Nmap Cheat Sheet - Page 1

Discovery Scans

-PR Send an ARP (address resolution protocol) request to a target for

a response
ARPs are not usually blocked by firewalls
Default discovery method for any nmap scan on an ethernet
network
-sn No port scan; discovery only; use combination of ICMP, ECHO,
REQUEST, TCP SYN to port 443; TCP ACK to port 80; and an ICMP
timestamp request
-PS<portlist> Discover hosts by sending a TCP SYN to specified port/s; Default is
port 80; Any response (SYN, ACK, RST) demonstrates the target is
up
Syntax indicates no space between –PS and the port list
Will be followed by a port scan unless the –sn option is used

Nmap Scan Types

Option Example Description

-h nmap -h Help on Nmap
-V nmap -V Nmap version
-d nmap -d 192.168.1.50 Enable debugging to view all steps of
output
-sT nmap -sT 192.168.1.50 Complete a TCP 3-way handshake for
non-root users

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-sV nmap -sV 192.168.1.50 Probe open ports for service version
-sS nmap -sS 192.168.1.50 Send TCP SYN to target for response to
check
Check for TCP 3-way handshake
■ If port is open, will respond with
SYN ACK
■ RST if port is closed

-sU nmap -sU 192.168.1.50 Do a UDP scan

■ Ports that respond are open
■ Ports that do not respond are
displayed as open|filtered
(unknown)
■ Ports that send an ICMP
unreachable error (type 3 code 3)
are closed
-sL nmap -sL 192.168.1.50 List the targets that will be scanned
-sA nmap -sA Find out if a host/network is protected
www.example.com
by a firewall.
■ "Filtered" results indicate firewall
is on.
■ "Unfiltered" results indicate port
is accessible, but might be open
or closed.
■ Run with -A option to determine
if accessible ports are actually
open or closed (nmap -sA -A
www.example.com)

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Stealth Scans

-sS nmap -sS The original "stealth" scan; send a TCP

192.168.1.50
SYN and if the target responds with a
SYN ACK, do not complete the
handshake, but instead send a RST

This is less likely to be logged by the

target
-sA nmap -sA Send a TCP ACK; used to map out
192.168.1.0/24
firewall rule sets, determine which
ports are filtered, and if a firewall is
stateful or not
-sN nmap -sN 192.168.1.2-10 Send a TCP segment with no flags
raised; this is not the normal state for
TCP, which always has at least one flag
(usually ACK) raised
Used to sneak through a non-stateful
firewall
-sF nmap -sF Send a TCP FIN; used to sneak through
www.example.com
a non-stateful firewall
-sX nmap -sX Send a TCP segment with FIN, PSH, and
192.168.1.0/24
URG flags raised, thus lighting up the
packet; This is an illogical combination
and is used to quietly get through a
non-stateful firewall

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Stealth Scans - pt2

-Pn nmap -Pn -p- Skip discovery; assume all hosts are
192.168.1.0/24
online for port scan

Useful if targets have their firewall up

and only offer services on unusual
ports
-sl <zombie> nmap -sI -Pn -p- Conduct a blind TCP port scan (idle
<target> zombie.middle.tld
www.example.com scan); no packets are sent directly from
your attacker machine to the target

Uses a "zombie" (middle man) host to

obtain information about open ports
on the target; After locating a machine
that can be used as a zombie, it can be
reused for more scans
-b <FTP relay> ■ nmap -v -b Conduct an FTP bounce scan; exploit
<FTP target> name:password
@old-ftp- FTP proxy connections in which a user
server.example.c asks a "middle man" FTP server to send
om files to another FTP server
■ ftp-target-
server.example.c
om -Pn
Because of widespread abuse, the FTP
relay feature has been disabled by
most vendors

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Stealth Scans - pt 3

-T <0-5> nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -T 2 Use different timing templates to

throttle the speed of your queries to
make the scan less noticeable; T0 is the
slowest, and T5 is the fastest

Nmap denotes these speeds as

paranoid, sneaky, polite, normal,
aggressive, and insane, respectively; T4
is the recommended choice for a fast
scan that is still stable. T3 is the
default.
-f nmap -f 192.168.1.50 Split packets (include pings) into 8-byte
fragments to make it more difficult for
packet filtering firewalls and intrusion
detection to detect the purpose of
packets
MTU is the maximum fragment size
-D [decoy1, nmap -D 192.168.1.10 Used to mask a port scan by using
decoy2, 192.168.1.15
decoy3, etc.] 192.168.1.30 decoys; creates bogus packets from the
<target> 192.138.1.50 decoys so the actual attacker blends in
with the crowd; It appears that both
the decoys and the actual attackers are
performing attacks
-e <interface> nmap -e eth0 Specify the interface Nmap should use
192.168.1.50

-S <spoofed nmap -e eth0 -S Spoof the source address; will not

source www.google.com
address> 192.168.1.50 return useful reports to you, but can be
used to confuse an IDS or the target
administrator

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Stealth Scans - pt 4

--spoof-mac nmap -sT -PN --spoof- Use a bogus source hardware address;
[vendor type | mac apple 192.168.1.50
MAC address] you can specify a random MAC based
nmap -sT -PN --spoof- on vendor, or explicitly specify the
mac B7:B1:F9:BC:D4:56 MAC address
192.168.1.50

--source-port nmap --source-port 53 Use a specific source port number

<port number> 192.168.1.36
(spoof source port) to dupe packet
filters configured to trust that port;
same as -g <port number> option
--source-port nmap --source-port 53 Use a specific source port number
<port number> 192.168.1.36
(spoof source port) to dupe packet
filters configured to trust that port;
same as -g <port number> option
--randomize- nmap --randomize-hosts Randomize the order of the hosts being
hosts 192.168.1.1-100
scanned.
--proxies nmap --proxies Relay TCP connections through a chain
<proxy:port, http://192.168.1.30:8080,
proxy:port…> http://192.168.1.90:8008 of HTTP or SOCKS4 proxies; especially
useful on the Internet.

Nmap Options

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-p <port range> nmap -p 80 192.168.1.50 Scan only specified port/s

nmap -p 80,443
www.example.com Port status can be OPEN, CLOSED (no
service on port), or FILTERED (perhaps
nmap -p1024-3000
192.168.1.0/24 a firewall)
UDP ports: U; TCP ports: T; ALL TCP
nmap -p ports: -p-
U:53,111,137,T:21-
25,80,139,443
192.168.1.0/24

nmap -p- 192.168.1.50

-r nmap --top-ports 200 Scan top <indicated number> ports

--top-ports nmap --top-ports 200 Scan top <indicated number> ports
<number>

-6 nmap -6 Scan IPv6 addresses

2001:f0d0:1003:51::4

nmap -6
www.example.com

nmap -6
fe80::8d50:86ce:55ad:bc
5c

-iL <input file nmap -iL /tmp/test.txt Scan hosts listed in file
name>

--exclude nmap 192.168.1.0/24 -- Exclude certain hosts from scan

exclude 192.168.1.5

-n nmap -n 192.168.1.0/24 Do not resolve names (time saver)

-R nmap -R 192.168.1.0/24 Try to resolve all names with reserved
DNS
-F (fast mode) nmap -F 192.168.1.50 Scan fewer ports than default

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Nmap Options - pt 2
-iL <input file nmap -iL /tmp/test.txt Scan hosts listed in file
name>

--exclude map 192.168.1.0/24 -- Exclude certain hosts from scan

exclude 192.168.1.5

-n nmap -n 192.168.1.0/24 Do not resolve names (time saver)

-R nmap -R 192.168.1.0/24 Try to resolve all names with reserved
DNS
-F nmap -F 192.168.1.50 Scan fewer ports than default
-O nmap -O 192.168.1.50 Enable OS detection, not always
accurate
-A nmap -A 192.168.1.50 Enable OS detection, service version
detection, script scanning, and
traceroute
--version- nmap -sV --version- Use with –sV
intensity intensity 9 192.168.1.50
<level> Specified level of interrogation from 0
(light) to 9 (attempt all probes)
-- nmap -- Use NSE script
script=<scriptn script=banner.nse
ame> 192.168.1.50

-sC nmap -sC 192.168.1.50 Scan using all default scripts

-v nmap -vv 192.168.1.50 Increase verbosity of output
-v<-4 : 4>
nmap -v-1 192.168.1.50 The more ‘v’s the more verbose
Alternatively you can specify the exact
level number after the -v command

There are 9 levels [-4 : 4]

-oN/-oX/-oS/- nmap 192.168.1.50 -oA Save output in normal, XML, script
oG/-oA results.txt
<filename> kiddie, Grepable, or all

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