Large scale port scanning through tor using parallel Nmap scans to scan large portions of the IPv4 range
Rodney R Rohrmann, Vincent J Ercolani, Mark W Patton · 2017
Performing port scans through Tor is a way to hide the source's IP address from the target. Researchers hoping to source their own scans benefit from a means of scanning that helps them to anonymize themselves from targets that may potentially retaliate as the result of being scanned. Though effective in providing anonymization during scanning, it is not scalable to the point of scanning the entire IPv4 Address space on multiple ports, as scans take considerably longer to execute through Tor. This paper specifically explores using a third-party data source to target specific areas of interest in the IPv4 range and then scanning those areas anonymously with parallelized scanners as an effective way to anonymously collect internet scan data. The results demonstrate the feasibility of this approach.