Which of the following Nmap commands performs a full TCP SYN port scan with OS and version detection and outputs XML?

Which of the following Nmap commands performs a full TCP SYN port scan with OS and version detection and outputs XML?

• A. nmap -n -Pn -sS -pT: 0-65535 -v -A -oX <Name> <IP>
• B. nmap -n -Pn -sS -pT: 0-65535 -v -A -oX <Name> <IP>
• C. nmap -sU -A -oX <Name> <IP>
• D. nmap -n -Pn -sS -pT:0-65535 -sU -v -A -oX <Name> <IP>

Answer: (B)

The main idea is to perform a full TCP SYN port sweep while gathering host details and producing XML output. A SYN scan is invoked with -sS, which probes ports without completing the TCP three-way handshake. To cover every TCP port, the port specification must include the entire range for TCP, written as -pT:0-65535 with no space after the colon. The option -A enables OS detection and version detection (and runs scripts), giving you both the operating system information and service versions. Using -Pn skips initial host discovery so the scan targets the host directly, and -n avoids DNS lookups for speed. -oX directs the results into XML, and -v adds verbosity for progress. The correct command uses the exact port-spec syntax without the space after the colon, ensuring Nmap parses the full 0-65535 TCP range correctly while applying the OS/version detection and XML output. The other version introduces a stray space in the port specification, which can break the command’s parsing and prevent it from running as intended.

The main idea is to perform a full TCP SYN port sweep while gathering host details and producing XML output. A SYN scan is invoked with -sS, which probes ports without completing the TCP three-way handshake. To cover every TCP port, the port specification must include the entire range for TCP, written as -pT:0-65535 with no space after the colon. The option -A enables OS detection and version detection (and runs scripts), giving you both the operating system information and service versions. Using -Pn skips initial host discovery so the scan targets the host directly, and -n avoids DNS lookups for speed. -oX directs the results into XML, and -v adds verbosity for progress.

The correct command uses the exact port-spec syntax without the space after the colon, ensuring Nmap parses the full 0-65535 TCP range correctly while applying the OS/version detection and XML output. The other version introduces a stray space in the port specification, which can break the command’s parsing and prevent it from running as intended.