A penetration tester is writing a script to automate the initial phase of reconnaissance against a list of subnets. The script's goal is to perform a fast Nmap ping scan to discover live hosts and then run a full TCP connect scan only on the hosts that were identified as "up". Which logic construct is essential for the script to decide whether to run the more intensive scan on a per-host basis?
A conditional statement to check if a host's status is 'up' before initiating the TCP scan.
A variable assignment to store the results of the initial ping scan.
A 'for' loop to iterate through the list of hosts provided as input.
A function definition to contain the Nmap TCP scan command.
A conditional statement (like an 'if' block) is used to execute code only when a certain condition is met. In this scenario, the script would check the result of the initial ping scan for a specific host. If the host is "up", the conditional evaluates to true, and the block of code containing the full TCP scan is executed. A loop is for iteration, a function is for code organization, and variable assignment is for storing data; none of them provides the core decision-making capability.
Ask Bash
Bash is our AI bot, trained to help you pass your exam. AI Generated Content may display inaccurate information, always double-check anything important.
What are some common examples of conditional statements in scripting?
Open an interactive chat with Bash
How is a conditional statement different from a loop structure?
Open an interactive chat with Bash
When would you use a `switch` statement instead of multiple `if-else` statements?