NSE is one of the most powerful features within Nmap. It allows users to create and automate scripting to perform customized scans on a target device. By performing scans using various Nmap scripts, you can quickly detect whether your target is susceptible to a known vulnerability, malware, open backdoors, and so on.
The following are the main categories of NSE scripts:
![](https://static.packt-cdn.com/products/9781789611809/graphics/assets/72161386-df94-4f48-8eb8-e2179bd803a6.png)
To execute an entire category of scripts, we can use the --script category command. The following snippet is an example of using the vuln category of scripts during an Nmap scan:
![](https://static.packt-cdn.com/products/9781789611809/graphics/assets/9175a49e-9f88-4e4c-a09d-e07e9163b187.png)
Running an entire category of scripts may not always be suitable for various situations. If you are performing a scan to search for systems that contain a specific vulnerability, such as vsFTPd 2.3.4 backdoor (CVE-2011-2523), you can use the following command:
nmap --script ftp...