A penetration tester is gathering information about a target company for a penetration test in order to tailor the type of attacks. However, the tester is worried about sending packets to the…

Nmap is an active network scanner that sends packets to target systems to discover open ports and services, which would likely be detected by a SOC.

Shodan is a search engine for internet-connected devices that passively collects information by scanning the internet itself, not the target's network directly. Using Shodan allows a penetration tester to discover exposed services, banners, and other valuable information about the target's public-facing infrastructure without generating any traffic on the target's network, thus avoiding detection by their SOC.

CeWL (Custom Word List Generator) is a tool used to spider a website and create a custom wordlist for password cracking, which does not provide information about network infrastructure without sending packets.

Nessus is an active vulnerability scanner that sends numerous packets to identify vulnerabilities, making it highly detectable by a SOC.