Python Ping scan

Posted on February 27, 2013

networking,
python

A simple ping scan can be performed with any number of tools, from nmap to a cmd.exe, however, doing it through Python allows us to easily run additional code if a host is up.

The netaddr and ping modules are required.

Syntax is script.py -nw [subnet in CIDR format]

import argparse
import netaddr
import ping

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(''-nw'',''--network'', type=str, required=True, help="Network to be scanned in CIDR format (eg. 192.168.1.0/24)", dest=''subnet'')

args = parser.parse_args()

subnet = args.subnet
nw = netaddr.IPNetwork(subnet)

def pingtest(target):
    # ping target, returns True if target responds, otherwise returns False
    r = ping.quiet_ping(target,timeout=0.5,count=1)

    if r[0] != 100:
        return(True)
    else:
        return(False)

for ip in nw.iter_hosts():
    x = pingtest(str(ip))
    if x == True:
        print(str(ip) + " is up...")
        # do other stuff