Quickstart

RustScan Quickstart Guide

RustScan is an ultra-fast port scanner written in Rust. It can scan all 65,000 ports in approximately 3 seconds, making it one of the fastest port scanners available. It's designed for network security professionals, penetration testers, and system administrators.

Installation

cargo install rustscan

Or via Homebrew:

brew install rustscan

Basic Usage

Scan all ports on a single host

rustscan -a 192.168.1.1

Scan specific ports

rustscan -p 80,443,8080 192.168.1.1

Scan port range

rustscan -p 1-1000 192.168.1.1

Scan with hostname

rustscan -a example.com

Common Options

• -a <TARGET> - Target IP address, hostname, or CIDR range
• -p <PORTS> - Ports or port ranges to scan (default: top 1000)
• -r <RATE> - Socket timeout in seconds (default: 5)
• -t <THREADS> - Number of parallel connections (default: auto)
• --top - Scan top N common ports
• -s - Scan slower but more reliable
• --script <SCRIPT> - Execute custom scripts after scan (nmap-safe, etc.)
• -l <FILE> - Load list of hosts from file
• -x <FILE> - Exclude IP addresses from file

Advanced Usage

Scan entire subnet

rustscan -a 192.168.0.0/24

Scan from file with hostnames

rustscan -l targets.txt

Integrate with Nmap for detailed analysis

rustscan -a 192.168.1.1 -- -A

Exclude specific hosts

rustscan -a 192.168.0.0/24 -x excluded.txt

Scan only top 100 ports

rustscan --top 100 192.168.1.1

Performance Tips

• RustScan is fast by default; increase -t (threads) for even faster scanning
• Use -s (slower mode) for more reliable results on unstable networks
• Scan top ports first (--top 1000) then expand range as needed
• Batch multiple targets for better efficiency

Output Examples

# Basic output
rustscan -a 192.168.1.1 -p 80,443

# JSON output
rustscan -a 192.168.1.1 -p 80,443 --format json

# Scan with service detection (via Nmap script)
rustscan -a 192.168.1.1 --script nmap-safe

Real-world Use Cases

Quick vulnerability scan on internal network

rustscan -a 192.168.0.0/24 -p 80,443,3306,5432,6379

Penetration testing - scan all ports

rustscan -a target.com -p 1-65535

Monitor for unexpected open ports

rustscan -a 10.0.0.5 -p 1-10000 > baseline.txt
# Compare later
rustscan -a 10.0.0.5 -p 1-10000 > current.txt
diff baseline.txt current.txt

CI/CD pipeline security check

#!/bin/bash
rustscan -a localhost -p 1-65535 | grep -q "OPEN" && echo "Unexpected ports found!" && exit 1

Comparison to Nmap

Integration with Other Tools

Pipe to Nmap for service detection

rustscan -a target.com -- -sV -sC

Chain with other security tools

rustscan -a target.com -p 80 | xargs -I {} curl http://{}

Ethical Considerations

• Always get permission before scanning networks you don't own
• Unauthorized network scanning may be illegal in your jurisdiction
• Use RustScan responsibly for:
  • Your own infrastructure
  • Authorized penetration testing engagements
  • Security research with permission
  • Network administration and monitoring

Resources

• GitHub Repository
• Official Documentation
• GitHub Issues & Feature Requests

Troubleshooting

"Permission denied" error

RustScan requires elevated privileges for some operations. Use sudo if needed:

sudo rustscan -a 192.168.1.1

Timeout issues

Increase socket timeout:

rustscan -a target.com -r 10

Too many connections

Reduce thread count:

rustscan -a target.com -t 100