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GPEN · Question #377

Which of the following techniques are NOT used to perform active OS fingerprinting? Each correct answer represents a complete solution. Choose all that apply.

The correct answer is A. Analyzing email headers B. Sniffing and analyzing packets. Active OS fingerprinting requires sending crafted probes to a target and analyzing responses; techniques that only observe existing traffic or metadata are passive, not active.

Vulnerability Discovery & Scanning

Question

Which of the following techniques are NOT used to perform active OS fingerprinting? Each correct answer represents a complete solution. Choose all that apply.

Options

  • AAnalyzing email headers
  • BSniffing and analyzing packets
  • CICMP error message quoting
  • DSending FIN packets to open ports on the remote system

How the community answered

(33 responses)
  • A
    79% (26)
  • C
    6% (2)
  • D
    15% (5)

Why each option

Active OS fingerprinting requires sending crafted probes to a target and analyzing responses; techniques that only observe existing traffic or metadata are passive, not active.

AAnalyzing email headersCorrect

Analyzing email headers is a passive reconnaissance technique that extracts OS or mail-server information from existing message metadata without sending any probe to the target system.

BSniffing and analyzing packetsCorrect

Sniffing and analyzing packets is also a passive technique - it captures traffic already on the network rather than actively injecting probes to elicit OS-specific responses.

CICMP error message quoting

ICMP error message quoting IS an active fingerprinting technique because it sends packets designed to trigger ICMP errors and then analyzes how the target OS quotes back the original message, which varies by implementation.

DSending FIN packets to open ports on the remote system

Sending FIN packets to open ports IS an active fingerprinting technique that exploits OS-specific differences in TCP/IP stack behavior, such as whether the target responds with RST or silently drops the packet.

Concept tested: Active vs. passive OS fingerprinting techniques

Source: https://nmap.org/book/osdetect-methods.html

Topics

#OS fingerprinting#active vs passive fingerprinting#ICMP probing#FIN scanning

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