PROBLEM DESCRIPTION

There a wealth of options in NMAP and the on problem is that most of
the time regular user is faced with:

    $ nmap -sU host
    You requested a scan type which requires r00t privileges, and you do not have them.

By reading the manual page, it is not crustal clear and easy to find what
exact options can only be user by privileged users and which can be be
used by all users. There are bits and pieces like:

      -sS    TCP SYN scan: This technique is often referred to as "half-open"
             scanning, because you don't open a full TCP connection. You send
             ...
	     This is the default scan type for privileged users.

       -sT    TCP connect() scan: This is the most basic form of TCP scanning.
              The connect() system call provided by your operating  system  is
	      ...<tens of lines after>....
	      This is the default scan type for unprivileged users.

And this does not mention the issue at all (need 'root' btw):

       -sU    UDP scans: This method is used  to  determine  which  UDP  (User
              Datagram Protocol, RFC 768) ports are open on a host.  The tech-

SOLUTION SUGGESTION

It would greatly help reading the manual if the need for privileves
would be mentiones at the beginning of option description. To the reader,
that is searching for usable options, this is the primary information that
should stike to the eye at a glance.

A simple notation like this could help a great deal:

      -sS    [priviledged user] TCP SYN scan: This technique is often
	     referred to as "half-open"
	     ...
      -sT    [priviledged user] TCP connect() scan: This is the most
	     basic form of TCP scanning
	     ...
       -sU   [priviledged user] UDP scans: This method is used
	     to  determine  which  UDP  (User
	     ...

There would be no need to mention non-privileged user if it were
explained that all options that have NOT been marked as privileged
are free for all users to activate.

tags 322137 + patch
thanks

patch to rewrite option section to mention privileged users/normal user

Thank you for the patch, but there are a couple concerns:

o This patch adds a "[privileged user]" tag to the docs for some
  operations, but there are other options which require privileges
  as well.  Plus, at least one of the options you add this tag
  to (-sT) does not actually require privileges.

o The nroff man page is automatically generated.  We only make
  changes to the source Docbook XML
  file (http://nmap.org/svn/docs/refguide.xml)

Thanks,
Fyodor

 El 23/12/10 05:35, Fyodor escribió:

On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 05:13:20PM -0500, Daniel Echeverry wrote:

 tags 322137 + patch
thanks

patch to rewrite option section to mention privileged users/normal user

 Thank you for the patch, but there are a couple concerns:

o This patch adds a "[privileged user]" tag to the docs for some
  operations, but there are other options which require privileges
  as well.  Plus, at least one of the options you add this tag
  to (-sT) does not actually require privileges.

 Hi.

if you wish, I could add the tag "[privileged user]" to the options also
require root privileges. What are the other options?

 o The nroff man page is automatically generated.  We only make
  changes to the source Docbook XML
  file (http://nmap.org/svn/docs/refguide.xml)


No problem, makes the patch file refguide.xml

Thanks,
Fyodor

Hi,

Patch for refguide.xml
Thanks!

Hello, I'm doing bug triage of nmap and I would like to address this issue.

It would be great if nmap docs were more clarifying as to when root is
needed.

I saw the patches but I don't think we should do it on Debian side, it
would be better if somebody could submit a PR to nmap on Github[0], that
way it benefits the upstream and everyone who uses nmap (on any distros).

If anybody is interested on it, please submit upstream.

I might create an issue upstream if there's no movement here so they can
track this issue, and it can also increase the chances of them receiving
contributions.

Thanks,

[0]https://github.com/nmap/nmap

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