Network Uptime

ANNOUNCEMENT: Secrets of Network Cartography

I've had quite a few people ask me why they've not seen any content in the last month, but I wasn't sure what to tell them! I’ve had a goal to create a new tutorial for Network Uptime, but this quest has turned into much more than a simple one-page posting.

I've recently been using nmap to scan, query, and identify stations on the network. I thought a quick nmap tutorial would be a perfect addition to Network Uptime, so I started building an outline and writing content. As I peeled away the layers of this electronic onion, I found that nmap was MUCH deeper and wider than I ever realized!

Over the last month, I’ve been building different network labs for the sole purpose of nmap scanning and documenting the results. As I learned more about nmap, I found an incredibly powerful scanning utility that has justifiably earned the respect of the networking and security community. I had to work hard to find devices on my network that could be used as demonstrations for some of nmap’s more esoteric scanning methods.

As this project quickly exploded, I realized that it was evolving into a comprehensive guide that would provide extensive information about the internals of nmap’s operation, the advantages and disadvantages of each scan type, and an explanation of when to use the different scan types. I’ve created graphical diagrams of each scan type and included traces to help understand how each scan method communicates across the network. Every scan type explanation includes downloadable libpcap and Sniffer-compatible trace files for additional offline analysis.

Some of the analyses of nmap’s idlescan and FTP bounce attack scans were incredibly interesting. These more advanced scans have some intriguing network traffic patterns! If you’re a long-time nmap user, I hope you’ll find detailed information that will help you maximize your use of nmap. If you’ve never used nmap, you’ll soon find out that you can’t live without it!

I’ve released the first half of the tutorial to Network Uptime, and I’ll be adding the remaining content as it’s completed. I’m looking for suggestions and comments, so let me know what you think!

I'm proud to announce:

Secrets of Network Cartography: A Comprehensive Guide to nmap 3.81

Posted by james_messer at May 1, 2005 01:28 PM