[sf-lug] Cool little security check

[aaronco36]

maestro <maestro415 at gmail.com> wrote at [01]:

> Next, go to www.grc.com and click on ShieldsUp, next screen scroll down 
> to Hot Spots, and click on ShieldsUp again, next screen click on
> Proceed, next screen click on All Service Ports and let it check the
> ports, gives an ok result, the ports are neon green,

The ShieldsUp Wikipedia writeup of [02] describes it as such:
~~~~~~~~~~ quoting ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ShieldsUp is an online port scanning service created by Steve Gibson of 
Gibson Research Corporation and hosted at grc.com. The purpose of this 
utility is to alert the users of any ports that have been opened through 
their firewalls or through their NAT routers. The utility can scan the 
most common file sharing ports, as well as all service ports (1-1056), and 
user defined ports, in sets of 64.
It is often recommended for checking port vulnerabilities.

The scanning servers have the static IP addresses of 4.79.142.192 to 
4.79.142.207.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Instead of using this ShieldsUp security check on one's own machine, IMHO, 
you might also want to seriously consider getting more up-to-speed with 
the Nmap Network exploration tool and security / port scanner. One of its 
online manpages is here [03], although if you've already installed Nmap, 
you can read its manpage directly from the terminal/commandline. I somehow 
gather from the previous posting of reference [04], that you (maestro) are 
interested in using Arch-based distros such as Arch/Arch32 itself and 
Manjaro Linux. In that case, you could also check out the Arch User 
Repository (AUR) description of nmap-svn at [05] and check out the 
ArchWiki's description of Nmap at [06].

The Nmap project site is at [07], its overall Documentation site is at 
[08], and Chapter 15 of the Nmap Reference Guide [09] has the following 
*very* relevant sections:
- Options Summary
- Target Specification
- Host Discovery
- Port Scanning Basics
- Port Scanning Techniques
- Port Specification and Scan Order
- Service and Version Detection
- OS Detection
- Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE)
- Timing and Performance
- Firewall/IDS Evasion and Spoofing
- Output
- Miscellaneous Options
- Runtime Interaction
- Examples

Sure, there *is* a learning-curve for effectively using Nmap to port-scan 
one's own machine as compared to using ShieldsUp for the same!

For beginners who would rather start off using a GUI version of Nmap, the 
Nmap project also includes and describes 'Zenmap' - "the official Nmap 
Security Scanner GUI" [10]. The Nmap project's Zenmap Reference Guide (Man 
Page) is at [11] and the less "manpagey" Chapter 12 Zenmap GUI Users' 
Guide is at [12].

Resources for using Nmap at the terminal/commandline are *at least* the 
Nmap Cheat Sheet [13](this back-references [08]), nixCraft's 'Top 32 Nmap 
Command Examples For Linux Sys/Network Admins' [14], and the various 
YouTube tutorials for learning+doing "nmap port scanning" [15] (IMNSHO, 
YMMV _quite_ _widely_ using these YT videos!)

These are just an admittedly-few references on perhaps using Nmap/Zenmap 
instead of ShieldsUp on one's own machine.  As always, the additional 
feedback, suggestions, and other expert comments on this from Rick M 
(e.g., from [16]), Michael P, Akkana P, Jim S, and others reading this are 
all very much appreciated and welcome :-)

-A

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References
=============================
[01]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2018q3/013386.html
[02]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ShieldsUp
[03]https://linux.die.net/man/1/nmap
[04]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2018q3/013373.html
[05]https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/nmap-svn/
[06]https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nmap
[07]https://nmap.org/
[08]https://nmap.org/docs.html
[09]https://nmap.org/book/man.html
[10]https://nmap.org/zenmap/
[11]https://nmap.org/zenmap/man.html
[12]https://nmap.org/book/zenmap.html
[13]https://hackertarget.com/nmap-cheatsheet-a-quick-reference-guide/
[14]https://www.cyberciti.biz/security/nmap-command-examples-tutorials/
[15]https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=nmap+port+scanning+
[16]http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/sf-lug/2018q3/013391.html
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aaronco36 at sdf.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.org