What's the NSE of nmap?

Question

When I use nmap for scanning IP, there prints logs:

Starting Nmap 7.70 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2019-04-05 10:27 ?D1ú±ê×?ê±??

NSE: Loaded 148 scripts for scanning.

NSE: Script Pre-scanning.

Initiating NSE at 10:27

Completed NSE at 10:27, 0.00s elapsed

Initiating NSE at 10:27

Completed NSE at 10:27, 0.00s elapsed

Initiating Ping Scan at 10:27

Scanning 103.23.43.1 [4 ports]

Completed Ping Scan at 10:27, 1.12s elapsed (1 total hosts)

Initiating Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 10:27

Completed Parallel DNS resolution of 1 host. at 10:27, 1.31s elapsed

Initiating SYN Stealth Scan at 10:27

there are many NSE in there, what't the meaning of it?

Answer 1

The NSE mean Nmap Scripting Engine, you can understand this is nmap software's kernel, this implemented the namp's primary function.

NSE is part of namp and it also allows users to write (or share) scripts to automate a wide variety of networking tasks.

Answer 2

if you navigate to

cd /usr/share/nmap/scripts  

you will see bunch of preinstalled scripts in Kali Linux. this is how you use them with nmap.

nmap --scripts=ssh.brute.nse TargetIpAdress

in the same directory if you type

nano ssh-brute.nse

you will access to script to change the some options.

you can also download nse scripts from github. here are the 2 of them.

git clone https://github.com/scipag/vulscan
git clone https://github.com/vulnersCom/nmap-vulners

implementation of those scripts are slightly different. in the directory of those scripts

nmap --script vulscan targetIpAddress