The Developer‘s Guide to Nmap Automation

Nmap is the de facto standard for network discovery, port scanning, and security auditing. However, the steep learning curve and complexity of operating nmap manually has hindered its adoption. This is where intelligent automation solutions come into play.

NmapAutomator is an open-source shell script that automates away the complexity, making nmap scans easier to run and nmap results far easier to analyze. It builds upon nmap‘s capabilities to detect vulnerabilities and integrate additional security tools.

In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the immense power of nmap automation from an advanced developer‘s perspective.

Why Automating Nmap Makes Sense

Before diving into nmapAutomator specifically, it‘s important to understand why automating nmap is extremely beneficial:

• Eliminates the need to memorize hundreds of nmap arguments and manually analyze text-based output
• Allows quick and easy-to-understand visual reporting on networks
• Frees up security team‘s time to focus on fixing issues, not just finding them
• Facilitates continuous security monitoring instead of one-off manual scanning
• Enables nmap integration into modern workflows like CI/CD pipelines
• Reduces security blindspots by making scans easier and encouraging more testing
• Customizable scans tailored to specific assets and vulnerabilities
• Significantly cuts down time for reconnaissance during pentests

According to a Rapid7 survey, security teams spend only 20% of time on fixing issues while 80% goes to finding them. Automating discovery through nmap allows rebalancing resource allocation.

Clearly, nmap automation makes scans faster, understanding better and response quicker. Now let‘s see how nmapAutomator specifically achieves this.

Installing NmapAutomator‘s Dependencies

NmapAutomator relies on certain dependencies for extra functionality:

• Go – Enables installing other deps
• Gobuster – Directory enumeration
• Nikto – Web app vulnerability scanner
• Nmap Vulnerability Scripts – Required for automated vuln scanning

Here are the simplified install commands:

# tar -C /usr/local -xzf go1.13.6.linux-amd64.tar.gz  

# export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin  

# go get github.com/OJ/gobuster   

# apt install libwhisker2-perl nikto

# git clone https://github.com/vulnersCom/nmap-vulners.git

# cp *.nse /usr/share/nmap/scripts  

# nmap --script-updatedb

With the additional tools integrated, nmapAutomator can automatically run scans like vulnerability detection that would normally require manual effort.

Installing and Configuring NmapAutomator

The installation itself is straightforward. We grab the repository from GitHub and provide execute permission:

# git clone https://github.com/21y4d/nmapAutomator.git

# chmod +x nmapAutomator.sh

Optionally, creating a symbolic link makes it accessible system-wide:

# ln -s nmapAutomator.sh /usr/local/bin

The default configuration is suitable for most use cases. But the script is customizable based on networks and policy requirements, such as:

• Port range to be scanned
• Intensity of scans (-T0 to -T5)
• Specific vulnerability script execution
• Output directory for reports
• Automated reporting notification
• Post-scan actions like analysis and containment

Customizing these allows specialized scans focused only on assets and vulnerabilities relevant to the target company.

Unlocking NmapAutomator‘s Scan Modes

NmapAutomator truly shines with the various templated scan modes available:

Mode	Description
Quick	Fast discovery of open ports
Basic	Quick scan + deeper analysis on findings
UDP	Scan commonly used UDP ports and services
Full	Comprehensive TCP port scan with detailed reporting
Vulns	Scan all ports for related vulnerabilities
Recon	Full scan + automated web app and infrastructure vulnerability analysis
All	Execute all scan types for incredibly thorough examination

These scan modes offer incredible one-touch simplicity. Just pick the desired mode – no need for complex nmap commands or even knowing port numbers!

The rest of this guide will showcase nmapAutomator‘s capabilities using various targets and scan modes. Please note that all results shown are sanitized from real scans on test servers created for this demo purpose.

Quick Scans for Surface Analysis

When faced with an unfamiliar target, Quick Scans provide an instant overview by hitting the most common 1000 TCP ports:

# nmapAutomator.sh 192.168.1.105 Quick

In just seconds, we have basic visibility on live services – extremely useful for quick reconnaissance during pentests.

Deep Dives into Services with Basic Scans

Once interesting ports are discovered, Basic Scans probe deeper:

# nmapAutomator.ssh 192.168.1.105 Basic 

We get granular service detection, version enumeration, and operating system fingerprinting. This data is invaluable when formulating targeted exploitation methodology.

Alternatively, UDP scans can also discover open UDP ports and associated services.

Vulnerability Scans – Automated Security Triage

My personal favoritenmapAutomator capability is intelligent Vulnerability Scanning through the integrated Nmap scripts:

# nmapAutomator.sh 192.168.1.105 Vulns

This immediately checks for vulnerabilities related to detected services and provides severity, descriptions and mitigation information.

Such automated triage eliminates the need for manual research or reference to services like CVE Details. The scan instantly highlights priority issues, allowing smarter utilization of security resources.

According to Edgescan stats, over 18,000 new vulnerabilities were disclosed in 2020 – automating discovery and analysis is critical.

Reconnaissance Scans with Automated Attack Surface Detection

Recon mode takes things up a notch by chaining multiple scan stages:

# nmapAutomator.sh 192.168.1.105 Recon 

It first conducts a comprehensive TCP port scan, then automatically passes found web services to Nikto and directories to Gobuster for further vulnerability identification.

Such multi-tool chaining allows incredibly deep reconnaissance and web app testing with a single command, compared to running each tool manually. The structured output keeps findings organized per IP.

All-in-One Scans for Comprehensive Coverage

To unleash nmapAutomator‘s full analyze power, the appropriately named All mode executes a chained combination of all scan types:

# nmapAutomator.sh 192.168.1.105 All

This sequentially runs Quick, Full TCP, UDP, Vulnerability, Recon, and any other scans – automatically running all checks in an intelligent order while skipping duplicate work.

The meticulously structured output reports keep findings per IP address organized across scan types. Using All scans regularly virtually guarantees no network security stone remains unturned!

Integrating with Other Tools via Scripting

While nmapAutomator provides tremendous value out-of-the-box, we can further integrate nmap with other systems by utilizing the scriptability.

For example, findings from vulnerability scans can be fed into ticketing systems like Jira, Splunk or even ServiceNow to track the issues. Scripted hooks enable automatically raising tickets with custom nmap data.

We can also dynamically save the scan reports to databases and present vulnerability trends in graphical format like Kibana dashboards. Further, the scans can integrate with Web Application Firewalls to auto-block threats.

Custom scripting bras enable feeding scan data to virtually any other platform. This allows managing vulnerabilities detected by nmapAutomator scans along with rest of the security ecosystem.

Local vs Remote nmapAutomator Installations

nmapAutomator can be installed directly on the scanning server itself for local execution. This helps avoids network delays for faster scans.

However, having a dedicated "nmap automation server" allows central management without affecting critical production systems. Both options work great – choice depends on specific infrastructure.

Cloud-based commercial scanning services like Nmap Cloud offer managed nmap automation. Though losing customizability, they simplify setup and maintenance.

Optimizing Scan Speed

With great scanning power comes great resource consumption! Certain tweaks can optimize nmapAutomator speed:

• Distribute scanning load by running multiple distributed nmap engines
• Parallelize execution using nmap‘s --min-hostgroup/-mh and --min-parallelism/-mp arguments
• Scan fewer ports using port ranges -p <start-end>
• Scan more stealthily reducing network impact --max-rtt-timeout, --max-retries
• Test different intensity levels -T[0-5] for increased speed vs accuracy tradeoff
• Pay for cloud scanning servers with high-speed networks and processors

Balancing speed and accuracy depends on specific needs. Recon scans may tolerate some loss of accuracy for faster security triage. Compliance report creation requires high precision despite longer scan times.

Dealing with IPS/IDS and Blocking

Organizations often employ Intrusion Prevention and Detection Systems (IPS/IDS) to identify scanning activity and even block the source. nmapAutomator scans originating from unusual servers may get blocked as false threats!

Some methods to avoid blocking are:

• Whitelist scanning server IP in the IPS/IDS and other firewalls
• Make scans appear more human through packet obfuscation, throttling techniques, and disguised user agents
• Break scans into multiple small batches that falls under anomaly thresholds
• Route scans through proxy servers and VPN tunnels
• Confirm security team approval before scans to prevent false alarms

Balancing operational security and visibility requirements is an interesting challenge our resident security expert John enjoys solving with nmapAutomator customer deployments!

Customizing Scan Policies

The default nmapAutomator configurations like scanned port range, reporting templates etc. are generally adequate. But custom tailoring these for specific assets, threats and vulnerabilities reveals further opportunities.

For example, older legacy systems may need SNMP or UDP services probed more intensely. Specific apps like Apache Tomcat need targeted checks for common misconfigurations. Modifying these policies requires nmap expertise – or consulting our services team!

Consolidated Reporting and Analysis

A major benefit of nmap automation is the ability to save scan results over time for trend analysis:

Notice how the automated nmap scans reveal new vulnerabilities being introduced over time as code changes. Such historical reporting is only possible through consistent scans.

The saved XML/JSON output can also be passed to other analysis tools like Nexpose, Metasploit, Burp etc. for further investigation based on nmap‘s findings.

Final Thoughts on Automated Nmap Leverage

Manually dealing with thousands of nmap arguments, scan optimization per target, analyzing gigabytes of text-based output, and constant security research is overwhelming for humans. This is exactly where tools like nmapAutomator shine by enabling realization of nmap‘s true potential.

We explored the immense power gains possible through intelligently automated network infrastructure visibility, recon, and vulnerability management powered by nmapAutomator. Go give it for a spin yourself and let us know if you have any other creative integrations or use cases we may have missed!