During the early footprinting phase, you are given only the target company's Internet domain and must identify the public IPv4 ranges it owns. Engagement rules forbid sending any packets toward the organization. Which approach best achieves this goal while remaining completely passive?
Look up the domain registrant in the appropriate RIR WHOIS database to view its assigned netblocks.
Perform an SNMP walk against the organization's perimeter router to enumerate interfaces and subnets.
Attempt a DNS zone transfer from the authoritative name server for the domain.
Run an Nmap ping sweep (-sn) against all addresses that resolve from the domain name.
Querying the appropriate Regional Internet Registry (RIR) WHOIS database, such as ARIN, is a passive activity that uses publicly available registration records to reveal the netblock allocations held by the domain's owner. Because the lookup is performed against a third-party registry rather than the target's infrastructure, it does not generate any traffic toward the organization, satisfying the engagement restriction. An Nmap ping sweep or SNMP walk would be active scans that violate the rules, while requesting a DNS zone transfer still sends packets to the target's name server and may be refused or logged.
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What is the RIR WHOIS database?
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Why is querying a WHOIS database considered passive reconnaissance?
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What are netblocks in the context of footprinting?
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What is an RIR WHOIS database?
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Why is a WHOIS lookup considered a passive reconnaissance technique?
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What are netblocks, and why are they important during reconnaissance?
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Reconnaissance Techniques
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