Nmap Essentials : Harness the Power of Nmap, the Most Versatile Network Port Scanner on the Planet, to Secure Large Scale Networks

Nmap is an extremely powerful network port scanner used to identify hosts on a network. Nmap is free, flexible, powerful, and easy to implement, which makes it a very convenient utility. This book demonstrates how to run basic and advanced scans, optimizing them to perform well in a variety of environments. Starting with an overview of Nmap, the reader will be guided through installation on popular operating systems. The book then explains how to use Nmap to run basic and advanced scans in addition to using the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE). All this helps with optimizing Nmap performance in a variety of environments, eventually enabling the reader to integrate with other Nmap tools such as Nessus, Nikto, Burp Suite, and NSE versus NASL scanning. By the end of the book, the reader will have gained essential insights into network security analysis.

About This Book

• Learn about distributed indexing and real-time optimization to change index data on fly
• Index data from various sources and web crawlers using built-in analyzers and tokenizers
• This step-by-step guide is packed with real-life examples on indexing data

Who This Book Is For

This book is for developers who want to increase their experience of indexing in Solr by learning about the various index handlers, analyzers, and methods available in Solr. Beginner level Solr development skills are expected.

What You Will Learn

• Get to know the basic features of Solr indexing and the analyzers/tokenizers available
• Index XML/JSON data in Solr using the HTTP Post tool and cURL command
• Work with Data Import Handler to index data from a database
• Use Apache Tika with Solr to index word documents, PDFs, and much more
• Utilize Apache Nutch and Solr integration to index crawled data from web pages
• Update indexes in real-time data feeds
• Discover techniques to index multilanguage and distributed data in Solr
• Combine the various indexing techniques into a real-life working example of an online shopping web application

In Detail

Apache Solr is a widely used, open source enterprise search server that delivers powerful indexing and searching features. These features help fetch relevant information from various sources and documentation.

This fast-paced guide starts by helping you set up Solr. You'll quickly move on to indexing text and boosting the indexing time. Next, you'll focus on basic techniques for indexing a structured data source through Data Import Handler.

Moving on, you will learn techniques to perform real-time indexing and atomic updates. We'll help you set up a cluster of Solr servers that combine fault tolerance and high availability. You will also gain insights into working scenarios of different aspects of Solr and how to use Solr with e-commerce data. By the end of the book, you will be competent and confident working with indexing and will have a good knowledge base to efficiently program elements.

Cover 1 Copyright 3 Credits 4 About the Author 5 About the Reviewers 6 www.PacktPub.com 8 Table of Contents 10 Preface 14 Chapter 1: Introduction to Nmap 20 Nmap's humble beginnings 20 The many uses of Nmap 21 Installing Nmap 22 Building Nmap from source 23 Summary 24 Chapter 2: Network Fundamentals 26 The structure of the Internet 26 The OSI model 27 Port scanning 29 TCP and UDP 29 Service banners 30 Summary 32 Chapter 3: Nmap Basics 34 How to choose a target 34 Running a default scan 36 Service version scans 37 Logging scans 38 Specified scan ranges 40 Understanding the reason flag 40 Summary 42 Chapter 4: Advanced Nmap Scans 44 Host detection methods 44 Running a ping agnostic scan 46 Scanning UDP services 47 Special TCP scans 48 Operating system detection 50 Increasing verbosity in scans 51 Packet tracing 52 Summary 53 Chapter 5: Performance Optimization 54 Nmap timing optimization 54 Customized host group sizes 57 Increasing and decreasing parallelism 57 Dealing with stuck hosts 58 Delaying and increasing probe rates 60 Summary 61 Chapter 6: Introduction to the Nmap Scripting Engine 62 The history of the NSE 62 The inner working of the NSE 63 Finding Nmap scripts 65 Running Nmap scripts 67 Summary 70 Chapter 7: Writing Nmap Scripts 72 Anatomy of an Nmap script 72 Defining an Nmap script: script headers 73 Triggering functions: the rule 76 Defining a script's action 76 Summary 80 Chapter 8: Additional Nmap Tools 82 Attacking services with Ncrack 82 Host detection with Nping 85 File transfers and backdoors with Ncat 86 Comparing Nmap results with Ndiff 90 Summary 91 Chapter 9: Vulnerability Assessments and Tools 92 Conducting vulnerability scans with Nessus 92 Assessing web server issues with Nikto 96 Identifying sensitive web directories with DirBuster 98 Getting started with intercepting proxies 99 Summary 101 Chapter 10: Penetration Testing with Metasploit 102 Installing Metasploit 102 Scanning with Metasploit 106 Attacking services with Metasploit 108 What to learn next 109 Summary 110 Index 112 www.it-ebooks.info Key FeaturesBook DescriptionWhat you will learnLearn about the inner workings of networks and the importance of portsRun a basic or default scan to detect services using NmapRun an advanced scan with Nmap to designate different types of scansDeal with slow or sluggish networks to optimize timing, parallelism, and so on in order to complete scans efficientlyUnderstand the internal workings of the Nmap scripting engine to find and run specific Nmap scriptsCreate and run a basic Nmap script in Lua by learning Lua basics, Nmap scripting, and Nmap script submissionCrack passwords with Ncrack, map networks with Nping, and communicate over the network with NcatWho this book is forThis book is for beginners who wish to start using Nmap, who have experience as a system administrator or of network engineering, and who wish to get started with Nmap.