As part of active reconnaissance, penetration testers need to determine whether a protection mechanism is...

 Detecting a Web Application Firewall (WAF) helps penetration testers understand the protective measures in place and tailor their testing methods to bypass these defenses.

 Details:

A. Direct-to-origin testing: Useful for bypassing CDN but not specifically for detecting protective mechanisms like WAF.

B. Antivirus scanning: Not relevant for web application attacks.

C. Scapy packet crafting: Useful for network-level testing but not for detecting web application protections.

D. WAF detection: Identifies if a WAF is present, which is critical for understanding and bypassing web application defenses.

 References: WAF detection techniques are documented in web application security testing methodologies such as OWASP.