Packet Analysis with Wireshark

Scanning

In this section, we will go over the basics of vulnerability scanning and verify what is happening when the host scan is performed with the help of Wireshark.

Vulnerability scanning

Host discovery, port scanning, and OS detection are part of vulnerability scanning. During this process, vulnerabilities are identified and addressed with a proper mitigation plan by the security auditor. For example:

• The security auditor scans hosts to check that only allowed ports are open to the external world
• The hacker scans the ports to find out which services are up and running, for example during this host scan process if the DB ports are open to the outside world then the DB system is compromised for attacks.

Open the host_scan.pcap file in Wireshark; ...