These steps will guide you to perform OS identification using the xprobe2 command:
- To execute an operating system identification scan on a remote system with the xprobe2 command, the program needs to be passed a single argument that consists of the IP address of the system to be scanned:
- The output of this tool can be somewhat misleading. There are several different Linux kernels that indicate a 100% probability for that particular operating system. Obviously, that cannot be correct.
- The xprobe2 tool actually bases this percentage on the number of possible signatures associated with that operating system that were confirmed on the target system.
- Unfortunately, as can be seen with this output, the signatures are not granular enough to distinguish between minor versions. Nonetheless, this tool can be a helpful additional resource in identifying a target operating system.