nmap
 

can someone tell me why i need to be root to run nmap, i try to run it and it says this:


Starting nmap V. 2.54BETA31 ( www.insecure.org/nmap/ )
Warning: You are not root -- using TCP pingscan rather than ICMP

nmap is a port scanner. For security purposes, the authors decided not to let users run port scans. I'm glad they did.

Nmap has to create special packets to do all of its advanced scanning....something restricted to root by the kernel.
If you dont have root, you probably shouldn't.