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Port Scan

nounid 3626·updated May 9, 2026
verified

A port scan is a series of messages sent by someone attempting to break into a computer to learn which computer network services, each associated with a "well-known" port number, the computer provides. Port scanning, a favorite approach of computer cracker, gives the assailant an idea where to probe for weaknesses. Essentially, a port scan consists of sending a message to each port, one at a time. The kind of response received indicates whether the port is used and can therefore be probed for weakness.

MWE

Attested in

No recorded attestations. They are written when an MWE tagging stage is completed, stamped with the pack version and the document’s digest.

Classifications

Entity Type

Threat85%llm-generatedllm:claude-haiku-4-5

Sensitivity

unclassified

Information Class

unclassified

Variants

plural
Port Scans
possessive
Port Scan's
pluralpossessive
Port Scans'

Framework definitions

SANS Glossary of Security Terms1 senseview framework →
§1
A port scan is a series of messages sent by someone attempting to break into a computer to learn which computer network services, each associated with a "well-known" port number, the computer provides. Port scanning, a favorite approach of computer cracker, gives the assailant an idea where to probe for weaknesses. Essentially, a port scan consists of sending a message to each port, one at a time. The kind of response received indicates whether the port is used and can therefore be probed for weakness.
Legacy lexicon import1 senseview framework →
§1 · legacy_primary
A port scan is a series of messages sent by someone attempting to break into a computer to learn which computer network services, each associated with a "well-known" port number, the computer provides. Port scanning, a favorite approach of computer cracker, gives the assailant an idea where to probe for weaknesses. Essentially, a port scan consists of sending a message to each port, one at a time. The kind of response received indicates whether the port is used and can therefore be probed for weakness.
DR-088 backfill from the noun definition column

Outgoing relationships

No outgoing triples
This term is not the subject of any RDF-style relationship yet.

Incoming relationships

No incoming triples
No other term currently asserts a relationship to this one.