Saving The Results

Nmap can save results in three 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

• All formats (-oA)

Lets look at each output format:

cat target.nmap

# Nmap 7.80 scan initiated Tue Jun 16 12:14:53 2020 as: nmap -p- -oA target 10.129.2.28
Nmap scan report for 10.129.2.28
Host is up (0.053s latency).
Not shown: 4 closed ports
PORT   STATE SERVICE
22/tcp open  ssh
25/tcp open  smtp
80/tcp open  http
MAC Address: DE:AD:00:00:BE:EF (Intel Corporate)

# Nmap done at Tue Jun 16 12:15:03 2020 -- 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 10.22 seconds

cat target.gnmap

# Nmap 7.80 scan initiated Tue Jun 16 12:14:53 2020 as: nmap -p- -oA target 10.129.2.28
Host: 10.129.2.28 ()	Status: Up
Host: 10.129.2.28 ()	Ports: 22/open/tcp//ssh///, 25/open/tcp//smtp///, 80/open/tcp//http///	Ignored State: closed (4)
# Nmap done at Tue Jun 16 12:14:53 2020 -- 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 10.22 seconds

cat target.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE nmaprun>
<?xml-stylesheet href="file:///usr/local/bin/../share/nmap/nmap.xsl" type="text/xsl"?>
<!-- Nmap 7.80 scan initiated Tue Jun 16 12:14:53 2020 as: nmap -p- -oA target 10.129.2.28 -->
<nmaprun scanner="nmap" args="nmap -p- -oA target 10.129.2.28" start="12145301719" startstr="Tue Jun 16 12:15:03 2020" version="7.80" xmloutputversion="1.04">
<scaninfo type="syn" protocol="tcp" numservices="65535" services="1-65535"/>
<verbose level="0"/>
<debugging level="0"/>
<host starttime="12145301719" endtime="12150323493"><status state="up" reason="arp-response" reason_ttl="0"/>
<address addr="10.129.2.28" addrtype="ipv4"/>
<address addr="DE:AD:00:00:BE:EF" addrtype="mac" vendor="Intel Corporate"/>
<hostnames>
</hostnames>
<ports><extraports state="closed" count="4">
<extrareasons reason="resets" count="4"/>
</extraports>
<port protocol="tcp" portid="22"><state state="open" reason="syn-ack" reason_ttl="64"/><service name="ssh" method="table" conf="3"/></port>
<port protocol="tcp" portid="25"><state state="open" reason="syn-ack" reason_ttl="64"/><service name="smtp" method="table" conf="3"/></port>
<port protocol="tcp" portid="80"><state state="open" reason="syn-ack" reason_ttl="64"/><service name="http" method="table" conf="3"/></port>
</ports>
<times srtt="52614" rttvar="75640" to="355174"/>
</host>
<runstats><finished time="12150323493" timestr="Tue Jun 16 12:14:53 2020" elapsed="10.22" summary="Nmap done at Tue Jun 16 12:15:03 2020; 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 10.22 seconds" exit="success"/><hosts up="1" down="0" total="1"/>
</runstats>
</nmaprun>

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

Looks gud