What is NMAP's default behavior regarding probing a target address before performing a scan?

• A. It probes a target address before scanning it
• B. It probes a target address after a scan
• C. It probes at the end of the scan
• D. It never probes

Answer: (B)

Nmap checks whether a target is up before starting the actual scan. By default, it sends probe packets (such as ICMP echo requests, ARP requests on local networks, or TCP probes) to see if the host responds. If a host responds, Nmap proceeds with the port and service scan; if not, it often skips or treats that target differently unless you tell it to proceed anyway. This behavior helps avoid wasting time and bandwidth on hosts that aren’t reachable. If you want to override this and scan regardless of reachability, you can use an option that disables the discovery step.