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In the first case, you use sniffing tools (e.g. OS detection techniques are divided into passive and active ones. Only after obtaining this information, you will be able to start searching for vulnerabilities.
#CHECK OPERATING SYSTEM WITH ZENMAP SOFTWARE#
You have do find out what ports are open on the target machine, what operating system is running on it, and what networking software is installed. In the best-case scenario, you know its IP address, and that’s it. At the very beginning of the intelligence collection stage, the remote host is a ‘black box’ for you. Seasoned pentesters and hackers may skip this section because it explains the very basics.
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This article presents the most actual utilities used for OS detection and examines their specific features and capacities. If you read HackMag on a regular basis, you have likely encountered the names of these programs in our articles and probably know the term “TCP/IP stack fingerprinting” that defines their operation principle. It’s not a secret that reconnaissance and intelligence collection constitute the most important stage of any security research so, let’s examine the utilities used at this stage in more detail. The inventory of programs used by pentesters and hackers is truly impressive. This article presents seven useful tools used inter alia for OS detection and explains their operation principles. You have to find out what operating system is running on the remote host, and only then you can start looking for vulnerabilities in it. As you are aware, any penetration test starts from information collection.