It is common with Nmap to want to run the same scan repeatedly. For
example, a system administrator may run a scan of an entire network
once a month to keep track of things.
Zenmap's mechanism for facilitating this is called profiles.
Each window contains a combo box labeled
“Profile”. Opening it shows what profiles are
available. Selecting a profile will cause the
“Command” field to display the command line that
will be executed. The profiles that come with Zenmap are sufficient
for many scanning purposes, but sooner or later you will want to
create your own.
The commands for working with profiles are under the
“Profile” menu. To create a new profile, select
“New Profile” from the
“Profile” menu or use the
ctrl+P
keyboard shortcut. You will see a dialog like Figure 12.10.
The profile editor starts by displaying a tab called
“Profile” which asks for the new
profile's name and description. The
“Profile name” field is how the scan will be
identified in the drop-down combo box in the scan interface. The text in
the “Description” field is a description of the
purpose of the profile.
The rest of the tabs allow you to specify Nmap options, either by
typing them directly in the “Command” field or by clicking on
the checkboxes. Hover the mouse pointer over an
option to get a description of what the option does and what kind of
input it expects.
A profile may or may not include scan targets. If you often run the
same scan against the same set of targets, you will find it
convenient to list the targets within the profile. If you plan to
run the same scan against different targets, leave the
“Targets” field blank, and fill in the targets
later, when you run the scan.
To edit a profile, select the profile you want to edit, then choose
“Edit Selected Profile” from the
“Profile” menu or use the
ctrl+E
keyboard shortcut. The profile editor will open, this time with the
name and description filled from the profile selected. Making a
change to the profile here will modify the profile permanently.
To delete a profile, click the “Delete” button
within the profile editor after opening the profile you want to
delete as if to edit it. Zenmap will present a warning before
deleting the profile. To leave the editor without modifying the
profile, use the “Cancel” button.
Deriving a New Profile from an Old One
To create a new profile using another profile as a template, select
the template profile, then select “New
Profile with Selected” from the
“Profile” menu or use the
ctrl+R
keyboard shortcut. This will set all the options based on the
selected profile while leaving the name and description blank for you to
fill in. Any changes made to the options will affect only the newly
created profile, not the original profile from which it was derived.
To leave the editor without creating the derived profile, use the
“Cancel” button.
Intro
