Nmap 6 Released – 6 Major Improvements

This is by far my favorite deep scanner. As you can remember, I really like Angry IP Scanner for IP range scanning and port scanning; Nmap totally kicks it up a notch and really ‘ups the ante’ with 6 key feature improvements. Nmap has always been a great program, working on many platforms with and without GUI (you can download a gui-driven version called Zenmap) and the best part is you have very fine-grained control of what types of packets are used for your scan, and you can custom build a scan for a myriad of different scenarios.

Here is a brief synopsis of the feature improvements mentioned on the NMAP.ORG site:

• NSE Enhanced – nmap scripting engine adds new capabilities like querying network applications for configuration information to vulnerability detection and advanced host discovery
• Better Web Scanning - There is more focus on HTTP scanning for URL path data
• Full IPv6 Support – It is what it is- a whole new world.
• New Nping Tool – This new open source tool can generate network packets for a wide range of protocols, allowing full control over protocol headers and  it can also be used as a raw packet generator for network stack stress testing, ARP poisoning, Denial of Service attacks, route tracing, etc.
• Better Zenmap GUI & results viewer – Better is always better. The results view is cleaner and leaner, you just have to see it.
• Faster scans – Speed is always better. Period.