Nmap Development: Re: Helping NMap Get Better OS Detection

[MadHat <madhat () unspecific com>]

On Apr 8, 2004, at 9:39 PM, Alan S. Jones wrote:
> At 09:33 PM 4/8/2004 -0500, MadHat wrote:
> > On Apr 8, 2004, at 8:24 PM, Alan S. Jones wrote:
> > You can only report the MAC if it is on the local network.  If it has
> > to get past switches into another subnet, the MAC is not included.  
> > The
> > only way I know around this is to use some protocols that report the
> > MAC, the main one being NetBIOS and the nbtstat packets on udp/137, 
> > but
> > without that there is little you can do to get the MAC from a 
> > distance.
> This is actually what I was thinking, when available i.e. on a Local 
> LAN
> same subnet, etc NMap should report the MAC address.  If it can't 
> figure it
> out don't worry, but the default should report it if it can be 
> obtained.
> This would be helpful for local LAN diagnostics and getting all the 
> info in
> one place.
Ah.  This was discussed back on Feb 26th of this year and Fyodor did 
say:
"I would like to print the MAC address for a host based on the packets
received.  As Testic mentions this will only work on a LAN.  And of
course only on Ethernet and similar systems (like 802.11B).  It is
still valuable enough that I hope to add it this year.  If someone
wants it desperately enough, you can consider sending a patch earlier
:).  I might also do a number-of-hops test of some sort both as useful
information in itself and to determine whether the next hop is the
actual target and thus corresponds to the received MAC."

So, yes it would be nice, and will probably be added, but Fyodor is 
working on his books lately, so I doubt it will be added soon, unless 
someone else steps up.

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