Begin Zenmap by typing zenmap in a terminal or by
clicking the Zenmap icon in the desktop environment. The main window,
as shown in Figure 12.2, “Zenmap’s main window”, is displayed.
One of Zenmap’s goals is to make security scanning easy for
beginners and for experts. Running a scan is as simple as typing the
target in the “Target” field, selecting the
“Intense Scan” profile, and clicking the
“Scan” button. This is shown in Figure 12.3, “Target and profile selection”
While a scan is running and after it is finished the output of the
Nmap command is shown on the screen.
Any number of targets, separated by spaces, may be entered in the
target field. All the target specifications supported by Nmap are also
supported by Zenmap, so things like 192.168.0.0/24
and 10.0.0-5.*
work. The targets scanned most
recently are remembered. To re-scan a host, select the host from the
combo box attached to the “Target” text field.
The “Intense Scan” is just one of several scan profiles
that come with Zenmap. Choose a profile by selecting it from the
“Profile” combo box. Profiles exist for several
common scans. After selecting a profile the Nmap command line
associated with it is displayed on the screen. Of course, it is
possible to edit these profiles or create new ones. This is covered
in the section called “The profile editor”
It is also possible to type in an Nmap command and have it executed
without using a profile. Just type in the command and press return or
click “Scan”. The user interface for specifying
a custom scan from a command line is currently a bit touchy. After
typing a custom command, be careful not to accidentally select
another target or profile because doing so will wipe out the current
command.
More than one scan may be displayed at the same time. It is even
possible to have several scans running concurrently. Zenmap gives
support for this through its scan tabs. An
example of scan tabs showing three scans is shown in
Figure 12.4, “Scan tabs”
To open a new scan tab, choose “New Scan”
from under the “Scan” menu or use the
ctrl+T
keyboard shortcut. To close a scan tab, choose
“Close Scan” from the
“Scan” menu, type
ctrl+W, or
click the close icon on the tab itself. You will be prompted to save
any unsaved results before closing.
To halt a scan in progress, enter new parameters and click the
“Scan” button again, or close the scan tab. This
unfortunately has the side effect of discarding any output shown in
the scan so far.