Nmap 6: Network Exploration and Security Auditing Cookbook is a 100 percent practical book that follows a cookbook's style. Each recipe focuses on a single task and contains command line examples, sample output, a detailed explanation, and additional tips that could come in handy.
Nmap's vast functionality is explored through nine chapters covering 100 different tasks for penetration testers and system administrators. Unlike Nmap's official book, this cookbook focuses on tasks that you can do with the Nmap Scripting Engine, without forgetting to cover the core functionality of Nmap.
There were many great NSE scripts I wish I had more space to include in this book and many more that will be created after its publication. Luis Martin Garcia recently posted an interesting video that shows how much Nmap has grown over the years at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rlF1MSAbXk. I invite you to register for the development mailing list and stay up-to-date with Nmap's latest features and NSE scripts.
I hope that you not only enjoy reading this cookbook, but also that, as you master the Nmap Scripting Engine, you come up with new ideas to create and contribute to this amazing project.
Finally, don't forget that you can send me your questions and I'll do my best to help you out.
Chapter 1, Nmap Fundamentals, covers the most common tasks performed with Nmap. Additionally, it briefly introduces Ndiff, Nping, and Zenmap.
Chapter 2, Network Exploration, covers host discovery techniques supported by Nmap, and other useful tricks with the Nmap Scripting Engine.
Chapter 3, Gathering Additional Host Information covers interesting information gathering tasks with Nmap and its scripting engine.
Chapter 4, Auditing Web Servers, covers tasks related to web security auditing.
Chapter 5, Auditing Databases, covers security auditing tasks for MongoDB, MySQL, MS SQL, and CouchDB databases.
Chapter 6, Auditing Mail Servers, covers tasks for IMAP, POP3, and SMTP servers.
Chapter 7, Scanning Large Networks, covers tasks that are useful when scanning large networks ranging from scan optimization to distributing scans among several clients.
Chapter 8, Generating Scan Reports, covers the output options supported by Nmap.
Chapter 9, Writing Your Own NSE Scripts, covers the fundamentals of NSE development. It includes specific examples for handling sockets, output, libraries, and parallelism.
Appendix, References, covers references and official documentation used throughout this book.