Yes, NMAP (Network Mapper) does indeed have the capability to keep logs. This open-source network scanning tool is widely used by cybersecurity professionals and network administrators to discover hosts and services on a computer network, building a “map” of the network. It performs this function by sending packets and analyzing the response. The primary purpose of NMAP is to scan large networks, but it also works for single hosts. NMAP can provide results in several formats, some of which can be considered as logs.
One of the most commonly used logging options in NMAP is the use of ‘normal’ output, which provides a detailed and human-readable log of the scan’s results and is often saved to a text file for future reference or analysis. This output includes information such as the IP addresses scanned, the protocols and ports that are open on each address, the host names, and more.
Moreover, NMAP also provides ‘XML’ output which is more structured and contains even more details than the normal output. The XML output file can be utilized by other programs to further analyze the scan results. For instance, the NMAP graphical interface Zenmap relies on this XML output to create a visual network map. The XML output can also be converted to HTML for easy viewing in a web browser.
In addition to the above, NMAP offers ‘grepable’ output, which provides a less detailed but easier-to-parse format than the XML. It prints each host on one line with its scan results, in a format designed to be easy to manipulate with Unix text manipulation utilities like grep, awk, cut, sed, diff, etc. This can be very useful for administrators trying to compare results from different scans to identify changes.
Lastly, the ‘script kiddie’ output, a humorous name derived from slang, provides a machine-readable but less detailed format in comparison to the XML.
For most of these features, detailed documentation can be found within the NMAP Man Page (https://nmap.org/book/man.html), which is provided by the developers of NMAP.
However, it’s important to note that NMAP doesn’t automatically save logs. The user must specify a log format and destination file at the command line when running a scan. If no such output format is specified, NMAP only displays its results on the screen and does not save them anywhere.
In conclusion, NMAP is a versatile network scanning tool that provides several methods for detailed logging and analysis. These options greatly augment the functionality of NMAP and make it a powerful aid to network administrators and cybersecurity professionals.
