Nmap Development mailing list archives
Fwd: Nmap Book - Comments
From: Tom Sellers <nmap () fadedcode net>
Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 13:52:34 -0500
Just noticed that I sent this to Fyodor, but not to the list. I have attached a few comments and suggestions for the book below. I did not adopt a chapter because did not want someone more knowledgeable than I to skip a chapter thinking that it had already been taken care of. Some of the comments are pretty trivial while others are not. ****************************************************************** Chapter 2. Obtaining, Compiling, Installing, and Removing Nmap http://nmap.org/book/install.html 3rd line of section "Testing Whether Nmap is Already Installed" ... try executing the command nmap --version. This instructs the reader to use a program argument that is not in the usage output from the command line. Also, the pages that discuss how to deal with misidentified services and hosts and removing Nmap instruct the reader to use nmap -V. Perhaps the entry in this page and the images on this page should be changed to use nmap -V for consistency. ****************************************************************** Chapter 2. Obtaining, Compiling, Installing, and Removing Nmap Windows http://nmap.org/book/inst-windows.html Second bullet: Nmap only supports ethernet interfaces (including many 802.11 wireless cards) unless you use the -sT -PN options. RAS connections (such as PPP dialups) are not supported. This support was dropped when Microsoft removed raw TCP/IP socket support in Windows XP SP2. Now Nmap must send lower-level ethernet frames instead. I don't know if it is worth mentioning in this section, but Nmap does work over Cisco's VPN client in both wired and wireless environment. ****************************************************************** Chapter 2. Obtaining, Compiling, Installing, and Removing Nmap OpenBSD Binary Packages and Source Ports Instructions http://nmap.org/book/inst-bsd.html Section: Installation using the source ports tree Step 1. ....via CVS using instructions at http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq8.html#CVS. I could not find the information about updating ports via CVS at the anchor specified or page specified. I think this information has been moved here: http://www.openbsd.org/anoncvs.html#using The URL above was found on the FAQ 15 page here: http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq15.html#PortsFetch ****************************************************************** Chapter 2. Obtaining, Compiling, Installing, and Removing Nmap Executing Nmap on Windows http://nmap.org/book/inst-windows.html Pathing in Figure 2.1 does not match text. Image indicates E:\nmap while text uses C:\Program Files\Nmap ****************************************************************** Chapter 7. Service and Application Version Detection Usage and Examples http://nmap.org/book/vscan-examples.html Bottom of the page, below Example 7.3: ... column is empty. determine the service name via its probing, but was not able to determine anything else. Perhaps this should be: ... column is empty. Nmap was able to determine the service name via its probing, but was not able to determine anything else. ****************************************************************** Chapter 8. Remote OS Detection Fingerprinting Methods Avoided by Nmap http://nmap.org/book/osdetect-other-methods.html Bottom of the page, 5th line from the bottom of the main text: ... OS detection resultds discovered ... Perhaps this should be: ... OS detection results discovered ... ****************************************************************** Chapter 13. Nmap Output Formats Output formats supported by Nmap http://nmap.org/book/output-formats-commandline-flags.html Section: Normal output (-oN) You may want to indicate that this output file format also captures debugging output generated by the -d argument. If you decide this is appropriate, you may also want to mention it here as well: http://nmap.org/book/output-formats-normal-output.html ****************************************************************** Chapter 13. Nmap Output Formats Output formats supported by Nmap http://nmap.org/book/output-formats-commandline-flags.html In 4.51 beta Kris added support for adding symbolic placeholders in names so that dates and times could be dynamically added to output file names. Here is the change log entry: 4.51BETA [2007-12-21] ... o Nmap's output options (-oA, -oX, etc.) now support strftime()-like conversions in the filename. %H, %M, %S, %m, %d, %y, and %Y are all the same as in strftime(). %T is the same as %H%M%S, %R is the same as %H%M, and %D is the same as %m%d%y. A % followed by any other character just yields that character (%% yields a %). This means that "-oX 'scan-%T-%D.xml'" uses an XML file in the form of "scan-144840-121307.xml". [Kris This change is not included in Nmap's usage output or in any of the reference documentation that I am aware of. If this is intended to be a supported feature, would your book be a good time to include documentation? If so, the man section of the book would probably need to include this information as well. ****************************************************************** Chapter 15. Nmap Reference Guide Bugs http://nmap.org/book/man-bugs.html 3rd line down: ... Try searching for the error message on our search page at ??? or at Google. 8th line down: ... and get through more quickly. Subscribe at ???. These appear to be references that were meant to be populated later. Perhaps the first entry should be modified so that the ??? are replaced with "http://insecure.org/search.html" Perhaps the second entry should be modified so that the ??? are replaced with "http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-dev" ****************************************************************** Thanks, Tom _______________________________________________ Sent through the nmap-dev mailing list http://cgi.insecure.org/mailman/listinfo/nmap-dev Archived at http://SecLists.Org
Current thread:
- Fwd: Nmap Book - Comments Tom Sellers (Jul 13)
- Re: Fwd: Nmap Book - Comments Kris Katterjohn (Jul 13)