Which of the following commands will best accomplish the analyst’s objectives?

A security analyst wants to capture large amounts of network data that will be analyzed at a later time. The packet capture does not need to be in a format that is readable by humans, since it will be put into a binary file called "packetCapture." The capture must be as efficient as possible, and the analyst wants to minimize the likelihood that packets will be missed.

Which of the following commands will best accomplish the analyst’s objectives?
A . tcpdump -w packetCapture
B . tcpdump -a packetCapture
C . tcpdump -n packetCapture
D . nmap -v > packetCapture
E . nmap -oA > packetCapture

View Answer

Answer: A

Explanation:

The tcpdump command is a network packet analyzer tool that can capture and display network traffic. The -w option specifies a file name to write the captured packets to, in a binary format that can be read by tcpdump or other tools later. This option is useful for capturing large amounts of network data that will be analyzed at a later time, as the question requires. The packet capture does not need to be in a format that is readable by humans, since it will be put into a binary file called “packetCapture”. The capture must be as efficient as possible, and the -w option minimizes the processing and output overhead of tcpdump, reducing the likelihood that packets will be missed.