NMAP Penetration Testing Tool

NMAP is a valuable tool for penetration testers. NMAP is a tool used to perform network scans. The penetration tester can collect information about the target using this tool scans. For example, the OS the target is running, open ports on the target, services running on the target machine, etc.

Please note that it is against the Cyber Laws to run the tool against the systems and domains that you do not own. Make sure you run this tool in lab environments.

Nmap Flags

nmap IP

/> nmap 127.0.0.1

This allows the tester to know the open ports on the target.

nmap -sn IP

nmap -sn 127.0.0.1

This flag is used to check if the target is up or not.

nmap -O IP

example
/> nmap -O 127.0.0.1

To know the operating system of the target machine. To scan a specific port on the target machine. For example, if the target machine is a web server
tester would like to know the port 80 or 8080 port status.

/> nmap -p 80 127.0.0.1