An adversary engages in activity to detect the version or type of OS software in a an environment by passively monitoring communication between devices, nodes, or applications. Passive techniques for operating system detection send no actual probes to a target, but monitor network or client-server communication between nodes in order to identify operating systems based on observed behavior as compared to a database of known signatures or values. While passive OS fingerprinting is not usually as reliable as active methods, it is generally better able to evade detection.

Prerequisites

The ability to monitor network communications.Access to at least one host, and the privileges to interface with the network interface card.

Resources Required

Any tool capable of monitoring network communications, like a packet sniffer (e.g., Wireshark)

Related Weaknesses

References

REF-33

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

REF-128

RFC793 - Transmission Control Protocol
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Information Processing Techniques Office, Information Sciences Institute University of Southern California.
http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc793.html

REF-212

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

REF-130

The Art of Port Scanning
Gordon "Fyodor" Lyon.
http://phrack.org/issues/51/11.html

Submission

Modifications