Scripting Engine

For more detailed investigations, Nmap version 4.5 or later comes with the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE). With NSE and the current crop of 430 NSE scripts implemented in Lua, you can elicit many additional details from individual hosts (Table 1).

To discover what the individual scripts actually do, run the

nmap --script-help "*"

command. If you replace the asterisk with a category or script name, you only receive information about the associated script(s).

To run one or more scripts against one or more hosts, you can use the

nmap --script <name>

command, where <name> refers to a script, a whole category, a directory of scripts, or a regular expression. Some scripts require additional parameters, which you pass in to Nmap, as in --script-args <parameter>. Using the

nmap - script http-enum <target>

command, for example, will attempt to identify all the interesting URLs that the target host offers (Figure 8).

Figure 8: The http-enum script reveals interesting pages on web servers very quickly.

On the other hand,

nmap -sV -O --script vuln <target>

lets you run all the scripts in the vuln category against each host on the network. Scanning every host with a single command does not replace a thorough review, but it does discover some common vulnerabilities very quickly.

In addition to the NSE scripts included in the Nmap package, you will find more on the Nmap developer list [6] or on the pages of individual developers. You can copy the scripts to Nmap's script directory, if needed, and then bind them to the port scanner using the nmap --script-updatedb command.

Conclusions

Nmap is a very powerful tool whose capabilities go far beyond those of a normal port scanner. The software already supports IPv6 and does not simply give you yes/no statements on whether ports are open; rather, it also determines exactly which services and operating systems are running on the computers under investigation.

Nmap scans both TCP and UDP ports and comes with a number of ping test methods that can work despite firewalls. Additional tricks, such as packages filled with random characters, can also help trick firewalls, IDS, and IPS systems. The Nmap Scripting Engine lets you automate many steps. If you frequently need to analyze networks, it pays to read the excellent and extensive Nmap documentation, which provides examples and a huge amount of background knowledge.

Before you start investigating a third-party host or network, be sure you obtain the consent of the operator; otherwise, they will feel they are being attacked, which can lead to unpleasant legal consequences. If you want to practice, do so on your home network – or use the scanme host offered by Nmap [7].