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Uncover The Secret Port

Beginner

Introduction

In this challenge, "Uncover The Secret Port," you'll need to identify a hidden service running on localhost. Standard Nmap scans are insufficient, so you must leverage increased verbosity to discover the port number. The service is running on a 5-digit port number to avoid confusion with common default ports.

The task involves performing an Nmap scan on localhost with verbosity level 1, saving the output to scan_results.txt, and then finding the 5-digit port number in the output. Hints suggest scanning all ports with -p- and searching for "open" in the output.

Skills Graph

Uncover The Secret Port

A critical service is running on localhost using a 5-digit port number, but standard Nmap scans aren't showing enough detail. Use increased verbosity to uncover the port number the service is using.

Tasks

  • Perform an Nmap scan on localhost, using verbosity level 1, to identify the port number of the hidden service.

Requirements

  1. You must use the nmap command.
  2. You must scan localhost.
  3. You must use the -v option to increase verbosity.
  4. You must save the Nmap output to a file named scan_results.txt in the /home/labex/project/ directory.

Examples

After running the Nmap scan, you should be able to find the 5-digit port number in the scan results. For example, if the hidden service is running on port 12345, you should see this port number listed as open in the scan results. Remember that there will be only one 5-digit port running on localhost.

Hints

  • Use the -p- option to scan all ports.
  • Use grep to search for the string "open" in the Nmap output.
  • Remember to redirect the Nmap output to a file.
  • Look for a 5-digit number between 10000 and 65535 in the output.

Summary

In this challenge, the goal is to uncover a hidden service running on a local machine by identifying its port number. This involves using Nmap with increased verbosity (-v) and scanning all ports (-p-) on localhost. The Nmap output is saved to scan_results.txt, and by examining the output, we can find the 5-digit port number where the service is running.

The challenge emphasizes the importance of using verbosity in Nmap scans to reveal more information about services, especially when standard scans are insufficient. The verification steps confirm the existence of the scan results file, ensuring the scan was properly executed and saved.