Zen map is the official graphical user interface (GUI) for the Nmap Security Scanner.
It is a multi-platform free and open source application designed to make nmap easy to use for beginners
while providing advanced features for experienced nmap users.
Let's install Zenmap on Linux
if it's not already there. Many security Linux distributions come with is zenmap already installed
so as root I am executing apt install zenmap
Note that there are versions available for both Windows and the Mac. Let's start zenmap! We notice
that it can be started both as a normal user or as root. Behind the scenes nmap command
will be executed
and we've seen in the last lectures that there are scans like the syn scans that can be executed only
by root. So I'm starting it
as root.
This is the interface of a zenmap.
The purpose of zenmap is not to replace the old and the good nmap command.
It's well known that hackers always prefer a command line over a graphical interface.
The purpose of a zenmap is to make nmap a more useful . Zenmap
keeps track of your scan results until you choose to throw them away and profiles make it easy to run
the exact same scan more than once.
There is no need to set up a shell script to do a common scan.
Zenmap has the ability to show the differences between two scans,
you can see what has changed between the same scan run on different days, between scans of two different
hosts or between scans of the same hosts with different options or any other combination.
This allows administrators to easily track new hosts or services appearing on their network or existing
ones going down. Running a scan is as simple as typing the target in the “Target” field selecting the
profile and then clicking the scan button.
Let's scan this host!
I'm writing its IP address in the target box.
We also notice the nmap command with all its options that can be run at the console; -a option
enables OS and version detection, script scanning and trace route.
This is a really useful option but the scan will take a very long time.
I'm starting the scan.
In the scan's tab we notice that the scan is running; after approximately one minute
the scan result will be available. I'll pause the video until it's over! OK!
It's over.
This is the scan report: we see open ports and the details about the versions of the applications that
are running on that host; on the left side
we see the services that are running on the host and the ports tab shows what ports are open on that
host.
These are the ports open, the service name and its version.
Let's try another scan!
This time I want to scan the entire lan so 0/24
You can also write the network address like this, using a *
for the last byte.
And I'll use another profile "Quick scan pus" and scan.
It's scanning the entire network.
It will take a while, a minute or two, so I'm gonna pause the video until it's over.
Now the scan is running; okay,
it's over!
This is the output; we see all hosts discovered
and the services that are running and the this scan tab lists all the scans
you are running or have executed. Most of these will be unsaved scans.
We can of course select one of our past scans and rerun it by selecting the scan and the clicking
the scan button, like this! I'm rerunning the scan.
I have stopped it.
The topology tab is of interest for security audits as it shows the actual topology of your network
in a graphical form. The host details tab breaks all of the information about a single host into a hierarchical
display.
For example this is the default gateway and this is the report about the default gateway, about this
host and so on. To rescan a host selected the host from the combo box attached to the target and then scan
again.
To save a scan we select the scan and then go to files and save.
It will be saved as an .xml or nmap text format that can be later
reopened. As mentioned you can use the default scanning profiles or we can create your own. To do so
go to profile and then select either new profile or edit selected profile.
We see there are a lot of options to select from, for the new profile.
As a conclusion we say that the zenmap is a very powerful tool that enables any network administrator
to audit hosts and networks. Make sure to dive deeper into the profile editor and while creating
helpful scans for your specific network you'll see just how powerful a zenmap can be.