SATAN

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

When no primary_target(s) are specified on the command line, SATAN starts up in interactive mode and takes commands from the HTML user interface.

When primary_target(s) are specified on the command line, SATAN collects data from the named hosts, and, possibly, from hosts that it discovers while probing a primary host. A primary target can be a host name, a host address, or a network number. In the latter case, SATAN collects data from each host in the named network.

SATAN can generate reports of hosts by type, service, vulnerability and by trust relationship. In addition, it offers tutorials that explain the nature of vulnerabilities and how they can be eliminated.

By default, the behavior of SATAN is controlled by a configuration file (config/satan.cf). The defaults can be overruled via command-line options or via buttons etc. in the HTML user interface.

Options:

-a

Attack level (0=light, 1=normal, 2=heavy). At level 0, SATAN collects information about RPC services and from the DNS. At level 1, SATAN collects banners of well-known services such as telnet, smtp and ftp, and can usually establish the type of operating system. At level 2, SATAN does a more extensive (but still non-intrusive) scan for services. Level 2 scans may result in console error messages.

-A proximity_descent

While SATAN extracts information from primary targets, it may discover other hosts. The proximity_descent controls by how much the attack level decreases when SATAN goes from primary targets to secondary ones, and so on. The -z option determines what happens when the attack level reaches zero.

-c 'name=value; name=value...'

Change the value of arbitrary SATAN variables. Example:

    -c 'dont_use_dns = 1; dont_use_nslookup = 1'.

The -c option allows you to control configuration and other variables that do not have their own command-line option. The format is a list of name=value pairs separated by semicolons. Variable names have no dollar prefix, and values are not quoted. Whitespace within values is preserved.

-d database

Specifies the name of the database to read from and to save to (default satan_data).

When multiple SATAN processes are run in parallel, each process should be given its own database (for example, one database per subnet of 256 hosts). Use the merge facility of the HTML user interface to merge data from different runs.

-i

Ignore the contents of the database.

-l proximity

Maximal proximity level. Primary targets have proximity 0, hosts discovered while scanning primaries have proximity level 1, and so on. SATAN ignores all hosts that exceed the maximal proximity level.

-o only_attack_these

A list of domain names and/or network numbers of hosts that SATAN is permitted to scan. List elements are separated by whitespace or commas. Understands the * shell-like wildcard.

-O dont_attack_these

A list of domain names and/or network numbers that SATAN should stay away from. The list has the same format as with the -o option.

-s

Subnet expansion. For each primary target, SATAN finds all alive hosts in the target's subnet (a block of 256 addresses).

-S status_file

While collecting data, SATAN maintains a status file with the last action taken. The default status file is status_file.

-t level

Timeout level (0 = short, 1 = medium, 2 = long) for each probe.

-u

Specifies that SATAN is being run from an untrusted host. Access via, for example, the remote shell or network file system services, means that there is a security problem.

-U

Opposite of the -u option. SATAN may be run from a possibly trusted host. Access via, for example, the remote shell or network file system services is not necessarily a problem.

-v

Verbose mode. SATAN prints on the standard output what it is doing. This is useful for debugging purposes.

-V

SATAN prints its version number and terminates.

-z

When scanning non-primary hosts, continue with attack level of zero when the level would become negative. The scan continues until the maximal proximity level is reached.

-Z

Opposite of the -z option.

FILES

AUTHORS

Index

NAME

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DESCRIPTION

FILES

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