What does the -A option enable in Nmap?

What does the -A option enable in Nmap?

• A. Scans all ports aggressively.
• B. Saves results to a log only.
• C. Enables OS detection, version detection, script scanning, and traceroute.
• D. Disables fingerprinting.

Answer: (C)

In Nmap, the -A option activates several discovery and fingerprinting features all at once, making the scan more informative but also more intrusive. It enables OS detection (guessing the target's operating system by analyzing how it responds to probes), version detection (identifying the exact services and their versions running on open ports), script scanning (running the default NSE scripts to gather extra information), and traceroute (showing the network path to the host). In effect, -A is a shorthand for turning on OS detection, version detection, script scanning, and traceroute together, equivalent to enabling -O, -sV, -sC, and --traceroute at once. It’s not about scanning all ports by itself, not merely saving results, and it does not disable fingerprinting; it relies on fingerprinting as part of the OS detection process.

In Nmap, the -A option activates several discovery and fingerprinting features all at once, making the scan more informative but also more intrusive. It enables OS detection (guessing the target's operating system by analyzing how it responds to probes), version detection (identifying the exact services and their versions running on open ports), script scanning (running the default NSE scripts to gather extra information), and traceroute (showing the network path to the host). In effect, -A is a shorthand for turning on OS detection, version detection, script scanning, and traceroute together, equivalent to enabling -O, -sV, -sC, and --traceroute at once. It’s not about scanning all ports by itself, not merely saving results, and it does not disable fingerprinting; it relies on fingerprinting as part of the OS detection process.