Nmap is a utility for network exploration or security auditing. It supports ping scanning (determine which hosts are up), many port scanning techniques (determine what services the hosts are offering), and TCP/IP fingerprinting (remote host operating system identification). Nmap also offers flexible target and port specification, decoy scanning, determination of TCP sequence predictability characteristics, sunRPC scanning, reverse-identd scanning, and more. Console and X-Window versions are available.

Nmap has been named "Security Product of the Year" by Info World and Codetalker Digest. It has also been praised by Network World, Wired, 2600, Computer World, SANS, the CIO Institute Bulletin, and Phrack. It is currently the 13th most popular download (out of 9,000+) on the Freshmeat.Net software index .

CHANGES:

Version 2.50 is the first "stable" release since 2.12 (April '99), and we recommend that all current users upgrade. Improvements from more than 20 public beta releases have gone into this version.

Here is a list of the most important advantages of Nmap 2.50 over 2.12:

• The NmapFE graphical X-Window (GTK+) front end by Zach Smith (now maintained by Fyodor) is included. A KDE front end by Ian Zepp is available at http://www.edotorg.org/kde/kmap/
• Nmap now contains almost 500 contributed TCP/IP fingerprints for remote operating system detection (see http://nmap.org/nmap-fingerprinting-article.html )
• Added direct (bypasses portmapper) SunRPC scanning to determine what RPC program is listening on a particular TCP or UDP port. Almost 200 RPC services are supported.
• Added sophisticated timing controls to give the user much more control over Nmap's speed and timeouts. Users can specify canned modes ( like "polite" or "aggressive") or manipulate individual timing parameters directly.
• Added ACK scanning and Window scanning for stealthy scanning of heavily firewalled hosts.
• Portability fixes: V. 2.50 is well supported on Linux (X86, Sparc, Alpha, PowerPC, and Merced/Itanium), Free/Net/OpenBSD, and Solaris. It has been reported to work on many other UNIX systems.
• New resume option allows scans to be stopped and continued later
• Many speed optimizations, especially with regard to scanning hosts behind restrictive packet filters and firewalls.
• Interactive mode enhances privacy and can add convenience
• Numerous improvements to machine parseable & human readable output
• New options allow host scan order randomization, logfile appending, random target host selection, script kiddie output, etc.
• Dozens of bug fixes and helpful tweaks.

DOWNLOAD INFO:

Nmap is available for download from http://insecure.org/nmap or ftp://server51.freshmeat.net/pub/nmap in source or binary (Linux X86 RPM) form. It is Free software covered by the GNU Public License.

Linux/X86 users w/rpm can install/upgrade Nmap in seconds as follows:

rpm -vhU (nmap url)
where (nmap url) is one (or both) of these:
ftp://ftp.server51.freshmeat.net/pub/nmap/nmap-2.50-1.i386.rpm
ftp://ftp.server51.freshmeat.net/pub/nmap/nmap-frontend-0.2.50-1.i386.rpm

Direct Questions or comments to fyodor@insecure.org .

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

We would like to acknowledge and thank the many people who contributed ideas and/or code to this release. Special thanks go to Zach Smith, David O'Brien, van Hauser, Lamont Granquist, Lance Spitzner, Bifrost, H D Moore, Renaud Deraison, Ben Laurie, Mark Abene, Matthew Franz, Solar Designer, Ken Williams, Max Vision, Bdale Garbee, Stany, Jan Koum, Bill Beers, Mipam, Tobias Nijweide, LaMont Jones, Thomas Reinke, Jonathan Fine, Erik Benner, Jean-Yves Simon, Peter Marschall, Andrew Brown, Alek Komarnitsky, Ajay Gupta2, Bennett Feitell, Phil Stracchino, Marc Renner, Sami Farin, Dries Schellekens, Uros Prestor, J.D.K. Chipps, Arve Kjoelen, Ralf Hildebrandt, Sven Carstens, Sergei V. Rousakov, Peter Kosinar, Matt@use.net, K. Scott Rowe, Bifrost, Matthieu Verbert, LaMont Jones, Vik Bajaj, Renaud Deraison, Stefan Erben, Alexander Savelyev, Mark Smith, Charles M. Hannum, Savva Uspensky, and Bill Fenner .

And of course we would also like to thank the thousands of people who have submitted OS fingerprints and all the people who have found and reported bugs and suggested features.

For further information, see http://insecure.org/.