CompTIA PenTest+ Exam: Identifying OS Based on Ping TTL Response

Which Operating System Returns a 128 TTL Packet?

Question

A penetration tester ran a ping '"A command during an unknown environment test, and it returned a 128 TTL packet.

Which of the following OSs would MOST likely return a packet of this type?

Answers

Explanations

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A. B. C. D.

A.

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-identify-basic-internet-problems-with-ping/

In network communication, Time-to-Live (TTL) refers to the number of hops that a packet can traverse before it is discarded by a router. Each router decrements the TTL value by one, and when the TTL value becomes zero, the packet is discarded.

In this scenario, the ping command returned a packet with a TTL value of 128. The default TTL value for a ping command is 128 in many operating systems, including Windows, Apple, and Linux. However, some operating systems may use a different default value.

Given this information alone, it is difficult to determine the specific operating system that returned the packet with a TTL value of 128. However, we can make some educated guesses based on typical default TTL values for different operating systems.

Windows and Apple both typically use a default TTL value of 128, which means that it is possible that either operating system could have returned the packet in question.

Linux, on the other hand, typically uses a default TTL value of 64, which suggests that it is less likely that the packet was generated by a Linux system. However, it is important to note that the default TTL value can be changed in Linux, so it is still possible that a Linux system could have generated the packet.

Android is a mobile operating system that is based on the Linux kernel. Like Linux, Android typically uses a default TTL value of 64. However, like Linux, it is possible to modify the default TTL value in Android.

Therefore, based solely on the information given, it is difficult to determine with certainty which operating system returned the packet with a TTL value of 128. However, given that both Windows and Apple typically use a default TTL value of 128, it is more likely that the packet was generated by one of these operating systems.