Software update: Nmap 5.00

Spread the love

Nmap is a program for exploring and monitoring a network. It is designed to scan a large network without delays, and also runs smoothly on a single host. The program uses so-called ‘raw ip packets’ to retrieve active hosts and information about the available services. More information about the possibilities can be found at this page. The developers have released version 5.00 with the following announcement:

Hello everyone. I’m delighted to announce the release of Nmap 5.00! This is the first major release since 4.50 in 2007, and includes about 600 significant changes since then! We consider this the most important Nmap release since 1997, and we recommend that all current users upgrade.

There are too many changes to list them all in this email, so here are the top 5 improvements in Nmap 5:

  • The new Ncat tool aims to be your Swiss Army Knife for data transfer, redirection, and debugging. We released a whole users’ guide (http://nmap.org/ncat/guide/index.html) detailing security testing and network administration tasks it made easy with Ncat. Details: http://nmap.org/5/#changes-ncat
  • The addition of the Ndiff scan comparison tool completes Nmap’s growth into a whole suite of applications which work together to serve network administrators and security practitioners. Ndiff makes it easy to automatically scan your network daily and report on any changes (systems coming up or going down or changes to the software services they are running). The other two tools now packaged with Nmap itself are Ncat and the much improved Zenmap GUI and results viewer. Details: http://nmap.org/5/#changes-ndiff
  • Nmap performance has improved dramatically. We spent last summer scanning much of the Internet and merging that data with internal enterprise scan logs to determine the most commonly open ports. This allows Nmap to scan fewer ports by default while finding more open ports. We also added a fixed-rate scan engine so you can bypass Nmap’s congestion control algorithms and scan at exactly the rate (packets per second) you specify. Details: http://nmap.org/5/#changes-performance
  • We released Nmap Network Scanning, the official Nmap 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 suits all levels of security and networking professionals. A 42-page reference guide documents every Nmap feature and option, while the rest of the book demonstrates how to apply those features to quickly solve real-world tasks. More than half the book is available in the free online edition at http://nmap.org/book/toc.html. Details: http://nmap.org/5/#changes-book
  • The Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) is one of Nmap’s most powerful and flexible features. It allows users to write (and share) simple scripts to automate a wide variety of networking tasks. Those scripts are then executed in parallel with the speed and efficiency you expect from Nmap. All existing scripts have been improved, and 32 new ones added. New scripts include a whole bunch of MSRPC/NetBIOS attacks, queries, and vulnerability probes; open proxy detection; whois and AS number lookup queries; brute force attack scripts against the SNMP and POP3 protocols; and many more. All NSE scripts and modules are described in the new NSE documentation portal. Details: http://nmap.org/5/#changes-nse
  • To learn about even more changes, see the full release notes here.

    The Nmap 5.00 source code and Linux, Mac, and Windows packages are available for download at the usual place.

    Go give it a try! And if you find any bugs, let us know nmap-dev.

    As an open source project, we don’t have a marketing budget. So please help spread the word about the new release! I encounter many folks at security conferences who have been using Nmap for more than a decade but just as a simple port scanner and never learned about the newer features. So this is our chance to spread the word about NSE, Ncat, Ndiff, Zenmap, and all the other great things Nmap has to offer!

    Enjoy the new release!
    -Fyodor

    Version number 5.00
    Release status Final
    Operating systems Windows 7, Windows 2000, Linux, BSD, Windows XP, macOS, OS/2, Solaris, UNIX, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008
    Website Nmap
    Download http://nmap.org/download.html
    License type GPL
    You might also like