From:
"Fyodor" <[email protected]>
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:
1) 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
2) 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
3) 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
4) 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
5) 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:
http://nmap.org/5/
The Nmap 5.00 source code and Linux, Mac, and Windows packages are
available for download at the usual place:
http://nmap.org/download.html
Go give it a try! And if you find any bugs, let us know on nmap-dev
(http://nmap.org/book/man-bugs.html).
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
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