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ARP-FINGERPRINT(1)	    General Commands Manual	    ARP-FINGERPRINT(1)

NAME
       arp-fingerprint - Fingerprint a system using ARP

SYNOPSIS
       arp-fingerprint [options] target

       The target should be specified as a single IP address or	hostname.  You
       cannot specify multiple targets,	IP networks or ranges.

       If  you	use an IP address for the target, you can use the -o option to
       pass the	--numeric option to arp-scan, which will prevent it  from  at-
       tempting	 DNS  lookups.	 This can speed	up the fingerprinting process,
       especially on systems with a slow or faulty DNS configuration.

DESCRIPTION
       arp-fingerprint fingerprints the	specified target host  using  the  ARP
       protocol.

       It  sends  various  different  types  of	ARP request to the target, and
       records which types it responds to. From	this, it constructs a  finger-
       print string consisting of "1" where the	target responded and "0" where
       it  did	not.  An example of a fingerprint string is 01000100000.  This
       fingerprint string is then used to lookup the likely  target  operating
       system.

       Many  of	 the  fingerprint strings are shared by	several	operating sys-
       tems, so	there is not always a one-to-one mapping  between  fingerprint
       strings	and  operating	systems. Also the fact that a system's finger-
       print matches a certain operating system	(or list of operating systems)
       does not	necessarily mean that the system being fingerprinted  is  that
       operating system, although it is	quite likely. This is because the list
       of  operating systems is	not exhaustive;	it is just what	I have discov-
       ered to date, and there are bound to be operating systems that are  not
       listed.

       The  ARP	 fingerprint  of a system is generally a function of that sys-
       tem's kernel (although it is possible for the ARP function to be	imple-
       mented in user space, it	almost never is).

       Sometimes, an operating system can give different fingerprints  depend-
       ing on the configuration.  An example is	Linux, which will respond to a
       non-local  source IP address if that IP is routed through the interface
       being tested.  This is both good	and bad: on one	hand it	makes the fin-
       gerprinting task	more complex; but on the other,	it can allow some  as-
       pects of	the system configuration to be determined.

       Sometimes  the fact that	two different operating	systems	share a	common
       ARP fingerprint string points to	a re-use of networking code. One exam-
       ple of this is Windows NT and FreeBSD.

       arp-fingerprint uses arp-scan to	send the ARP requests and receive  the
       replies.

       There  are other	methods	that can be used to fingerprint	a system using
       arp-scan	which can be used in addition to arp-fingerprint.  These addi-
       tional methods are not included in arp-fingerprint either because  they
       are  likely  to	cause disruption to the	target system, or because they
       require knowledge of the	target's configuration that may	not always  be
       available.

       Most  of	 the ARP requests that arp-fingerprint sends are non-standard,
       so it could disrupt systems that	don't have a robust TCP/IP stack.

OPTIONS
       -h     Display a	brief usage message and	exit.

       -v     Display verbose progress messages.

       -o <option-string>
	      Pass specified options to	arp-scan. You need to enclose the  op-
	      tions  string  in	 quotes	 if  it	 contains spaces. e.g.	-o "-I
	      eth1".  The commonly used	options	are --interface	(-I) and --nu-
	      meric (-N).

       -l     Fingerprint all hosts on the local network. You do not  need  to
	      specify any target hosts if this option is given.

EXAMPLES
       $ arp-fingerprint 192.168.0.1
       192.168.0.1   01000100000     Linux 2.2,	2.4, 2.6

       $ arp-fingerprint -o "-N	-I eth1" 192.168.0.202
       192.168.0.202 11110100000     FreeBSD 5.3, Win98, WinME,	NT4, 2000, XP, 2003

NOTES
       arp-fingerprint	is  implemented	 in Perl, so you need to have the Perl
       interpreter installed on	your system to use it.

SEE ALSO
       arp-scan(1)

       http://www.royhills.co.uk/wiki/ The arp-scan wiki page.

			       October 27, 2022		    ARP-FINGERPRINT(1)

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