Book Image

Nmap Network Exploration and Security Auditing Cookbook, Third Edition - Third Edition

By : Paulino Calderon
Book Image

Nmap Network Exploration and Security Auditing Cookbook, Third Edition - Third Edition

By: Paulino Calderon

Overview of this book

Nmap is one of the most powerful tools for network discovery and security auditing used by millions of IT professionals, from system administrators to cybersecurity specialists. This third edition of the Nmap: Network Exploration and Security Auditing Cookbook introduces Nmap and its family - Ncat, Ncrack, Ndiff, Zenmap, and the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE) - and guides you through numerous tasks that are relevant to security engineers in today’s technology ecosystems. The book discusses some of the most common and useful tasks for scanning hosts, networks, applications, mainframes, Unix and Windows environments, and ICS/SCADA systems. Advanced Nmap users can benefit from this book by exploring the hidden functionalities within Nmap and its scripts as well as advanced workflows and configurations to fine-tune their scans. Seasoned users will find new applications and third-party tools that can help them manage scans and even start developing their own NSE scripts. Practical examples featured in a cookbook format make this book perfect for quickly remembering Nmap options, scripts and arguments, and more. By the end of this Nmap book, you will be able to successfully scan numerous hosts, exploit vulnerable areas, and gather valuable information.
Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Appendix A: HTTP, HTTP Pipelining, and Web Crawling Configuration Options
Appendix Β: Brute-Force Password Auditing Options
Appendix F: References and Additional Reading

Finding root accounts with an empty password in MySQL servers

New system administrators, auto-installed software, and distracted users often make the mistake of leaving the root account of a MySQL server with no password. This is a blatant security vulnerability that could be exploited by attackers. Penetration testers and system administrators need to detect these vulnerable installations before a real attacker does.

This recipe will show you how to use Nmap to check for empty root passwords in MySQL servers.

How to do it...

Open a terminal and enter the following command:

$ nmap -p3306 --script mysql-empty-password <target>

If the root or anonymous accounts have an empty password, it will be shown in the script results:

| mysql-empty-password:
|_    root account has empty password

How it works...

The -p3306 --script mysql-empty-password options make Nmap launch the mysql-empty-password NSE script if a MySQL server is found running...