Discovery scanning is the process of identifying live hosts on a network. In the context of
penetration testing, this is usually performed to identify potential targets for attack. The
objective here is not to exhaust resources in gathering information about targets, but instead, to merely find out where the targets are logically located. The final product of our discovery should be a list of IP addresses that we can then use for further analysis. In this chapter, we will discuss how to discover hosts on a network by using protocols operating at layer 2, layer 3, and layer 4 of the OSI model.
Introduction
Knowing the OSI model
Prior to addressing each of the scanning techniques specifically, we should address a few underlying principles. The Open Systems Interconnection...