Three and a half years after the release of version 6, the developers of the Nmap Security Scanner announced this week the availability of Nmap 7.0.0.
Nmap, short for Network Mapper, is a free and open source tool designed for network discovery and security auditing. The utility, available for all major operating systems, can be highly useful for identifying malware-infected, unauthorized, and vulnerable devices on a network.
According to the Nmap Project, Nmap 7 is the result of almost 3,200 code commits and brings several significant improvements compared to previous versions.
One of the most important enhancements is related to the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE), which allows users to create scripts designed to automate networking tasks. More than 170 new scripts have been added since the release of version 6, bringing the total count to 515.
Nmap 7 also brings faster scans, improved IPv6 support, faster and better SSL/TLS-related scans, and an updated version of the Ncat utility.
Nmap Security Scanner 7 can be used on Microsoft’s latest operating system, Windows 10, but it also works on older versions, such as Vista and even XP, although the developers recommend against the outdated OS. In the case of Mac operating systems, Nmap runs on OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion through 10.11 El Capitan. Support for IBM’s AIX and Oracle’s Solaris UNIX operating systems has also been updated.
The Nmap Project says it has also made some improvements to its infrastructure to ensure that it can handle a growing user base. The official website, nmap.org, has been moved to HTTPS, and an official bug tracker has been launched on GitHub.
In total, 330 significant improvements have been made to the scanner since the last major release.
The release of Nmap 7 comes shortly after the developers of Wireshark, the popular network protocol analyzed used by many security researchers, announced the availability of version 2.0.
Wireshark 2.0 comes with a new user interface for enhanced user experience, new and updated features, API changes, and many bug fixes.