CAPEC-292 Detail

An adversary sends a probe to an IP address to determine if the host is alive. Host discovery is one of the earliest phases of network reconnaissance. The adversary usually starts with a range of IP addresses belonging to a target network and uses various methods to determine if a host is present at that IP address. Host discovery is usually referred to as 'Ping' scanning using a sonar analogy. The goal is to send a packet through to the IP address and solicit a response from the host. As such, a 'ping' can be virtually any crafted packet whatsoever, provided the adversary can identify a functional host based on its response. An attack of this nature is usually carried out with a 'ping sweep,' where a particular kind of ping is sent to a range of IP addresses.

Prerequisites

The adversary requires logical access to the target network in order to carry out host discovery.

Resources Required

The resources required will differ based upon the type of host discovery being performed. Usually a network scanning tool or scanning script is required due to the volume of requests that must be generated.

Related Weaknesses

References

REF-33

Hacking Exposed: Network Security Secrets & Solutions
Stuart McClure, Joel Scambray, George Kurtz.

REF-34

Nmap Network Scanning: The Official Nmap Project Guide to Network Discovery and Security Scanning
Gordon "Fyodor" Lyon.

Submission

Modifications