OS Fingerprinting Tool
(experimental)

NetScanTools Pro OS Fingerprinting Tool Description

9-6-2018 Note: we are currently evaluating the continued inclusion of this tool in NetScanTools Pro. It is based on ICMP techniques and will not give OS identifications as accurate as those provided by nmap. If you want the best identification tool, use nmap for OS Fingerprinting.

OS (operating system) Fingerprinting - this is a fascinating subject that is of interest to the security community. There are many different ways to approach this subject. Some unix based programs (like nmap) do a very good job of fingerprinting operating systems using such means as TCP and UDP response characteristics. Of course, there are some simple ways to identify operating systems by observing banners or header from a web server, an ftp server or even a telnet or SMTP login banner. The method presented here is based upon the ICMP packet response research done by Ofir Arkin (www.sys-security.com). His paper is called ICMP Usage In Scanning and it has been the subject of magazine articles and discussions within the security community. The implementation here should be considered experimental and should not be considered a complete implementation of his research in this first version. The results you see using this tool may or may not be accurate, however, some operating systems lend themselves to very direct identification using only ICMP packets and those will be readily apparent.

Without getting too far into the operating specifics, this tool relies on sending altered versions of basic ICMP packet types to the target. We then look at the responses and send further variations of those basic packet types. The responses of the target operating system are noted and use to classify the type of target operating system.

The image below shows successful identification of a 2012 server.

DEMO Version End User License Agreement (EULA)
How to Uninstall