WebMap

WebMap is a web interface for running the nmap security audit tool from a browser.

• Originally created in 2008 as a PHP script (PHP-NMAP)
• Forked in 2012 into an object-oriented PHP class
• Updated in 2021 inside Docker using Kali
• This repository has been modernised into a Python/Flask application.

Version History & Evolution

• 2008 (v0.2): Initial procedural PHP interface created by Morgan Collins.
• 2012 (v1.4): Refactored into a custom PHP class and updated with xHTML rendering by K. Holz published phpclasses
• 2021 (v2.0): containerized with Docker on Kali Linux.
• 2026 (v3.0): Complete modern rewrite:
  • Replaced PHP runtime with a Python 3 / Flask web stack.
  • Replaced custom inline CSS with Bootstrap 5 (Dark Theme) and Bootstrap Icons.
  • Configured dynamic assets switching between public CDNs and local fallback files (USE_CDN env variable).
  • Resolved container privileges using Linux file capabilities (cap_net_raw, cap_net_admin) via setcap. Nmap can execute privileged operations (e.g., -O OS detection, -sS SYN scans) without running the Flask process as root.
  • Added real-time output streaming to the browser terminal via Server-Sent Events / Fetch API streams.

Getting Started

Running with Docker

Build and launch the application directly using Docker:

docker build -t webmap-app .
docker run -d -p 8080:8080 --name webmap webmap-app

Running Local

Install and set permissions

sudo apt install nmap
sudo visudo

Add current user to sudoer file for nmap

<username> ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/nmap

Run with uv

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
uv run app.py