Nmap Announce mailing list archives
Npcap Celebrates its 10th Anniversary In Space!
From: Gordon Fyodor Lyon <fyodor () nmap org>
Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2023 15:27:40 -0700
Dear Nmap community, Last month we celebrated Nmap's 26th birthday and today I'm happy to share another big milestone: Our Npcap driver for capturing and sending raw packets on Windows turned 10 this year! From humble beginnings as a security and modernization patch for the discontinued WinPcap project, Npcap has become an indispensable component for both Nmap and Wireshark. And it's used by hundreds of other software products and companies as part of our Npcap OEM program (https://npcap.com/oem). That program sustains Npcap and bolsters Nmap as well. The applications of Npcap continue to surprise and inspire us. One standout moment was receiving a note from NASA detailing how they utilize Npcap in space! In brief, NASA operates two pivotal instruments on the ISS for monitoring X-ray transmissions: MAXI (Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image) performs broad sky surveys, whereas NICER (Neutron star Interior Composition ExploreR) can focus on individual neutron stars. Previously, when MAXI detected transient cosmic events, the data would make a time-consuming round trip to Earth, often causing NICER to miss the event's peak moments. Enter the aptly named OHMAN project (On-orbit Hookup of MAXI And NICER), which integrates the two telescopes. By employing Npcap to facilitate communication and by automating certain analyses, NICER can promptly investigate these cosmic anomalies. The new system was connected last year and it's working! NASA reports that last October 9, "Astronomers around the world [were] captivated by an unusually bright and long-lasting pulse of high-energy radiation that swept over Earth...The emission came from a gamma-ray burst (GRB) – the most powerful class of explosions in the universe." OHMAN provided an automated alert which allowed NICER to quickly focus in. According to NASA "The signal, originating from the direction of the constellation Sagitta, had traveled an estimated 1.9 billion years to reach Earth. Astronomers think it represents the birth cry of a new black hole, one that formed in the heart of a massive star collapsing under its own weight." NASA posted more great photos and details here: https://www.nasa.gov/universe/nasas-swift-fermi-missions-detect-exceptional-cosmic-blast/ My inner geek is almost as excited as when Trinity used Nmap in The Matrix :). So with that navel gazing out of the way, let's get to the release announcement! Though the last Npcap update shared here was Version 1.71 in September, we've been busy with six subsequent releases. They include many performance improvements, feature enhancements, and bug fixes that you can read about at https://npcap.com/changelog. As always, you can download the free version at https://npcap.com. Npcap is compatible with all Microsoft-supported Windows versions and architectures. Software developers can also access the latest Npcap SDK Version 1.13 there. Organizations wishing to redistribute Npcap or automate internal deployments with a silent installer can learn about Npcap OEM at https://npcap.com/oem. While Npcap has become hugely successful in its own right, we created it for Nmap and that is still our top focus. We are the Nmap Project, after all! And the next big Nmap announcement is coming soon. Sincerely, Gordon "Fyodor" Lyon _______________________________________________ Sent through the announce mailing list https://nmap.org/mailman/listinfo/announce Archived at https://seclists.org/nmap-announce/
Current thread:
- Npcap Celebrates its 10th Anniversary In Space! Gordon Fyodor Lyon (Oct 05)