sx is a high-performance, command-line network scanner designed for speed and ease of use, targeting network administrators and security professionals. It offers a modern alternative to traditional tools like nmap by leveraging efficient scanning techniques and a flexible, Unix-philosophy-driven design, enabling rapid network discovery and port analysis.

How It Works

sx utilizes a unique approach by separating ARP scanning from higher-level protocol scans (TCP, UDP). It first builds an ARP cache, either through explicit ARP scans or by reading from a file, which then serves as the input for subsequent scans. This design avoids redundant ARP lookups, significantly speeding up the process. The tool supports a wide array of scan types, including ARP, ICMP, TCP SYN, FIN, NULL, Xmas, custom TCP flag scans, and UDP scans, providing detailed packet-level responses for nuanced analysis.

Quick Start & Requirements

• Install: Download from GitHub Releases and add to PATH, or build from source.
• Build: Requires Go 1.15+ and libpcap. Run go build from the source root.
• Usage: sx <scan_type> [options] <target> (e.g., sx arp 192.168.0.1/24, cat arp.cache | sx tcp -p 80 192.168.0.1).
• Docs: https://github.com/v-byte-cpu/sx

Highlighted Details

• Claims to be 30x faster than nmap.
• Supports custom TCP flag scans for advanced fingerprinting.
• Offers JSON output for easy integration with automation and analysis tools.
• Includes specialized scans for SOCKS5 proxies and Elasticsearch nodes.

Maintenance & Community

The project appears to be actively maintained, with a build status badge indicating recent CI activity. Community interaction points like Discord/Slack are not explicitly mentioned in the README.

Licensing & Compatibility

• License: MIT License.
• Compatibility: Permissive MIT license allows for commercial use and integration into closed-source projects.

Limitations & Caveats

The README mentions that sx is primarily tested on Linux and Docker. While it supports custom TCP scans, interpreting the raw TCP flags requires a deeper understanding of network protocols.