Security News > 2023 > August > The power of passive OS fingerprinting for accurate IoT device identification

Typically, admins can identify devices and OSes through unique Device IDs assigned by software agents that run on network endpoints and collect information for device identification.

For those reasons, we need a passive approach to identification that does not involve software installations and works equally well with systems that are customized and stripped down to meet specific IoT device requirements.

Instead of installing a software agent, passive OS fingerprinting involves analyzing network traffic patterns and behaviors generated by the devices to determine their operating system.

OS fingerprinting is, essentially, matching a device's network traffic patterns and attributes against known OS profiles and classifying the traffic accordingly.

Despite its limitations, analyzing behaviors and attributes for several protocols across the network layers can help in accurate device identification.

OS fingerprinting can be helpful for passive device identification, given the rapid expansion of IoT networks and the vulnerabilities they introduce.

News URL

https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2023/08/31/passive-os-fingerprinting/