Ping is a computer network management software utility that is used to find the availability of a host on an Internet Protocol (IP) network. And now it appears that operating systems on a networkcan be detected using the Ping Command.
Ping's operation is based on sending ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) Echo Request packets to a destination host and waiting for ICMP Echo Reply messages.
TTL values are what determine the length of time a resolver will temporarily store a DNS query before it expires and another one needs to be made.
These TTL values are different for each operating system and so can help in locating them, via Ping Command. You can see the different TTL values for operating systems here.
How can operating systems be detected via Ping Command?
Initially, the traceroute command should be executed to determine the hops between the target and the destination, as shown in the example below:
In this case, the total number of hops is 11
Then we execute the Ping Command with the desired Domain:
Here we see that the TTL value is TTL = 53. By finding the sum of the TTL value and the number of hops (53 + 11 = 64), we can figure out what the operating system is. In this case, it is a machine running Linux. This is the process through which operating systems can be detected using the Ping Command.
