A SYN scan is used to determine which of the following about a target?

• A. Operating system version
• B. User accounts
• C. Open ports and services
• D. Network latency

Answer: (C)

A SYN scan focuses on mapping which ports on a target are accepting connections. It sends a SYN to each port and watches the responses: a SYN-ACK means the port is open and a listener exists, while a RST or no response suggests the port is closed or filtered. Because the scan doesn’t complete the full TCP handshake, it acts quickly and with a smaller footprint, letting you build a picture of the services that could be running on those open ports. From this, you know which ports are open and which services are likely listening on them (often inferred by typical port usage and can be confirmed with follow-up banner grabbing or service probes). It doesn’t reveal operating system version, user accounts, or network latency. So the core takeaway is that a SYN scan identifies open ports and the services listening on them.