Network Security for work and play - time to upgrade to NMap 5.0

If you haven't used NMap before, here's what it does in a nutshell:

NMap is short for "Network Mapper", and it is used to determine what hosts (computers and other network-enabled devices) are on the network, what services they offer (apps), firewall and AV or filtering they have installed, plus OS type and version.

It's obvious to see the benefit if you're a network administrator. Just start it sniffing on the company network and it will report back all this information, allowing you to do inventory, security compliance audits and vulnerability testing.

Of course, the more subversive of you out there will probably think other uses. Whether your hat is white or black, you can have a lot of fun with this. Sniffing for hosts to attack, or just to play about with is easy and rewarding. However, I wouldn't run it on a tightly-controlled, corporate network unless you're really tired of your job ;-)

The latest version is NMap 5.0. It came out in July, and unfortunately no-one told me until now :(

I upgraded my not-so-old 4.75 version on my Win XP machine, but I haven't done the same for my Ubuntu box. Zenmap, the front-end, looks slightly tweaked, and overall (I might be imagining things, it's not as if I benchmarked it) it seems to run faster.

If you haven't tried it, maybe now is a better time than ever. Considering what it does, and how powerful it is, it really isn't much of a hassle to install and configure. It has a really great tutorial, and the NMap site it a treasure trove of tools, tutorials and ideas. It's well laid out too.

Further reading

• IPwatchD an IP conflict detection tool for Linux (slumpedoverkeyboarddead.com)
• GitHub, Firewalls, and Freedom (autonomo.us)
• Top-Rated Firewall Back by Request (chris.pirillo.com)
• Protect Yourself With A Bank Firewall [Fraud] (consumerist.com)
• Introducing The Virtual Machine Trojan (elasticvapor.com)
• How to set Windows as Default OS in Grub (techie-buzz.com)
• Why Is Linux Notebook Battery Life Still Poor? (hardware.slashdot.org)
• Migrating to Linux, Part 2: Avoiding Separation Anxiety (slumpedoverkeyboarddead.com)