Nmap, also known as Network Mapper, is a free and open-source tool used for network discovery and security auditing. It is unique in the sense that it supports a large number of advanced techniques for mapping out networks, and it provides numerous possibilities in terms of exporting its results.
To export NMAP analysis results to CSV format, you can use the `-oX` option offered by Nmap. This option allows you to export your scan results to XML format. Once you have your data in XML format, you can then convert it to CSV format using scripting languages like Python, or through tools that are designed to transform XML into CSV, or even manually by using Excel or any other similar software like LibreOffice Calc or Google Sheets.
Here’s an example of how you can perform an Nmap scan and export the results to XML:
```
nmap -oX output.xml scanme.nmap.org
```
This command will initiate a scan against `scanme.nmap.org` as its target and will output the results to the `output.xml` file.
However, Nmap does not provide a direct feature to export the scan result into CSV format. To overcome this limitation, you can parse the XML with a Python script. Python’s xml.etree.ElementTree module allows you understand, access, and manipulate XML data efficiently.
Here’s an example of a Python script:
```
import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
import csv
tree = ET.parse(‘output.xml’)
root = tree.getroot()
csv_data = open(‘output.csv’, ‘w’)
csvwriter = csv.writer(csv_data)
count = 0
for member in root.findall(‘host’):
result = []
address = member.find(‘address’).attrib
result.append(address[‘addr’])
csvwriter.writerow(result)
csv_data.close()
```
This script will open the `output.xml` file, read the XML data, find all the data labeled as “host”, and write the corresponding address into the ‘output.csv’ file.
For a more extensive script and information, I suggest visiting the official Python documentation for xml.etree.ElementTree and searching for other scripts which suit best your needs on GitHub or StackOverflow.
Please note: It is important to take into account that running Nmap against any server without explicit permission from the administration team may lead to severe consequences, potentially breaking the law.
References:
1. “Nmap Reference Guide”, Nmap, https://nmap.org/book/output.html
2. “Python XML with ElementTree: Beginner’s Guide”, Python, https://docs.python.org/3/library/xml.etree.elementtree.html
