Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 19:28:38 -0700 (PDT)
From: Fyodor <fyodor@insecure.org>
To: lwn@lwn.net
Subject: Nmap Release



April 28, 2000 (4:15 AM PDT) -- Insecure.Org is pleased to announce
the immediate, free availability of the Nmap Security Scanner version
2.50 from http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ .

ABOUT NMAP:

Nmap is a utility for network exploration or security auditing. It
supports ping scanning (determine which hosts are up), many port
scanning techniques (determine what services the hosts are offering),
and TCP/IP fingerprinting (remote host operating system
identification). Nmap also offers flexible target and port
specification, decoy scanning, determination of TCP sequence
predictability characteristics, sunRPC scanning, reverse-identd
scanning, and more.  Console and X-Window versions are available.

Nmap has been named "Security Product of the Year" by Info World and
Codetalker Digest.  It has also been praised by Network World, Wired,
2600, Computer World, SANS, the CIO Institute Bulletin, and Phrack.
It is currently the 13th most popular download (out of 9,000+) on the
Freshmeat.Net software index .

CHANGES:

Version 2.50 is the first "stable" release since 2.12 (April '99), and
we recommend that all current users upgrade.  Improvements from more
than 20 public beta releases have gone into this version.

Here is a list of the most important advantages of Nmap 2.50 over 2.12:

== The NmapFE graphical X-Window (GTK+) front end by Zach Smith (now
   maintained by Fyodor) is included.  A KDE front end by Ian Zepp is
   available at http://www.edotorg.org/kde/kmap/

== Nmap now contains almost 500 contributed TCP/IP fingerprints for
   remote operating system detection (see
   http://www.insecure.org/nmap/nmap-fingerprinting-article.html )

== Added direct (bypasses portmapper) SunRPC scanning to determine
   what RPC program is listening on a particular TCP or UDP port.
   Almost 200 RPC services are supported.

== Added sophisticated timing controls to give the user much more
   control over Nmap's speed and timeouts.  Users can specify canned
   modes ( like "polite" or "aggressive") or manipulate individual
   timing parameters directly.

== Added ACK scanning and Window scanning for stealthy scanning of
   heavily firewalled hosts.

== Portability fixes: V. 2.50 is well supported on Linux (X86, Sparc,
   Alpha, PowerPC, and Merced/Itanium), Free/Net/OpenBSD, and Solaris.
   It has been reported to work on many other UNIX systems.

== New resume option allows scans to be stopped and continued later

== Many speed optimizations, especially with regard to scanning hosts
   behind restrictive packet filters and firewalls.

== Interactive mode enhances privacy and can add convenience

== Numerous improvements to machine parseable & human readable output

== New options allow host scan order randomization, logfile appending,
   random target host selection, script kiddie output, etc.

== Dozens of bug fixes and helpful tweaks.

DOWNLOAD INFO:

Nmap is available for download from http://www.insecure.org/nmap or
ftp://server51.freshmeat.net/pub/nmap in source or binary (Linux RPM)
form.  It is Free software covered by the GNU Public License.

Linux/X86 users w/rpm can install/upgrade Nmap in seconds as follows:

rpm -vhU (nmap url)
where (nmap url) is one (or both) of these:
ftp://ftp.server51.freshmeat.net/pub/nmap/nmap-2.50-1.i386.rpm
ftp://ftp.server51.freshmeat.net/pub/nmap/nmap-frontend-0.2.50-1.i386.rpm

Direct Questions or comments to fyodor@insecure.org .

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

We would like to acknowledge and thank the many people who contributed
ideas and/or code to this release.  Special thanks go to Zach Smith,
David O'Brien, van Hauser, Lamont Granquist, Lance Spitzner, Bifrost,
H D Moore, Renaud Deraison, Ben Laurie, Mark Abene, Matthew Franz,
Solar Designer, Ken Williams, Max Vision, Bdale Garbee, Stany, Jan
Koum, Bill Beers, Mipam, Tobias Nijweide, LaMont Jones, Thomas Reinke,
Jonathan Fine, Erik Benner, Jean-Yves Simon, Peter Marschall, Andrew
Brown, Alek Komarnitsky, Ajay Gupta2, Bennett Feitell, Phil
Stracchino, Marc Renner, Sami Farin, Dries Schellekens, Uros Prestor,
J.D.K. Chipps, Arve Kjoelen, Ralf Hildebrandt, Sven Carstens, Sergei
V. Rousakov, Peter Kosinar, Matt@use.net, K. Scott Rowe, Bifrost,
Matthieu Verbert, LaMont Jones, Vik Bajaj, Renaud Deraison, Stefan
Erben, Alexander Savelyev, Mark Smith, Charles M. Hannum, Savva
Uspensky, and Bill Fenner .

And of course we would also like to thank the thousands of people who
have submitted OS fingerprints and all the people who have found and
reported bugs and suggested features.

For further information, see http://www.insecure.org/nmap/