Which Nmap scan type is used for a Ping Scan?

Which Nmap scan type is used for a Ping Scan?

• A. -sO
• B. -sP
• C. -sR
• D. -sS

Answer: (B)

Ping scanning finds which hosts are alive on the network by sending probes and awaiting responses, and it does not touch any ports. The flag historically used for this host-discovery approach is -sP, which tells Nmap to perform a ping sweep to see which targets respond. In current practice, -sn is the modern equivalent for host discovery, but -sP remains the traditional option associated with a Ping Scan. The other scan types serve different purposes: -sO is used for OS detection, -sR is an RPC scan, and -sS is a TCP SYN port scan. Since the goal is to identify live hosts without port scanning, the Ping Scan flag -sP is the best fit.

Ping scanning finds which hosts are alive on the network by sending probes and awaiting responses, and it does not touch any ports. The flag historically used for this host-discovery approach is -sP, which tells Nmap to perform a ping sweep to see which targets respond. In current practice, -sn is the modern equivalent for host discovery, but -sP remains the traditional option associated with a Ping Scan. The other scan types serve different purposes: -sO is used for OS detection, -sR is an RPC scan, and -sS is a TCP SYN port scan. Since the goal is to identify live hosts without port scanning, the Ping Scan flag -sP is the best fit.