nmap unable to find nmap-services

In some Android devices i got this erros :

Unable to find nmap-services! Resorting to /etc/services Unable to open /etc/services for reading service information 

This happen with Android 8, 8.1 and Android P

In lower versions it is working well

I'm using precompiled binaries V. 7.31 from :

I have read too about nmap --datadir but can't make it works. Any Idea ?

P.s : The tests performed on Emulators and Real devices too

3 Answers

Solved by copying Nmap extra data like "services,scripts etc. into main nmap binary directory"

Have you rooted your device? It looks like the operating system does not allow nmap to open /etc/services.It might be that the file can be open by root user only or its read only.

This answer fixes error:

Unable to find nmap-services! Resorting to /etc/services/

I copied everything from folder: /usr/share/nmap from a computer that had nmap installed correctly to another computer that didn't have nmap installed correctly.

Additional Notes:

1. If you receive this error, fixing it is definitely worth it as your scans will be way faster. My scan time went from about 120 seconds to 5 seconds.
2. I also had nmap binary installed to /usr/bin/nmap. If your receiving this error, it means you already have the nmap binary installed.