nmap - Saving Results

Different Formats

While we run various scans, we should always save the results. We can use these later to examine the differences between the different scanning methods we have used. Nmap can save the results in 3 different formats.

• Normal output (-oN) with the .nmap file extension

• Grepable output (-oG) with the .gnmap file extension

• XML output (-oX) with the .xml file extension

We can also specify the option (-oA) to save the results in all formats. The command could look like this:

$ sudo nmap 10.129.2.28 -p- -oA target

Scanning Options	Description
10.129.2.28	Scans the specified target.
-p-	Scans all ports.
-oA target	Saves the results in all formats, starting the name of each file with 'target'.

If no full path is given, the results will be stored in the directory we are currently in. Next, we look at the different formats Nmap has created for us.

Style sheets

With the XML output, we can easily create HTML reports that are easy to read, even for non-technical people. This is later very useful for documentation, as it presents our results in a detailed and clear way. To convert the stored results from XML format to HTML, we can use the tool xsltproc.

$ xsltproc target.xml -o target.html