Nmap ("Network Mapper") is a free open source utility for network
exploration or security auditing. It was designed to rapidly scan
large networks, although it works fine against single hosts. Nmap
uses raw IP packets in novel ways to determine what hosts are
available on the network, what services (application name and version)
those hosts are offering, what operating systems (and OS versions) they are
running, what type of packet filters/firewalls are in use, and dozens
of other characteristics. Nmap runs on most types of computers and
both console and graphical versions are available. Nmap is free and open
source (license).
Nmap is ...
- Flexible: Supports dozens of advanced techniques for
mapping out networks filled with IP filters, firewalls, routers, and
other obstacles. This includes many port scanning mechanisms (both TCP &
UDP), OS
detection, version detection, ping sweeps, and more. See the documentation page.
- Powerful: Nmap has been used to scan huge networks of
literally hundreds of thousands of machines.
- Portable: Most operating systems are supported, including
Linux, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, IRIX, Mac OS X, HP-UX,
NetBSD, Sun OS, Amiga, and more.
- Easy: While Nmap offers a rich set of advanced features for
power users, you can start out as simply as "nmap -v -A targethost". Both traditional command line and graphical (GUI)
versions are available to suit your preference. Binaries are
available for those who do not wish to compile Nmap from source.
- Free: The primary goals of the Nmap Project is to help make
the Internet a little more secure and to provide
administrators/auditors/hackers with an advanced tool for exploring
their networks. Nmap is available for free download, and also comes with full
source code that you may modify and redistribute under the terms of
the license.
- Well Documented: Significant effort has been put into
comprehensive and up-to-date man pages, whitepapers, and tutorials.
Find them in multiple languages here.
- Supported: While Nmap comes with no warranty, it is well
supported by the community and we appreciate bug reports and patches.
If you encounter a problem, please follow these instructions.
- Acclaimed: Nmap has won numerous awards, including
"Information Security Product of the Year" by Linux Journal, Info
World and Codetalker Digest. It has been featured in hundreds of
magazine articles and is even recommended
by Microsoft. Visit the press
page for further details.
- Popular: Thousands of people download Nmap every day, and
it is included with many operating systems (Redhat Linux, Debian
Linux, Gentoo, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc). It is among the top ten (out of
30,000) programs at the Freshmeat.Net repository. This is important
because it lends Nmap its vibrant development and user support
communities.
Nmap users are encouraged to subscribe to the Nmap-hackers
mailing list. It is a low volume, moderated list for announcements
about Nmap, Insecure.org, and related projects. You can join the
23,000 current subscribers by submitting your e-mail address here:
We also have a development list for more hardcore members
(especially programmers) who are interested in helping the project by
helping with coding, testing, feature ideas, etc. New (test/beta)
versions of Nmap are sometimes released here prior to general
availability for QA purposes. You can subscribe at the Nmap-dev list
info page.
Both lists are archived (along with many other security lists) at Seclists.org.
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