Which statement about the -sV option is true?

Which statement about the -sV option is true?

• A. It disables version detection.
• B. It increases the verbosity of the output.
• C. It identifies service versions on open ports.
• D. It measures response times only.

Answer: (C)

The key idea here is that -sV enables service version detection in Nmap. When you run a scan with this switch, Nmap probes the services on open ports and compares their responses to a built-in fingerprint database to identify the exact software and version running behind each port. That’s why the statement about identifying service versions on open ports is the correct one: it captures the purpose of this option—fingerprinting what software is listening where. It doesn’t disable version detection, and its main job isn’t to just increase verbosity or to measure response times (those are controlled by other options, like -v for verbosity or timing-related flags).

The key idea here is that -sV enables service version detection in Nmap. When you run a scan with this switch, Nmap probes the services on open ports and compares their responses to a built-in fingerprint database to identify the exact software and version running behind each port. That’s why the statement about identifying service versions on open ports is the correct one: it captures the purpose of this option—fingerprinting what software is listening where. It doesn’t disable version detection, and its main job isn’t to just increase verbosity or to measure response times (those are controlled by other options, like -v for verbosity or timing-related flags).