclosure Mailing List

Much of the security community has missed the Full Disclosure Mailing List since it abruptly shut down on March 19, so we've decided to reboot it for a fresh start! You can subscribe to the new list here.

Icons of the Web

Favicon Project The Nmap Project is pleased to release our new and improved Icons of the Web project! We scanned the Internet's top million web sites and created an interactive 5-gigapixel collage of the results. You can explore it with our online viewer including pan/zoom and search capabilities to find your favorite sites.

Nmap 6.40 Released

Nmap 6.40 is now available with with 14 new NSE scripts and hundreds of new OS and version detection signatures. It also includes great new features such as Lua integration for scripting Ncat, and initial support for NSE and version scanning through a chain of proxies, improved target specification. Of course there are many performance enhancements and bug fixes too!

You can read the full details or download it free here.

Nmap 6.25 Released

We're proud to release Nmap 6.25 with hundreds of improvements, including 85 new Nmap Scripting Engine scripts, Nearly 1,000 new fingerprints for OS detection and service/application version detection, and Performance enhancements such as the new kqueue and poll I/O engines.

You can read the full details or download it free here.

Nmap 6.00 Released

The Nmap Project is pleased to announce the immediate, free availability of the Nmap Security Scanner version 6.00 from https://nmap.org/. It is the product of almost three years of work, 3,924 code commits, and more than a dozen point releases since the big Nmap 5 release in July 2009. We recommend that all current users upgrade. The top 6 improvements in Nmap 6 are:

For full details, see the release notes or skip straight to the download page.

SecTools.Org Relaunched

3,000 people participated in the latest top security tools survey and we have relaunched SecTools.Org with the new data! We have also dramatically improved the site—it now allows user ratings and reviews, tracks release dates, offers searching and sorting, and allows you to suggest your own favorite tools. Are you familiar with all of the 49 new tools in this edition?

Nmap 5.30BETA1 Released With 37 New Scripts, Nping, and New Apple Vulnerability

We're proud to release Nmap 5.30BETA1 with about 100 significant improvements, including:

News reports: ITWire, SANS Diary (brief), PenTestIT (brief)

Nmap 5.20 Released

Zenmap topology thumbnail We're happy to release Nmap 5.20, offering 150+ significant improvements over 5.00, including:

For a more detailed list of changes, see the release notes. Source packages as well as binary installers for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X are all available from the Nmap download page.

Nmap 5.00 Released!

Scan output thumbnail After more than 18 months of work since the 4.50 release, Insecure.Org is pleased to announce the immediate, free availability of the Nmap Security Scanner version 5.00 from https://nmap.org. With nearly 600 significant changes, we consider this the most important Nmap release since 1997 and we recommend that all current users upgrade!

The release notes provide the top 5 improvements in Nmap 5 as well as example runs and screen shots. The change details section includes improvements to the Nmap Scripting Engine, Zenmap GUI and Results Viewer, the new Ncat tool, the new Ndiff scan comparison tool, performance improvements, the new Nmap book, and much more!

Source packages as well as binary installers for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X are all available from the Nmap download page.

Update: We've gotten some great press from ITWire, Slashdot, SecurityFocus, LoveMyTool, Reddit, Linux Weekly News, InternetNews.Com, Twitter, and dozens more.

Nmap Network Scanning

Nmap Network Scanning cover

After years of effort, we are delighted to release Nmap Network Scanning: The Official Nmap Project Guide to Network Discovery and Security Scanning!

From explaining port scanning basics for novices to detailing low-level packet crafting methods used by advanced hackers, this book by Nmap's original author suits all levels of security and networking professionals. The reference guide documents every Nmap feature and option, while the remainder demonstrates how to apply them to quickly solve real-world tasks. Examples and diagrams show actual communication on the wire. Topics include subverting firewalls and intrusion detection systems, optimizing Nmap performance, and automating common networking tasks with the Nmap Scripting Engine.

Visit the NNS web site for a detailed summary, reviews, and sample chapters, or buy it now from Amazon.

Nmap 4.85BETA7 Released to Scan for Conficker Worm

The Conficker worm is receiving a lot of attention because of its vast scale (millions of machines infected) and advanced update mechanisms. Conficker isn't the end of the Internet (despite some of that hype), but it is a huge nuisance we can all help to clean up.

Thanks to excellent research by Tillmann Werner and Felix Leder of The Honeynet Project and implementation work by Ron Bowes, David Fifield, Brandon Enright, and Fyodor, we've rolled out a new Nmap release which can remotely scan for and detect infected machines. Nmap 4.85BETA7 is now available from the download page, including official binaries for Windows and Mac OS X. To scan for Conficker, use a command such as:
nmap -PN -T4 -p139,445 -n -v --script smb-check-vulns,smb-os-discovery --script-args safe=1 [targetnetworks]

You will only see Conficker-related output if either port 139 or 445 are open on a host. A clean machine reports at the bottom: “Conficker: Likely CLEAN”, while likely infected machines say: “Conficker: Likely INFECTED”. For more advice, see this nmap-dev post by Brandon Enright.

While Conficker gets all the attention, 4.85BETA7 also has many other great improvements.

Update: Changed version from 4.85BETA5 (first to detect Conficker) to 4.85BETA7, which includes further Conficker detection improvements, among other changes.

More information is available from: The Register, Slashdot, Washington Post, SecurityFocus, CNet, SC Magazine, ComputerWorld, SkullSecurity (Ron Bowes), Beta News, PC World, eWeek, CRN.com, TechNewsWorld, DarkReading, ComputerWeekly, PC Magazine, Threat Post, ZDNet.

Nmap 4.75 Released

We are pleased to release Nmap 4.75, with almost 100 significant improvements since version 4.68. Key Nmap 4.75 changes include:

Many of these changes were discussed in Fyodor's Black Hat and Defcon presentations. The audio and video has now been posted on the presentations page.

Download the source tarball or binaries for Linux, Windows, or Mac OS X from the Nmap download page. If you find any bugs, please report them.

Zenmap Gains Topology Maps and Aggregation Features

While Nmap stands for “Network Mapper”, it hasn't been able to actually draw you a map of the network—until now! The new Zenmap Network Topology feature provides an interactive, animated visualization of the hosts on a network and connections between them. The scan source is (initially) in the center, with other hosts on a series of concentric circles which represent the number of hops away they are from the souce. Nodes are connected by lines representing discovered paths between them. Read the full details (and oogle the pretty pictures) in our article on Surfing the Network Topology. Special thanks go to João Medeiros, David Fifield, and Vladimir Mitrovic for their tireless work in developing and integrating this new feature.

Another exciting new Zenmap feature is scan aggregation, which allows you to combine the results of many Nmap scans into one view. When one scan is finished, you may start another in the same window. Results of the new scan are seamlessly merged into one view.

You can try these and many other great features with the latest version of Zenmap, available from the Nmap download page.

Nmap Summer News Roundup

Nmap Celebrates 10th Anniversary With Major Version 4.50 Release

After nearly two years of work since the 4.00 release, Insecure.Org is pleased to announce the immediate, free availability of the Nmap Security Scanner version 4.50 from https://nmap.org . Nmap was first released in 1997, so this release celebrates our 10th anniversary!

Major new features since 4.00 include the Zenmap cross-platform GUI, 2nd Generation OS Detection, the Nmap Scripting Engine, a rewritten host discovery system, performance optimization, advanced traceroute functionality, TCP and IP options support, and nearly 1,500 new version detection signatures. Dozens of other important changes—and future plans for Nmap—are listed in the release announcement. We recommend that all current Nmap users upgrade.

Update: Joe Barr at Linux.Com has written a great review of Nmap 4.50. In addition to testing the new features, he offers substantial background information on port scanning.

Nmap Featured in The Bourne Ultimatum

In The Bourne Ultimatum (IMDB), the CIA needs to hack the mail server of a newspaper (The Guardian UK) to read the email of a reporter they assassinated. So they turn to Nmap and its new official GUI Zenmap to hack the mail server! Nmap reports that the mail server is running SSH 3.9p1, Posfix smtpd, and a name server (presumably bind). They also make substantial use of Bash, the Bourne-again shell. Congratulations to Roger Chui for being the first to spot this. He also sent a scene transcript and the following HD screen shots (click for full resolution):

Other movies which have used Nmap include: Matrix Reloaded, Bourne Ultimatum, 13: Game of Death, Battle Royale, The Listening, and, uhh, HaXXXor: No Longer Floppy. Screens shots of Nmap in all of these movies are available on our new Nmap movies page. Nmap has become quite the movie star!

Introducing Zenmap, the Official Nmap GUI

After more than two years of development (starting with a 2005 Google Summer of Code project), we have replaced the venerable but dated NmapFE with a new cross-platform GUI named Zenmap. It is cross platform (tested on Linux, Windows, Mac OS X) and supports all Nmap options. Its results viewer allows easier browsing, searching, sorting, and saving of Nmap results.

Zenmap will appear in the upcoming 4.50 release and is already available in the release candidate packages on the Nmap download page. Zenmap screenshots and documentation are available at https://nmap.org/zenmap.

Zenmap is still under active development, but was integrated early because it is already much more powerful than NmapFE. Development is coordinated on the nmap-dev mailing list.

Nmap Featured in Die Hard 4

Yippee Ki-Yay! In Die Hard 4: Live Free or Die Hard (Wikipedia, IMDB), Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) is dispatched to retrieve hacker Matthew Farrell (Justin Long) because the FBI suspects him of breaching their computer systems. Later, Justin is enlisted to help thwart terrorist mastermind Thomas Gabrial's attempts at total World destruction. In this Scene, Farrell demonstrates his Nmap skills:

Thanks to Andrew Hake for catching the cameo and sending these HD screen shots.

See our Nmap movies page for many more movies featuring Nmap.

Top 100 Security Tools List Released

After the tremendously successful 2000 and 2003 top security tools surveys, we are pleased to release our 2006 results at a brand new site: SecTools.Org. A record 3,243 Nmap users responded this year. Notable trends since 2003 include the rise in exploitation frameworks such as Metasploit, Impact, and Canvas; the increased popularity of wireless tools such as Kismet and Aircrack. 44 tools are new to the list. Security practitioners are encouraged to read the list and investigate tools they aren't familiar with. You may find the little gem that you never knew you needed.

English Sectools Coverage: Digg, Slashdot, About.Com, LinuxSecurity.Com, SANS ISC, TAOSecurity, del.icio.us, SecuriTeam, gHacks, iHacked

International: Menéame (Spanish), Kriptopolis (Spanish), ITPro Security (Japanese), Security.NL (Dutch), Todo-Linux (Spanish), CriticalSecurity (Lithuanian), Xakep (Russian)

SecLists.Org Back Up and Running

Our popular SecLists.Org public mailing list archive is back up and running after it was inexcusably shut down with no notice by our soon-to-be-former domain registrar GoDaddy at the behest of MySpace.Com. We believe web site content is the responsibility of the site owner (registrant) and (if that fails) hosting or bandwidth provider. If the whois contact data is valid, registrars shouldn't be involved without a court order.

News reports and discussion of the shutdown:
CNET News.Com | Wired | Wired #2 | Slashdot | Digg | Politech | Web Host Industry Reviews | SecurityFocus | Info World | Domain Name Wire | P2PNet | SecurityPro News | Digital MediaWire | SecuriTeam | Tech Dirt | Mashable

Update: We have launched NoDaddy.Com to document GoDaddy's abuses of their registrar status.

Nmap 4.00 Released

After two years of work since the 3.50 release, Insecure.Org is pleased to announce the immediate, free availability of the Nmap Security Scanner version 4.00 from https://nmap.org .

Changes since version 3.50 include a rewritten (for speed and memory efficiency) port scanning engine, ARP scanning, a brand new man page and install guide, 'l33t ASCII art, runtime interaction, massive version detection improvements, MAC address spoofing, increased Windows performance, 500 new OS detection fingerprints, and completion time estimates. Dozens of other important changes -- and future plans for Nmap -- are listed in the release announcement.

Updates:
Fyodor has given a SecurityFocus interview on 4.00
More English coverage/reviews: Information Security Magazine, Slashdot, Linux Weekly News (LWN), Digg, SANS ISC, OSNews, AllYourTech.Com, LinuxSecurity.Com
International coverage: Heise (German), LinuxFR (French), OpenNET (Russian), derStandard (Austrian), Golem.de (German), Hacking.PL (Polish), WinFuture (German), Kriptopolis (Spanish), Security.NL (Dutch), Tweakers.Net (Dutch), Xakep (Russian)

Security List Archive Updated

RSS feeds have been added to all security mailing lists archived at SecLists.Org, making it even easier to keep up with the latest news from Nmap-Hackers, Nmap-Dev, Bugtraq, and all of the others. We have also added Dailydave, a highly technical discussion list covers vulnerability research, exploit development, and security events/gossip (with many smart people participating).

NSA Loads Nmap Release Status for President Bush Visit

US President George W. Bush visited the NSA headquarters at Fort Meade in January 2006. A wall-sized status screen in the background displays the latest versions of Nmap and some of our other favorite open source tools. Pictures were printed in the February 6, 2006 edition of Newsweek (article) and the Jan 27 Washington Post (article). The page on the screen is the Talisker Radar. We don't like the NSA tracking our phone calls and email, but they may track Nmap releases all they want.

Loading an external web site on their giant screen was risky. Imagine if this happened (thanks php0t)!
Meanwhile, Nmap makes an appearance at Walmart with the Nmap hacking chair

New Nmap Man Page

We are proud to announce that the Nmap man page has been completely rewritten. It is more comprehensive (double the length) and much better organized than the previous one. It is meant to serve as a quick-reference to virtually all Nmap command-line arguments, but you can learn even more about Nmap by reading it straight through. The 18 sections include Brief Options Summary, Firewall/IDS Evasion and Spoofing, Timing and Performance, Port Scanning Techniques, Usage Examples , and much more. It even documents some cool features that are slated for release in the next Nmap version (runtime interaction and parallel DNS resolution).

The new man page is best read in HTML format, though you can alternatively download the Nroff nmap.1 to install on your system.

We have issued a call for translations of the reference guide, and 29 languages are in progress. See the new documentation page to volunteer or read a translation.

Hacker Fiction Books Published


 Fyodor has co-authored a novel on hacking, along with FX, Joe Grand, Kevin Mitnick, Ryan Russell, Jay Beale, and several others. Their individual stories combine to describe a massive electronic financial heist. While the work is fiction, hacks are described in depth using real technology such as Nmap, Hping2, OpenSSL, etc. Stealing the Network: How to Own a Continent can be purchased at Amazon (save $17), and your can read Fyodor's chapter online for free. STC was a best-seller, ranking for a while as the second-highest selling computer book on Amazon.

Update: Syngress has released a sequel: Stealing the Network: How to Own an Identity. They have generously allowed Fyodor to post his favorite chapter for free. So enjoy Bl@ckTo\/\/3r, by Nmap contributor Brian Hatch. It is full of wry humor and creative security conundrums to keep the experts entertained, while it also offers security lessons on the finer points of SSH, SSL, and X Windows authentication and encryption.

Nmap Gains Advanced Version Detection

After several months of intense private development, we are pleased to release Nmap 3.45, including an advanced version detection system. Now instead of using a simple nmap-services table lookup to determine a port's likely purpose, Nmap will (if asked) interrogate that TCP or UDP port to determine what service is really listening. In many cases it can determine the application name and version number as well. Obstacles like SSL encryption and Sun RPC are no threat, as Nmap can connect using OpenSSL (if available) as well as utilizing Nmap's RPC bruteforcer. IPv6 is also supported. You can read our new version detection paper for the details and examples, or just download the latest version and try it out here. Simply add "-sV" to your normal scan command-line options.

News articles covering Nmap version detection: Slashdot, Hacking Linux Exposed, Security Wire Digest.

Nmap Featured in The Matrix Reloaded

We have all seen many movies like Hackers which pass off ridiculous 3D animated eye-candy scenes as hacking. So I was shocked to find that Trinity does it properly in The Matrix Reloaded [Under $6 at Amazon]. She whips out Nmap version 2.54BETA25, uses it to find a vulnerable SSH server, and then proceeds to exploit it using the SSH1 CRC32 exploit from 2001. Shame on them for being vulnerable (timing notes). Congratulations to everyone who has helped make Nmap successful! Click on these thumbnails for higher resolution or view more pictures here.

Updates: