Sorry if I wasn't clear--I agree. The issue here is not the behavior of nmap, but the fact that nmap does not see the icmp and http responses from the target and assumes the host is offline.
Tobias Ulmer wrote: > On Fri, Feb 03, 2006 at 10:02:32PM -0500, Melameth, Daniel D. wrote: > > I don't get it--it appears nmap is broken. Perhaps I'm overlooking > > something obvious, but any thoughts appreciated... > > > > > > An nmap scan gives me this: > > > > $ sudo nmap 208.139.x.x > > > > Starting nmap 3.81 ( http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ ) at 2006-02-03 > > 19:45 MST Note: Host seems down. If it is really up, but blocking > > our ping probes, try -P0 Nmap finished: 1 IP address (0 hosts up) > > scanned in 2.109 seconds > > > > Which I follow up with a: > > > > $ ping -c 5 208.139.x.x > > PING 208.139.x.x (208.139.x.x): 56 data bytes > > 64 bytes from 208.139.x.x: icmp_seq=0 ttl=239 time=91.979 ms > > 64 bytes from 208.139.x.x: icmp_seq=1 ttl=239 time=84.497 ms > > 64 bytes from 208.139.x.x: icmp_seq=2 ttl=239 time=82.354 ms > > 64 bytes from 208.139.x.x: icmp_seq=3 ttl=239 time=87.825 ms > > 64 bytes from 208.139.x.x: icmp_seq=4 ttl=239 time=85.699 ms > > --- 208.139.x.x ping statistics --- > > 5 packets transmitted, 5 packets received, 0.0% packet loss > > round-trip min/avg/max/std-dev = 82.354/86.470/91.979/3.295 ms > > > > Running while the above is happening, tcpdumps yield: > > > > $ sudo tcpdump -nqi pppoe0 src host 208.139.x.x and dst host > > 209.180.x.x tcpdump: listening on pppoe0, link-type PPP_ETHER > > 19:45:49.671358 208.139.x.x > 209.180.x.x: icmp: 0 0 > > 19:45:49.674068 208.139.x.x.80 > 209.180.x.x.57989: tcp 0 (DF) > > 19:45:50.683407 208.139.x.x > 209.180.x.x: icmp: 0 0 > > 19:45:50.691346 208.139.x.x.80 > 209.180.x.x.57985: tcp 0 (DF) > > 19:46:00.565862 208.139.x.x > 209.180.x.x: icmp: 0 0 > > 19:46:01.565834 208.139.x.x > 209.180.x.x: icmp: 0 0 > > 19:46:02.573631 208.139.x.x > 209.180.x.x: icmp: 0 0 > > 19:46:03.589132 208.139.x.x > 209.180.x.x: icmp: 0 0 > > 19:46:04.596986 208.139.x.x > 209.180.x.x: icmp: 0 0 > > > > $ sudo tcpdump -qni pflog0 > > tcpdump: WARNING: pflog0: no IPv4 address assigned > > tcpdump: listening on pflog0, link-type PFLOG > > > > > > I'm not certain where to look next. > > This is normal behaviour (at least with the many 3.* versions I have > used). Nmap checks for open ports like http (look at your tcpdump > output) and does not always rely on icmp. Nothing OpenBSD > specific, you have that on a linux box, too.