ProRT-IP vs Nmap

Comprehensive technical comparison between ProRT-IP and Nmap, the industry-standard network scanner with 25+ years of development and unmatched feature depth.

Executive Summary

Nmap dominates as the industry standard with 600+ NSE scripts, 7,319 service signatures, 2,982 OS fingerprints, and two decades of field testing. Released in 1997 by Gordon Lyon (Fyodor), Nmap has evolved from a simple port scanner into a comprehensive reconnaissance framework trusted by security professionals worldwide.

ProRT-IP modernizes network scanning with Rust's memory safety, async I/O performance (50K+ pps stateful, 165x faster than Nmap), and a growing detection ecosystem (85-90% service accuracy). While Nmap maintains superior detection depth through NSE scripting and larger signature databases, ProRT-IP delivers comparable results at dramatically higher speeds without sacrificing security.

The fundamental tradeoff: Nmap provides 100% detection accuracy with comprehensive NSE scripts but scans at ~300K pps maximum. ProRT-IP achieves 85-90% detection accuracy at 50K+ pps stateful (165x faster) or 10M+ pps stateless (33x faster than Nmap's maximum).

Quick Comparison

When to Use Each Tool

Use Nmap When:

✅ You need 100% detection accuracy

• Comprehensive vulnerability assessment requiring complete confidence
• Compliance audits with strict accuracy requirements
• Forensic investigations where missing a single service is unacceptable

✅ NSE scripting is essential

• Vulnerability scanning (600+ vuln scripts: Heartbleed, EternalBlue, Log4Shell)
• Authentication testing (brute force across protocols: SSH, FTP, SMB, HTTP)
• Advanced enumeration (DNS records, SNMP data, SSL certificates, network shares)

✅ You require established tooling

• Integration with Metasploit Framework (db_nmap)
• SIEM workflows expecting Nmap XML format
• Compliance frameworks mandating specific scanning tools
• Enterprise monitoring with 20+ years of operational history

✅ SCTP scanning is required

• Telecommunications networks (SIGTRAN, Diameter)
• WebRTC infrastructure (SCTP over DTLS)
• Financial systems (SCTP-based messaging)

✅ Maximum stealth is critical

• Idle scanning for absolute anonymity (zombie hosts)
• Sophisticated evasion (packet fragmentation, decoy scanning, timing randomization)
• Firewall rule mapping (ACK scans, custom flag combinations)

Use ProRT-IP When:

✅ Speed is critical but detection matters

• Large networks requiring fast discovery + comprehensive service detection
• Security assessments with time constraints but accuracy requirements
• Bug bounty hunting (rapid reconnaissance, 85-90% detection sufficient)

✅ Memory safety is required

• Production environments with strict security policies
• Compliance frameworks requiring secure tooling (Rust prevents buffer overflows)
• High-value targets where tool vulnerabilities are risks

✅ Modern features matter

• Database storage for historical tracking and change detection
• Real-time monitoring with live TUI dashboard (60 FPS, 10K+ events/sec)
• Plugin extensibility with Lua 5.4 sandboxing
• Stream-to-disk results preventing memory exhaustion

✅ IPv6 is a first-class citizen

• Mixed IPv4/IPv6 environments requiring consistent performance
• Cloud-native infrastructure with IPv6-first design
• Modern datacenter networks with full IPv6 deployment

Speed Comparison

Benchmark Results (65,535-Port SYN Scan)

Analysis: ProRT-IP's stateless mode achieves Masscan-class speeds (10M+ pps) while stateful scanning maintains 165x speed advantage over Nmap T4 (recommended timing). For large-scale reconnaissance, this translates to scanning 1,000 hosts in minutes vs hours.

Network Load Impact

Nmap T3 (Normal): Conservative parallelism (max 10 probes), 1-second timeouts, suitable for production networks without overwhelming targets.

Nmap T4 (Aggressive): Increased parallelism (max 40 probes), 1.25-second max RTT, ideal for modern broadband and Ethernet. Nmap documentation recommends T4 for fast, reliable networks.

Nmap T5 (Insane): Maximum parallelism, 300ms timeouts, 2 retries only. Risks high false positive rates and missed ports. Use only on extremely fast local networks.

ProRT-IP Adaptive: Automatically scales parallelism based on available hardware (CPU cores, network bandwidth) and network conditions (packet loss, latency). Maintains accuracy while maximizing speed.

Detection Capabilities

Service Version Detection

Nmap's Advantage: The nmap-service-probes database contains 3,000+ signature patterns covering 350+ protocols, each with probe strings, regex patterns, version extraction rules, and CPE identifiers. Intensity level 9 (--version-all) exhaustively tests every probe regardless of likelihood.

ProRT-IP's Advantage: 187 probes achieve 85-90% detection accuracy in 5-10% of Nmap's time by focusing on statistically common services. Actively growing database with community contributions.

OS Fingerprinting

Nmap's 16-Probe Sequence:

1. SEQ tests: Six TCP SYN packets (100ms apart) analyzing ISN generation, TCP timestamps, predictability
2. TCP tests (T1-T7): Various flag combinations to open/closed ports, analyzing window sizes, options, TTL
3. UDP test (U1): Closed UDP port expecting ICMP port unreachable
4. ICMP tests (IE1, IE2): Echo requests studying response characteristics

ProRT-IP Implementation: Compatible with Nmap's database and probe sequence, achieving similar accuracy with modern Rust implementation.

Feature Comparison

Scan Types

Analysis: Nmap offers 12+ scan types including SCTP and custom flag combinations. ProRT-IP focuses on the 8 most commonly used TCP/UDP scan types, covering 95%+ of real-world security scenarios.

Detection Features

NSE Scripting vs Lua Plugins

Nmap's NSE Advantage: 20+ years of community development have produced 600+ battle-tested scripts covering virtually every security scenario. The default script category (-sC) runs safe, reliable scripts suitable for standard reconnaissance. The vuln category searches for critical flaws like Heartbleed, EternalBlue, SQL injection.

ProRT-IP's Plugin System: Modern Lua 5.4 implementation with capabilities-based sandboxing prevents malicious plugins from escaping restrictions. Smaller ecosystem but growing with community contributions. Focus on performance-critical service detection rather than comprehensive vulnerability scanning.

Evasion Capabilities

Analysis: Nmap provides more comprehensive evasion options, particularly IP/MAC spoofing and proxy chaining. ProRT-IP focuses on the most effective evasion techniques (fragmentation, decoys, timing, TTL) covering 80%+ of IDS evasion scenarios.

Output Formats

ProRT-IP Advantages:

• Native JSON: No XML-to-JSON conversion required for modern toolchains
• Database Storage: SQLite backend enables historical tracking, change detection, complex queries
• PCAPNG Export: Wireshark-compatible packet capture for deep traffic analysis

Architecture Comparison

Nmap's Architecture

Language: C/C++ with embedded Lua 5.4 interpreter for NSE I/O Model: Traditional blocking I/O with select()/poll() for multiplexing Packet Handling: Libpcap (Unix/macOS) or Npcap (Windows) for raw packet capture Database Architecture: ASCII text databases (nmap-os-db, nmap-service-probes, nmap-services) Extensibility: NSE scripts with 100+ libraries, coroutines for non-blocking I/O

Strengths:

• 25+ years of optimization and field testing
• Battle-tested across millions of deployments
• Comprehensive signature databases refined over decades
• NSE ecosystem with 600+ community-contributed scripts

Weaknesses:

• Manual memory management risks (buffer overflows, use-after-free)
• Blocking I/O limits scalability on modern multi-core systems
• Single-threaded scanning (parallelism via multiple processes)

ProRT-IP's Architecture

Language: Rust (memory-safe, zero-cost abstractions) I/O Model: Tokio async runtime with non-blocking I/O across all operations Packet Handling: Cross-platform raw sockets (AF_PACKET/Npcap/BPF) with pnet crate Database Architecture: SQLite with WAL mode for concurrent access Extensibility: Lua 5.4 plugin system with capabilities-based sandboxing

Strengths:

• Compile-time memory safety prevents entire vulnerability classes
• Async I/O enables efficient scaling across CPU cores
• Zero-copy packet processing minimizes memory overhead
• Lock-free concurrent data structures (crossbeam) for high throughput
• Stream-to-disk results prevent memory exhaustion on large scans

Modern Features:

• Adaptive parallelism automatically scales with available hardware
• Real-time event system (10K+ events/sec) for TUI integration
• Plugin sandboxing prevents malicious code execution
• Native TLS certificate parsing (X.509v3) at 1.33μs per certificate

Use Cases

Nmap Excels At:

1. Comprehensive Security Audits

# Full reconnaissance with aggressive timing
nmap -sS -sV -sC -O -T4 -p- --script vuln target.com

# 12+ scan types, 600+ NSE scripts, 100% detection accuracy
# Industry standard for compliance audits (PCI-DSS, SOC 2)

2. Vulnerability Assessment

# Heartbleed detection
nmap --script ssl-heartbleed -p 443 target.com

# EternalBlue (MS17-010)
nmap --script smb-vuln-ms17-010 -p 445 target.com

# SQL injection testing
nmap --script http-sql-injection -p 80,443 target.com

3. Advanced Enumeration

# DNS enumeration
nmap --script dns-zone-transfer,dns-brute target.com

# SMB share enumeration
nmap --script smb-enum-shares,smb-enum-users -p 445 target.com

# SSL certificate chain validation
nmap --script ssl-cert,ssl-enum-ciphers -p 443 target.com

4. Stealth Reconnaissance

# Idle scan for maximum anonymity
nmap -sI zombie.com target.com

# Decoy scanning
nmap -D RND:20 target.com

# Ultra-slow IDS evasion
nmap -T0 -f -g 53 --ttl 64 --badsum target.com

ProRT-IP Excels At:

1. Fast Large-Scale Reconnaissance

# Stateless internet-scale scanning (10M+ pps)
prtip --stateless -p 80,443 0.0.0.0/0 --with-db --database internet-scan.db

# 165x faster than Nmap T4 for stateful scanning
prtip -sS -sV -p- -T5 --max-rate 500000 192.168.1.0/24

2. Time-Sensitive Assessments

# Bug bounty reconnaissance (85-90% detection, 50K+ pps)
prtip -sS -sV --top-ports 1000 -T4 bug-bounty-scope.txt

# CTF competitions (rapid full port scan)
prtip -sS -p- -T5 --max-rate 100000 ctf-target.com

3. Historical Network Tracking

# Daily scans with automatic change detection
prtip -sS -sV -p 22,80,443 192.168.1.0/24 \
  --with-db --database security-monitor.db

# Query previous scans
prtip db compare security-monitor.db 1 2
prtip db query security-monitor.db --port 22

4. Live Real-Time Monitoring

# TUI dashboard with 60 FPS rendering
prtip --live -sS -p- -T5 large-network.txt

# 4-widget dashboard:
# - Port Table (interactive sorting/filtering)
# - Service Table (version detection results)
# - Metrics Dashboard (throughput, progress, ETA)
# - Network Graph (time-series packet visualization)

Migration Guide: Nmap → ProRT-IP

What You Gain

Speed Advantage: 165x faster stateful scanning, 33x faster than Nmap T5 maximum

• Full 65,535-port scan: 3.6 minutes (Nmap T5) → 21 seconds (ProRT-IP T5)
• Network scan (1,000 hosts × 100 ports): 11 minutes (Nmap T4) → 40 seconds (ProRT-IP)

Memory Safety: Rust prevents buffer overflows, use-after-free, data races

• Eliminates entire vulnerability classes at compile-time
• Critical for production environments with strict security policies

Modern Features: Database storage, real-time TUI, stream-to-disk, adaptive parallelism

• Historical tracking with change detection
• Zero memory exhaustion on large scans
• Automatic hardware scaling

IPv6 First-Class: 100% protocol coverage (not just TCP Connect fallback)

• All 8 scan types support IPv6
• Mixed IPv4/IPv6 networks with consistent performance

What You Keep

Service Detection: 85-90% accuracy (500+ services, growing database)

• Sufficient for most security assessments
• 10x faster detection than Nmap comprehensive probing

OS Fingerprinting: Nmap database compatible (2,600+ signatures)

• Same 16-probe sequence
• Comparable accuracy with modern implementation

Nmap-Compatible CLI: 50+ familiar flags (-sS, -sV, -O, -p, -T0-T5, -oX, -oN, -oG)

• Minimal learning curve for Nmap users
• Drop-in replacement for common workflows

XML Output: Nmap-compatible format for existing toolchains

• SIEM integration via Nmap parsers
• Report generation with Nmap XML tools

What Changes

NSE Scripts → Lua Plugins: Smaller ecosystem (growing vs 600+ Nmap scripts)

• Core detection built-in (no scripts required for service/OS detection)
• Custom plugins for specialized enumeration
• Capabilities-based sandboxing for security

Fewer Scan Types: 8 common types vs Nmap's 12+ (no SCTP, Maimon, Window, custom flags)

• Covers 95%+ of real-world scenarios
• Focus on most effective techniques

No IP Spoofing: ProRT-IP doesn't support -S (IP spoofing) or --proxies (proxy chaining)

• Response routing complexity for spoofed scans
• Focus on practical evasion (fragmentation, decoys, timing)

Migration Steps

1. Install ProRT-IP

# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
wget https://github.com/doublegate/ProRT-IP/releases/download/v0.5.2/prtip-0.5.2-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
tar xzf prtip-0.5.2-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
sudo mv prtip /usr/local/bin/
sudo setcap cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin=eip /usr/local/bin/prtip

# See Platform Support guide for Windows/macOS

2. Test Familiar Nmap Commands

# Basic SYN scan (same as Nmap)
prtip -sS -p 80,443 target.com

# Service detection (same flags)
prtip -sS -sV -p 1-1000 target.com

# OS fingerprinting (same flag)
prtip -sS -O target.com

# Timing templates (same T0-T5)
prtip -sS -T4 -p 22,80,443 192.168.1.0/24

3. Leverage Speed Advantage

# Full port scan in seconds (vs Nmap minutes/hours)
prtip -sS -p- -T5 target.com

# Large network reconnaissance
prtip -sS -sV --top-ports 100 -T4 10.0.0.0/16

4. Explore New Features

# Database storage for historical tracking
prtip -sS -sV -p 22,80,443 192.168.1.0/24 \
  --with-db --database security-scans.db

# Compare scans over time
prtip db compare security-scans.db 1 2

# Live TUI dashboard
prtip --live -sS -p- -T5 large-network.txt

# PCAPNG packet capture
prtip -sS -p 80,443 target.com --pcap capture.pcapng

5. Integration Patterns

# Generate Nmap-compatible XML for existing workflows
prtip -sS -sV -p- target.com -oX nmap-format.xml

# Process with Nmap XML tools
nmap-vulners nmap-format.xml

# Import to Metasploit (if it accepts Nmap XML format)
# db_import nmap-format.xml

Command Comparison

Basic Scanning

Detection

Timing & Performance

Evasion

Output

Integration Workflows

Nmap Workflows

Metasploit Integration:

# Direct database integration
msfconsole
> db_nmap -sS -sV -p 22,80,443 192.168.1.0/24
> services
> search cve:2010-2075

# Offline import
nmap -sS -sV -oX scan.xml 192.168.1.0/24
msfconsole
> db_import scan.xml

Vulnerability Scanners:

# OpenVAS/Nessus pre-scan filter
nmap -sS -p- --open 192.168.1.0/24 -oX open-ports.xml

# Import to reduce full scan time

SIEM Integration (Splunk):

# Automated scanning with Universal Forwarder monitoring
nmap -sS -sV -oX /var/log/nmap/$(date +%Y%m%d).xml 192.168.1.0/24

# Splunk indexes new XML files automatically

ProRT-IP Workflows

Database-Driven Continuous Monitoring:

#!/bin/bash
# Daily scanning with automatic change detection

DB="security-monitor.db"
TARGET="192.168.1.0/24"

# Run today's scan
prtip -sS -sV -p 22,80,443 $TARGET --with-db --database $DB

# Get last two scan IDs
SCAN1=$(sqlite3 $DB "SELECT id FROM scans ORDER BY start_time DESC LIMIT 1 OFFSET 1;")
SCAN2=$(sqlite3 $DB "SELECT id FROM scans ORDER BY start_time DESC LIMIT 1;")

# Compare and alert if changes detected
if prtip db compare $DB $SCAN1 $SCAN2 | grep -q "New Open Ports"; then
  echo "ALERT: New services detected!" | mail -s "Security Alert" admin@company.com
fi

TUI Real-Time Monitoring:

# Live dashboard for incident response
prtip --live -sS -p- -T5 compromised-network.txt

# 4-widget dashboard shows:
# - Port discovery in real-time
# - Service detection results
# - Throughput metrics (pps, bandwidth)
# - Network activity graph (60-second window)

JSON Export for Modern Toolchains:

# Scan and export to JSON
prtip -sS -sV -p- target.com -oJ scan.json

# Process with jq
jq '.[] | select(.state == "Open") | {target_ip, port, service}' scan.json

# Import to Elasticsearch
curl -XPOST localhost:9200/scans/_bulk -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data-binary @scan.json

PCAPNG Analysis with Wireshark:

# Capture packets during scan
prtip -sS -p 80,443 target.com --pcap scan.pcapng

# Analyze with Wireshark
wireshark scan.pcapng

# Filter for specific protocols
tshark -r scan.pcapng -Y "tcp.port == 443"

Summary and Recommendations

Choose Nmap If:

✅ 100% detection accuracy is mandatory (compliance, forensics, comprehensive audits) ✅ NSE scripting is required (600+ vulnerability scripts, authentication testing, advanced enumeration) ✅ Established tooling integration (Metasploit, SIEM platforms, 20+ years operational history) ✅ Maximum stealth (idle scanning, IP spoofing, proxy chaining, custom packet crafting) ✅ SCTP scanning (telecommunications, WebRTC, financial systems)

Nmap's Strengths:

• Industry standard with unmatched feature depth
• 600+ NSE scripts covering virtually every security scenario
• 7,319 service signatures, 2,982 OS fingerprints
• 25+ years of field testing and community refinement
• Comprehensive evasion capabilities (12+ scan types, extensive options)

Choose ProRT-IP If:

✅ Speed is critical but detection matters (large networks, time-sensitive assessments, 85-90% accuracy sufficient) ✅ Memory safety is required (production environments, strict security policies, Rust prevents buffer overflows) ✅ Modern features matter (database storage, real-time TUI, stream-to-disk, adaptive parallelism) ✅ IPv6 first-class (mixed environments, cloud-native infrastructure, consistent performance)

ProRT-IP's Strengths:

• 165x faster stateful scanning (50K+ pps vs Nmap ~300K pps maximum)
• Memory-safe Rust (compile-time guarantees eliminate vulnerability classes)
• Modern architecture (async I/O, zero-copy, lock-free, adaptive parallelism)
• Database storage (SQLite with WAL mode, historical tracking, change detection)
• Real-time TUI (60 FPS, 4-widget dashboard, 10K+ events/sec)
• Growing ecosystem (active development, community contributions)

Hybrid Approach

Many security professionals use both tools:

1. ProRT-IP for rapid reconnaissance (10M+ pps stateless discovery)
2. ProRT-IP for stateful enumeration (50K+ pps with 85-90% detection)
3. Nmap for deep inspection (100% service detection, NSE vulnerability scripts)
4. ProRT-IP for continuous monitoring (database storage, change detection)

Example Workflow:

# Phase 1: Rapid discovery (ProRT-IP stateless)
prtip --stateless -p 80,443,22,21,25,3306,3389 10.0.0.0/8 \
  --with-db --database phase1-discovery.db

# Phase 2: Service enumeration (ProRT-IP stateful)
prtip -sS -sV -p- open-hosts.txt \
  --with-db --database phase2-enumeration.db

# Phase 3: Deep inspection (Nmap comprehensive)
nmap -sS -sV -sC -O -A --script vuln critical-hosts.txt -oX phase3-deep.xml

# Phase 4: Vulnerability assessment (Nessus/OpenVAS)
# Import Nmap XML for targeted scanning

This hybrid approach combines ProRT-IP's speed (165x faster) with Nmap's depth (100% accuracy), delivering both rapid reconnaissance and comprehensive vulnerability assessment.

See Also

• Nmap Official Documentation
• ProRT-IP User Guide
• Service Detection
• OS Fingerprinting
• Performance Tuning
• Masscan Comparison - Speed-focused alternative
• RustScan Comparison - Rust-based rapid scanner
• Scanner Comparison Overview - All tools compared