R-NMA
Nmap
Network scanner for discovering hosts, ports, and services in scope.
OVERVIEW
Nmap probes IP ranges and ports to work out which hosts are alive, which ports are open, and what service (with version) is listening on each one. It's almost always the first command run against a new network scope.
The NSE scripting engine extends that with hundreds of checks: known-vulnerability detection, SMB share enumeration, service banners, and more, all from the same binary.
USE CASES
Practical use cases
- 01
Discovering live hosts across a network range before touching anything else.
- 02
Enumerating ports and service versions to prioritize targets.
- 03
Detecting known vulnerabilities and misconfigs via NSE scripts.
- 04
Building a repeatable network inventory to diff across engagement checkpoints.
QUICK START
First pass on the agreed scope — what is alive and what it exposes — before deeper enumeration.
- Confirm the IP range is inside the authorized scope.
- Run a fast host-discovery pass across the whole range.
- Against the live hosts, run a version scan with default scripts.
- Review the output and decide which services deserve deeper enumeration.
root@itspentest:~# nmap -sV -sC -oA scan_results 10.10.10.0/24BEFORE YOU RUN IT
What to check before running it
It's noisy: any decent IDS/IPS will flag it, so tune timing (-T) to the agreed stealth profile.
Aggressive version detection can hang fragile services on older production infrastructure.
Always save output in multiple formats (-oA) so the report has reproducible evidence.