Re: [Patch] Re: NMAP XML reports unreadable in linux

[Brandon Enright <bmenrigh () ucsd edu>]

On Thu, 2006-07-06 at 18:32 -0700, Fyodor wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 06, 2006 at 11:57:17AM +0200, Eddie Bell wrote:
> > Here is a patch against nmap-4.20ALPHA1 that adds a doctype to the xml
> > and adds the <distance> tag to the dtd. It now validates.
>
> Thanks.  Do you guys think it is important that we reference a DTD
> from the file?  Will it make more applications work with the XML
> output?  Or is it likely to cause more trouble than it is worth?

I always validate XML docs against a DTD but in general, it is totally
unnecessary.  I'd really like to see an option for adding the DOCTYPE
because I always do it manually or with a script.

The trouble with Nmap is that the XML output often evolves without the
necessary changes being made to the DTD.  Or as you pointed out, the DTD
may evolve without users updating to the latest release.  It's probably
better to leave the DOCTYPE out by default.

> I guess my concern is that it depends on the DTD existing in
> /usr/local/share/nmap/nmap.dtd , which is only true on the machine
> Nmap ran on.  And in fact even that isn't ture on Windows or even on
> UNIX if the --prefix is changed or the RPM version is installed.  Part
> of this could be fixed by using NMAP_DATA_DIR as is done for the
> stylesheet.  But that won't help for the "viewd on another machine"
> case.  For stylesheets, we offer the --stylesheet and --webxml to move
> them.  I suppose we could have --webxml also point to the DTD at
> http://www.insecure.org/nmap/data/nmap.dtd .  Though one issue is that
> the DTD there is always for the latest version of Nmap and may not
> match output produced by someone using an older version.  Still, it
> might be better than using a filesystem path even if --webxml isn't
> specified.  I don't really know enough about the different ways people
> uses these to really judge.
>
> What do you guys think would be best?
>
> Cheers,
> -F

Here's one compromise that comes to mind:  We add a new option, say,
--dtd.  By default the DOCTYPE is not printed in the XML results.  If
--dtd is specified, Nmap prints the DOCTYPE with
http://www.insecure.org/nmap/data/nmap.dtd.  The --dtd could also take
an optional argument to specify the path.  I'm not sure how much trouble
adding --dtd with an optional path would be but it seems like the best
option.

If this doesn't sound too objectionable I'd be happy to submit a patch
in a few days.

Brandon





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