CAPEC-305: TCP ACK Scan
Description
An adversary uses TCP ACK segments to gather information about firewall or ACL configuration. The purpose of this type of scan is to discover information about filter configurations rather than port state. This type of scanning is rarely useful alone, but when combined with SYN scanning, gives a more complete picture of the type of firewall rules that are present.
- Likelihood of attack
- Not rated by MITRE
- Typical severity
- Low
- Abstraction
- DetailedA low-level, detailed pattern, often for a particular technology.
Mechanism of attack: Collect and Analyze Information
Prerequisites
- The adversary requires logical access to the target network. ACK scanning requires the use of raw sockets, and thus cannot be performed from some Windows systems (Windows XP SP 2, for example). On Unix and Linux, raw socket manipulations require root privileges.
Consequences
- Confidentiality
Other
- ConfidentialityAccess ControlAuthorization
Bypass Protection Mechanism; Hide Activities
Mitigations
CAPEC 3.9 lists no mitigation for this pattern; see its child patterns or related weaknesses.