Technology Errors

Nmap 5.51: Zenmap: Error Saving Snapshot: Surface.write_to_png takes one argument which must be a filename (str)

Errors4 Comments

I upgraded to Nmap 5.51 early this afternoon because a friend asked me to take a look at creating a topology image of a network scan of around 3,000 hosts. After upgrading I opened his scan in Zenmap and attempted to export the topology of the scan as a PNG but I received an error which I at first assumed was an issue on my computer or an issue with the fact that the export to PNG image was taking place on a 64-bit Windows 7 computer however both of those turned out to be incorrect. Below I describe the error in more detail as well as the current newest Nmap version that will allow PNG export, a workaround for the issue, and notes about the response from the Nmap development team that already pushed a fix to SVN only a couple hours after the issue was reported (+1 Nmap devs!).

Information Security

Backtrack 4: Information Gathering: Route: Lanmap – Passively map a network

Security1 Comment

Lanmap is one of those tools I never really used until now. Its actually very cool. Lanmap sits quietly on a network and builds a picture of what it sees and outputs it in svg,png or gif format. I let it run on a test network far a hour or so and was impressed with the output. The only drawback is that it doesn’t “see” through switches so it can only do the private subnet the computer is physically on.

Technology Insights

Convert bmp, gif, jpeg, png, tif Image Files to PDF for Free

InsightsLeave a comment

There are a ton of shareware applications that will allow you to convert image files to PDF for free however they typically leave text about their product all over the PDF until you pay for the application. I was able to locate and successfully convert some jpeg files using a freeware application from CNET download center. It is very easy to use however you have to make sure your images are a certain size before converting or it will not work properly. Below are step by step instructions on how to convert multiple image files into one multi page PDF document. Make sure that each of your image files is 600×800 pixels in size or smaller if you want the entire image to fit onto the PDF page. You can also adjust the “Page Size” setting if you prefer to have larger than normal PDF pages.