---
description: A basic introduction.
---

# nmap

### What is nmap?

nmap is a scanning tool that can scan ports and IPs for vulnerabilities. The most basic nmap scan is&#x20;

`nmap [ip]`. This will scan a given IP or IP range and give you basic info on the open ports. For example, here is the scan results, from scanning my machine.&#x20;

```
$ kali@kali:~/Downloads$ nmap 192.168.202.131
Starting Nmap 7.70 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2020-08-19 21:25 UTC
Nmap scan report for 192.168.202.131
Host is up (0.000068s latency).
Not shown: 998 closed ports
PORT   STATE SERVICE
22/tcp open  ssh
80/tcp open  http

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.07 seconds
```

{% hint style="info" %}
This only scans the 1000 most popular ports. To scan every single port, use -p- after the IP.
{% endhint %}

### nmap timing



An nmap scan has 6 options for timing. These are:



* **(0)Paranoid, 5 minutes between packet, scans serially**
* **(1)Sneaky, 15 seconds between packets, scans serially**
* **(2)Polite, 0.4 seconds between packets, scans serially**
* **(3)Normal, default timing, designed to not overwhelm network or miss targets/ports, scans in parallel**
* **(4)Aggressive, waits 1.25 seconds for probe response, scans in parallel**
* **(5)Insane, spends up to 15 minutes per host but if it takes longer, it will move onto the next host, waits 0.3 seconds for probe response and scans in parallel**

To use this command, just add `-T[number from 0-5]` to the end of your command. The default is 3, however at the cost of possibly missing some ports, you can bump this up to a 5.

For example, here is a -T5 scan of every TCP port on my machine:

```
kali@kali:~/Downloads$ nmap 192.168.202.131 -p- -T5
Starting Nmap 7.70 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2020-08-19 21:32 UTC
Nmap scan report for 192.168.202.131
Host is up (0.000041s latency).
Not shown: 65532 closed ports
PORT     STATE SERVICE
22/tcp   open  ssh
80/tcp   open  http
8834/tcp open  nessus-xmlrpc

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 1.53 seconds

```

As you can see, the scan went incredibly quick!&#x20;



###
