Luca Stivali : 1 November 2025 08:48
In 2025, port scanning remains a key activity for both Red Teams (reconnaissance, discovery, fingerprinting) and Blue Teams (monitoring and proactive defense). But the latest development is the arrival of Large Language Models (LLMs), integrated directly into the technical workflow.
One of the most interesting examples is LLM-Tools-Nmap , presented by Hackers Arise , which allows you to drive Nmap via natural language instructions .
In practice, the template translates the request (“scan the most common web ports on this /24 at a moderate speed and output to XML”) into a correct and safe Nmap command, including timing options, NSE scripts, and scan limits.
Kali Linux 2025.3 already includes llm as an optional package, and the LLM-Tools-Nmap plugin is available on GitHub for manual or automatic integration.
The goal is to reduce syntax errors, speed up testing, and enable AI to assist operators in generating, validating, and interpreting results. It’s a powerful concept, but one that requires—as always— human oversight and clear policies .
Nmap remains the de-facto standard for port scanning.
Its documentation, the predictability of the options’ behavior ( -sS , -sV , -O , -T3 ), and the ability to use dedicated NSE scripts make this tool a must-have.
Knowing the Nmap cheatsheet is essential for understanding what’s really happening on the wire, diagnosing false negatives, managing firewalls and IDS, and building repeatable baselines.
Cheatsheet Benefits:
AI, and in particular LLM-Tools-Nmap, works as an intelligent co-pilot :
It interprets complex commands, generates pipelines (masscan → nmap → parsing → reporting), prepares parsing scripts (jq, Python), and even transforms XML output into readable reports.
It can tailor its scanning strategy to the results (for example, only run --script=http-enum if it finds a web server) and provide useful summaries for SOCs.
Limitations and risks:
AI Prompt (safe):
“Generate an Nmap command for TCP discovery on ports 1–1024 on
lab.example.local, timing moderate, max-retries 2, host-timeout 5m, XML output. Please also provide a less intrusive version.”
Expected output:
nmap -sS -p 1-1024 -T3 --max-retries 2 --host-timeout 5m -oX scan_lab.xml lab.example.local
# less invasive alternative:
nmap -sT -p 22,80,443 -T2 --open -oX scan_lab_small.xml lab.example.local
-sS SYN scan (stealth)-sT TCP connect (non-privileged)-sV Version detection-O OS detection-T0..T5 Aggressive/slow timing-oX , -oN , -oG , -oA--script=banner , --script=http-enum , --script=vuln--max-retries , --host-timeout , --scan-delay The Nmap cheatsheet remains the foundation for every security practitioner.
AI and tools like LLM-Tools-Nmap are a great extension: they speed up, simplify, and aid analysis. But they’re no substitute for experience and responsibility.
The best approach is a hybrid: manual mastery + AI assistance, under well-defined policies.
Luca Stivali