XK0-006 Troubleshooting Practice Question
An administrator needs to capture network traffic on interface eth0 to a file for later analysis. Which tcpdump command is correct?
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 -w capture.pcap -i eth0
Both A and C are valid tcpdump commands. tcpdump accepts options in any order, so '-w capture.pcap -i eth0' (A) and '-i eth0 -w capture.pcap' (C) are functionally equivalent. Option B uses '-f' which is for filter expression, not output file. Option D is invalid because '-w' expects a filename, not an interface.
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 -w capture.pcap -i eth0
Why this is correct
Correct. The order of options does not matter; this command writes packets from eth0 to capture.pcap.
- ✗
tcpdump -i eth0 -f capture.pcap
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. The -f option is used for filter expressions, not for specifying an output file.
- ✓
tcpdump -i eth0 -w capture.pcap
Why this is correct
Correct. This is a standard tcpdump command to capture on eth0 and write to capture.pcap.
- ✗
tcpdump -w eth0 capture.pcap
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. The -w option requires a filename as its argument; 'eth0' is interpreted as the filename, which would attempt to write to a file named 'eth0' and capture on a random interface or default.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This XK0-006 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the XK0-006 exam.