Re: Java API for NMap

[David Fifield <david () bamsoftware com>]

On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 10:39:09PM -0600, Jon Svede wrote:
> I recently left a job where I had to integrate NMap into a Java based  
> product.  I was disappointed that no such API existed already, even  
> though I have seen postings going back a while asking over and over if  
> any such API existed.
>
> Therefore, I am thinking about writing an open source library as a  
> wrapper around NMap to simplify integrating NMap with Java applications.  
>  As such I am looking for suggestions and features people might like to 
> see in such an API.
>
> Currently, here is the list of features I am thinking about:
>
> - Provide a wrapper implementation around NMap in Java
> - Execution of NMap both synchronously and asynchronously (from the Java 
> side)
> - Parsing NMap output (XML format) both inline or just the XML (i.e.,  
> the ability to parse historical data)
> - Persistence of NMap data to relational database
>
> In my previous role,  we were running NMap simply to do host and service 
> discovery (more or less like nmap -sV -O -p ,etc) , so my desired feature 
> set is probably heavily geared toward that.  However, I recognize that 
> there are other ways of using NMap that other Java based applications and 
> products would want, so before I code too much I'd appreciate suggestions 
> on what would be useful.
>
> I won't necessarily guarantee that all the suggestions will be  
> incorporated, but none the less I'd like to get some outside ideas on  
> what would be useful to others.
>
> Thanks in advance for any tips or suggestions you can offer.

I recommend looking at the APIs of the Perl and Ruby interfaces to Nmap.
These have already been tested by some real-world use.

http://nmap.org/book/output-formats-xml-with-perl.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/nmap-scanner/
http://anthonypersaud.com/category/nmap-parser/
http://rubynmap.sourceforge.net/

David Fifield
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