Systematically enumerating the open ports on a computer system to determine active services.
A method an attacker uses to enumerate what services are running on your network. An attacker sends requests on different ports and takes note of which ports respond in certain way. This is how an attacker knows what attacks will work on which of your systems. Ports map to applications and applications map to attacks. We perform port scans during a Vulnerability Assessment to get the same view of your network that an attacker has, and to find evidence of an attackers presence.
a method of checking a computer to see what ports are open by trying to establish a connection to each and every port on the target computer
a method of remotely checking what services are running on a computer system
a method used by hackers to determine what ports are open or in use on a system or network
a remote probe of the services a computer is running
a technique that provides the hacker with a list of the ports that are open
The act of systematically scanning a computer's ports [in … networks, an endpoint to a logical connection]. Since a port is a place where information goes into and out of a computer, port scanning identifies open doors to a computer. Port scanning has legitimate uses in managing networks, but port scanning also can be malicious in nature if someone is looking for a weakened access point to break into your computer.” ( port scanning, 2004)
the act of looking at all ports on a machine to see which ones will accept a connection. This can be useful for determining firewall weaknesses. It can also be used for nefarious purposes which we do not condone. For more information, see the Port Scan Window section.
The process a hacker uses to identify access points into a computer system.
Automated sweep of ports on the target machine to find any that are open that could be used to provide a back door. It can be detected by an IDS and shows up in log files.
a software program used to send a series of messages to each port on a computer, one at a time, to see which ports are open. While used by network administrators to test system security, port scanning gives a hacker an idea where to probe for weaknesses to access the system.