XK0-006 Troubleshooting Practice Question
A system administrator needs to capture network traffic on interface eth0, filtering for packets to or from host 10.0.0.1, and save the output to a file for later analysis. Which command accomplishes this?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
tcpdump -i eth0 host 10.0.0.1 -w capture.pcap
Both tcpdump -i eth0 host 10.0.0.1 -w capture.pcap (A) and tcpdump -i eth0 -w capture.pcap host 10.0.0.1 (D) are valid commands to capture packets to/from host 10.0.0.1 on interface eth0 and write them to a file. In tcpdump, the -w option can be placed before or after the filter expression, as long as -w is followed by the filename. Options B and C are incorrect because they use wrong syntax or options.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
tcpdump -i eth0 host 10.0.0.1 -w capture.pcap
Why this is correct
Correct. The syntax '-i eth0 host 10.0.0.1 -w capture.pcap' captures packets to/from host 10.0.0.1 on interface eth0 and writes to file.
- ✗
tcpdump -n port 10.0.0.1 -w capture.pcap
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. The -n flag disables name resolution, and 'port' is for filtering by port number, not host IP. The syntax is wrong for host filtering.
- ✗
tcpdump -i eth0 -host 10.0.0.1 > capture.pcap
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. The '-host' flag is invalid; the correct flag is 'host' without a hyphen. Also, using output redirection (>) saves text output, not packet capture data; the -w flag is needed for binary capture.
- ✓
tcpdump -i eth0 -w capture.pcap host 10.0.0.1
Why this is correct
Correct. In tcpdump, the -w option can appear before the filter expression. This command is equivalent to A; tcpdump parses the arguments correctly.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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