In this tutorial I have list down the list of common Nmap commands that might be useful.
Target Specific
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| nmap 192.168.33.200 | Scan a single IP | |
| nmap 192.168.33.200 192.168.33.203 | Scan specific IPs | |
| nmap 192.168.33.1-254 nmap 192.168.33.* | Scan a range | |
| nmap www.dracocybersecurity.com | Scan a domain | |
| nmap 192.168.33.0/24 | Scan using CIDR notation | |
| -iL | nmap -iL targets.txt | Scan targets from a file |
| -iR | nmap -iR 100 | Scan 100 random hosts |
| –exclude | nmap 192.168.33.* –exclude 192.168.33.1 | Exclude listed hosts |
Scan Techniques
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -sS | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sS | TCP SYN port scan (Default) |
| -sT | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sT | TCP connect port scan (Default without root privilege) |
| -sU | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sU | UDP port scan |
| -sA | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sA | TCP ACK port scan |
| -sW | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sW | TCP Window port scan |
| -sM | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sM | TCP Maimon port scan |
Host Discovery
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -sL | nmap 192.168.33.200-203 -sL | No Scan. List targets only |
| -sn | nmap 192.168.33.200/24 -sn | Disable port scanning. Host discovery only. |
| -Pn | nmap 192.168.33.200-205 -Pn | Disable host discovery. Port scan only. |
| -PS | nmap 192.168.33.200-205 -PS22-25,80 | TCP SYN discovery on port x.Port 80 by default |
| -PA | nmap 192.168.33.200-205 -PA22-25,80 | TCP ACK discovery on port x.Port 80 by default |
| -PU | nmap 192.168.33.200-205 -PU53 | UDP discovery on port x.Port 40125 by default |
| -PR | nmap 192.168.33.1-1/24 -PR | ARP discovery on local network |
| -n | nmap 192.168.33.200 -n | Never do DNS resolution |
Port Specification
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -p | nmap 192.168.33.200 -p 21 | Port scan for port x |
| -p | nmap 192.168.33.200 -p 21-100 | Port range |
| -p | nmap 192.168.33.200 -p U:53,T:21-25,80 | Port scan multiple TCP and UDP ports |
| -p- | nmap 192.168.33.200 -p- | Port scan all ports |
| -p | nmap 192.168.33.200 -p http,https | Port scan from service name |
| -F | nmap 192.168.33.200 -F | Fast port scan (100 ports) |
| –top-ports | nmap 192.168.33.200 –top-ports 2000 | Port scan the top x ports |
| -p-65535 | nmap 192.168.33.200 -p-65535 | Leaving off initial port in range makes the scan start at port 1 |
| -p0- | nmap 192.168.33.200 -p0- | Leaving off end port in rangemakes the scan go through to port 65535 |
Service and Version Detection
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -sV | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sV | Attempts to determine the version of the service running on port |
| -sV –version-intensity | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sV –version-intensity 8 | Intensity level 0 to 9. Higher number increases possibility of correctness |
| -sV –version-light | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sV –version-light | Enable light mode. Lower possibility of correctness. Faster |
| -sV –version-all | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sV –version-all | Enable intensity level 9. Higher possibility of correctness. Slower |
| -A | nmap 192.168.33.200 -A | Enables OS detection, version detection, script scanning, and traceroute |
OS Detection
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -O | nmap 192.168.33.200 -O | Remote OS detection using TCP/IP stack fingerprinting |
| -O –osscan-limit | nmap 192.168.33.200 -O –osscan-limit | If at least one open and one closed TCP port are not found it will not try OS detection against host |
| -O –osscan-guess | nmap 192.168.33.200 -O –osscan-guess | Makes Nmap guess more aggressively |
| -O –max-os-tries | nmap 192.168.33.200 -O –max-os-tries 1 | Set the maximum number x of OS detection tries against a target |
| -A | nmap 192.168.33.200 -A | Enables OS detection, version detection, script scanning, and traceroute |
Timing and Performance
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -T0 | nmap 192.168.33.200 -T0 | Paranoid (0) Intrusion Detection System evasion |
| -T1 | nmap 192.168.33.200 -T1 | Sneaky (1) Intrusion Detection System evasion |
| -T2 | nmap 192.168.33.200 -T2 | Polite (2) slows down the scan to use less bandwidth and use less target machine resources |
| -T3 | nmap 192.168.33.200 -T3 | Normal (3) which is default speed |
| -T4 | nmap 192.168.33.200 -T4 | Aggressive (4) speeds scans; assumes you are on a reasonably fast and reliable network |
| -T5 | nmap 192.168.33.200 -T5 | Insane (5) speeds scan; assumes you are on an extraordinarily fast network |
| Switch | Example input | Description |
|---|---|---|
| –host-timeout <time> | 1s; 4m; 2h | Give up on target after this long |
| –min-rtt-timeout/max-rtt-timeout/initial-rtt-timeout <time> | 1s; 4m; 2h | Specifies probe round trip time |
| –min-hostgroup/max-hostgroup <size<size> | 50; 1024 | Parallel host scan group sizes |
| –min-parallelism/max-parallelism <numprobes> | 10; 1 | Probe parallelization |
| –scan-delay/–max-scan-delay <time> | 20ms; 2s; 4m; 5h | Adjust delay between probes |
| –max-retries <tries> | 3 | Specify the maximum number of port scan probe retransmissions |
| –min-rate <number> | 100 | Send packets no slower than <numberr> per second |
| –max-rate <number> | 100 | Send packets no faster than <number> per second |
NSE Scripts
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -sC | nmap 192.168.33.200 -sC | Scan with default NSE scripts. Considered useful for discovery and safe |
| –script default | nmap 192.168.33.200 –script default | Scan with default NSE scripts. Considered useful for discovery and safe |
| –script | nmap 192.168.33.200 –script=banner | Scan with a single script. Example banner |
| –script | nmap 192.168.33.200 –script=http* | Scan with a wildcard. Example http |
| –script | nmap 192.168.33.200 –script=http,banner | Scan with two scripts. Example http and banner |
| –script | nmap 192.168.33.200 –script “not intrusive” | Scan default, but remove intrusive scripts |
| –script-args | nmap –script snmp-sysdescr –script-args snmpcommunity=admin 192.168.33.200 | NSE script with arguments |
Useful NSE Script Examples
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| nmap -Pn –script=http-sitemap-generator scanme.nmap.org | http site map generator |
| nmap -n -Pn -p 80 –open -sV -vvv –script banner,http-title -iR 1000 | Fast search for random web servers |
| nmap -Pn –script=dns-brute domain.com | Brute forces DNS hostnames guessing subdomains |
| nmap -n -Pn -vv -O -sV –script smb-enum*,smb-ls,smb-mbenum,smb-os-discovery,smb-s*,smb-vuln*,smbv2* -vv 192.168.33.200 | Safe SMB scripts to run |
| nmap –script whois* domain.com | Whois query |
| nmap -p80 –script http-unsafe-output-escaping scanme.nmap.org | Detect cross site scripting vulnerabilities |
| nmap -p80 –script http-sql-injection scanme.nmap.org | Check for SQL injections |
Firewall / IDS Evasion and Spoofing
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -f | nmap 192.168.33.200 -f | Requested scan (including ping scans) use tiny fragmented IP packets. Harder for packet filters |
| –mtu | nmap 192.168.33.200 –mtu 32 | Set your own offset size |
| -D | nmap -D 192.168.33.101,192.168.33.102, 192.168.33.103,192.168.33.23 192.168.33.1 | Send scans from spoofed IPs |
| -D | nmap -D decoy-ip1,decoy-ip2,your-own-ip,decoy-ip3,decoy-ip4 remote-host-ip | Above example explained |
| -S | nmap -S www.microsoft.com www.facebook.com | Scan Facebook from Microsoft (-e eth0 -Pn may be required) |
| -g | nmap -g 53 192.168.33.200 | Use given source port number |
| –proxies | nmap –proxies http://192.168.33.200:8080, http://192.168.33.2:8080 192.168.33.200 | Relay connections through HTTP/SOCKS4 proxies |
| –data-length | nmap –data-length 200 192.168.33.200 | Appends random data to sent packets |
Example IDS Evasion command
nmap -f -t 0 -n -Pn –data-length 200 -D 192.168.33.101,192.168.33.102,192.168.33.103,192.168.33.23 192.168.33.1
Output
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -oN | nmap 192.168.33.200 -oN normal.file | Normal output to the file normal.file |
| -oX | nmap 192.168.33.200 -oX xml.file | XML output to the file xml.file |
| -oG | nmap 192.168.33.200 -oG grep.file | Grepable output to the file grep.file |
| -oA | nmap 192.168.33.200 -oA results | Output in the three major formats at once |
| -oG – | nmap 192.168.33.200 -oG – | Grepable output to screen. -oN -, -oX – also usable |
| –append-output | nmap 192.168.33.200 -oN file.file –append-output | Append a scan to a previous scan file |
| -v | nmap 192.168.33.200 -v | Increase the verbosity level (use -vv or more for greater effect) |
| -d | nmap 192.168.33.200 -d | Increase debugging level (use -dd or more for greater effect) |
| –reason | nmap 192.168.33.200 –reason | Display the reason a port is in a particular state, same output as -vv |
| –open | nmap 192.168.33.200 –open | Only show open (or possibly open) ports |
| –packet-trace | nmap 192.168.33.200 -T4 –packet-trace | Show all packets sent and received |
| –iflist | nmap –iflist | Shows the host interfaces and routes |
| –resume | nmap –resume results.file | Resume a scan |
Helpful Nmap Output examples
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| nmap -p80 -sV -oG – –open 192.168.33.200/24 | grep open | Scan for web servers and grep to show which IPs are running web servers |
| nmap -iR 10 -n -oX out.xml | grep “Nmap” | cut -d ” ” -f5 > live-hosts.txt | Generate a list of the IPs of live hosts |
| nmap -iR 10 -n -oX out2.xml | grep “Nmap” | cut -d ” ” -f5 >> live-hosts.txt | Append IP to the list of live hosts |
| ndiff scanl.xml scan2.xml | Compare output from nmap using the ndif |
| xsltproc nmap.xml -o nmap.html | Convert nmap xml files to html files |
| grep ” open ” results.nmap | sed -r ‘s/ +/ /g’ | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn | less | Reverse sorted list of how often ports turn up |
Miscellaneous Options
| Switch | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
| -6 | nmap -6 2607:f0d0:1002:51::4 | Enable IPv6 scanning |
| -h | nmap -h | nmap help screen |
Other Useful Nmap Commands
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| nmap -iR 10 -PS22-25,80,113,1050,35000 -v -sn | Discovery only on ports x, no port scan |
| nmap 192.168.33.1-1/24 -PR -sn -vv | Arp discovery only on local network, no port scan |
| nmap -iR 10 -sn -traceroute | Traceroute to random targets, no port scan |
| nmap 192.168.33.200-250 -sL –dns-server 192.168.23.23 | Query the Internal DNS for hosts, list targets only |