Encyclopedia

operating system fingerprinting

Determining the type of operating system used by studying the types of packets flowing from a system. Passive OS fingerprinting only analyzes the packets. Active OS fingerprinting sends challenges to the OS and examines the type of responses. See nmap.

Copyright © 1981-2025 by The Computer Language Company Inc. All Rights reserved. THIS DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY. All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.

References in periodicals archive

Nmap Operating System fingerprinting provides operating system detection technology.

Information security testing

All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.