Introduction
Xmas tree scan is a port scanner software application based technique that is designed and used for detecting open ports for a server or host. Opel (2010) argued that, “Xmas tree scan exploits a subtle loophole in the TCP RFC to differentiate between open and closed ports.” This is accomplished by manipulating the TCP header bits to invoke a response from a remote server or host. If a port is open, an out of state flag segment sent to the TCP port will be discarded while a closed port will return a RST frame response. The Xmas tree scan has such advantages as: It has high ...
