What does the --traceroute option do and what information does it provide?

• A. Enables traceroute reporting, showing the network path hops to each target
• B. Traces port states
• C. Displays DNS path
• D. Enables TTL-limited scanning

Answer: (A)

Traceroute reveals the route packets take to a target by eliciting responses from each hop along the path. When you use the --traceroute option in a scan, Nmap runs traceroute to each target and reports the sequence of routers (the hops) the traffic passes through, including the IP addresses of those hops and the round-trip times. This gives you a view of the network path to each destination and helps you understand routing, identify where filtering or firewalling sits, and spot changes in the path over time.

This option isn’t about checking port states, nor about displaying a DNS path, and it isn’t used for TTL-limited scanning.