What does a closed port respond with during a NULL scan?

Study for the EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) v13 Exam. Utilize flashcards and multiple-choice questions with helpful hints and detailed explanations. Excel in your exam preparation!

Multiple Choice

What does a closed port respond with during a NULL scan?

Explanation:
In a NULL scan, the probe is a TCP segment with no flags set. Because there’s no active connection and no flags to indicate intent, a host will typically respond to a closed port with a TCP RST (reset) to terminate any potential connection attempt. Open ports usually don’t respond to such a probe at all, since there’s no state to honor. So, the expected behavior for a closed port is a RST, which is why that option fits best. For context, the other flags are used in different scan types: a SYN flag is used in SYN scans, a FIN flag in FIN scans, and an ACK flag in ACK scans.

In a NULL scan, the probe is a TCP segment with no flags set. Because there’s no active connection and no flags to indicate intent, a host will typically respond to a closed port with a TCP RST (reset) to terminate any potential connection attempt. Open ports usually don’t respond to such a probe at all, since there’s no state to honor. So, the expected behavior for a closed port is a RST, which is why that option fits best. For context, the other flags are used in different scan types: a SYN flag is used in SYN scans, a FIN flag in FIN scans, and an ACK flag in ACK scans.

Subscribe

Get the latest from Passetra

You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our privacy policy