A Novel Fast Port Scan Method Using Partheno-Genetic Algorithm

The ports which are often open on different hosts at different times are extremely important for network security analyses because they supply more attack chances to attackers. These ports can be discovered by sequential port scans. For network defenders, main concern about port scans is not the stealth, but the efficiency, especially on large and complex networks. Based-on partheno-genetic algorithm, we develop a novel fast port scan method which can discover the most often open ports efficiently. During the procedure of genetic evolutions, ports with more open times survive in next scans with higher probabilities. Simulation results show that, comparing with sequential scans, the method we develop has high feasibility and efficiency in average cases.