Exam PT0-002 topic 1 question 24 discussion

A. Determine active hosts on the network. The script is using a loop that iterates through a range of IP addresses (10.10.1.1 to 10.10.1.254) and for each IP address, it sends a single ping packet (ping -c 1) to the IP address. The purpose of this script is to determine which IP addresses on the network are active by checking which IP addresses respond to the ping. This is a common method used to perform host discovery and identify active hosts on a network. The script is not attempting to set the TTL of ping packets for stealth (Option B), fill the ARP table of the networked devices (Option C), or scan the system on the most used ports (Option D).

A: Just a single ping packet to find if connected

A. Determine active hosts on the network. The script is a Bash script that utilizes a loop to iterate through IP addresses in the range from 10.10.1.1 to 10.10.1.254 (excluding 10.10.1.255). For each IP address, it sends a single ICMP echo request (ping) using the ping command with the -c 1 option, which specifies to send only one packet. By sending ICMP echo requests to each IP address in the specified range, the script is attempting to determine which hosts are active and responsive on the network. If a host is active and reachable, it should respond to the ICMP echo request with an ICMP echo reply (ping response). This process helps the penetration tester identify live hosts that can be further targeted or assessed for vulnerabilities.

By executing this script, the penetration tester aims to determine which IP addresses within the specified range are responding to the ICMP echo requests. This helps identify active hosts on the network, as those that respond to the ping requests indicate their presence and connectivity.