what is ICMP ?

[jes]

I have gone to a site ( http://scan.sygatetech.com/quickscan.html ) to have my computer scanned for vulnerabilities. It told me that among several other open ports was ICMP. It also says " ICMP ping request. ICMP is used to "ping" your machine in order to test internet access"
Is ICMP ping just a regular ping (c:\windows ping)?

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I’m not trying to do anything malicious…just curious.

[mjc]

Short for Internet Control Message Protocol, an extension to the Internet Protocol (IP) defined by RFC 792. ICMP supports packets containing error, control, and informational messages. The PING command, for example, uses ICMP to test an Internet connection.


Webopedia definition.... http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/I/ICMP.html


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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[iisbob]

ICMP is part of the suite of protocols that make up TCP/IP.

it's function is for the utilities like PING/TRACERT to get and transmit data.

By itself PING is harmless, unless someone loops it on your server connection-then it can be a serious annoyance. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif



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iisbob

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.-Mark Twain

[Ghost_Hacker]

As iisbob pointed out most ICMP traffic is harmless. But there are tools that can tunnel traffic over ICMP. Because some admistrators will allow ICMP packets thur their firewall and into their networks , it makes for an easy way to pass data to a trojan program behind a network that is protected by a firewall.

Other attacks.... Some older Operating Systems could have their Routing information changed by recieving certain types of ICMP packets and a simply Denial of service attack can be caused by pinging a broadcast ip address of a network and forging the senders IP.


There are also several types of ICMP packets that can be used to gather information like local time, netmask and even round trip travel time.


ICMP has many, many uses young Jedi http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[jes]

There is another thing that I wonder about. What is a denial of service attack? It sounds like you would just flood the box with email or data...

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I’m not trying to do anything malicious…just curious.

[Ghost_Hacker]

What is a denial of service attack?


Just that to deny access to a computer's service(s). Your right about "flooding" being one type of DOS.