Active information gathering
Unlike passive information gathering, which involves an intermediate system for gathering information, active information gathering involves a direct connection with the target. The client probes for information directly with the target with no intermediate system in between. While this technique may reveal much more information than passive information gathering, there's always a chance of security alarms going off on the target system. Since there's a direct connection with the target system, all the information requests would be logged and can later be traced back to the source. The following diagram depicts active information gathering where the client is directly probing the target system:
Active information gathering with SPARTA
SPARTA is an excellent active information gathering tool. It is part of the default Kali setup. The following screenshot shows the home screen of SPARTA. In the left pane, you can simply add the IP/host you want to probe:
Upon feeding...
