Network Traffic Analysis
Tcpdump
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
tcpdump --version |
Prints the tcpdump and libpcap version strings then exits. |
tcpdump -h |
Prints the help and usage information. |
tcpdump -D |
Prints a list of usable network interfaces from which tcpdump can capture. |
tcpdump -i (interface name or #) |
Executes tcpdump and utilizes the interface specified to capture on. |
tcpdump -i (int) -w file.pcap |
Runs a capture on the specified interface and writes the output to a file. |
tcpdump -r file.pcap |
TCPDump will read the output from a specified file. |
tcpdump -r/-w file.pcap -l \\| grep 'string' |
TCPDump will utilize the capture traffic from a live capture or a file and set stdout as line-buffered. We can then utilize pipe (\ |
tcpdump -i (int) host (ip) |
TCPDump will start a capture on the interface specified at (int) and will only capture traffic originating from or destined to the IP address or hostname specified after host. |
tcpdump -i (int) port (#) |
Will filter the capture for anything sourcing from or destined to port (#) and discard the rest. |
tcpdump -i (int) proto (#) |
Will filter the capture for any protocol traffic matching the (#). For example, (6) would filter for any TCP traffic and discard the rest. |
tcpdump -i (int) (proto name) |
Will utilize a protocols common name to filter the traffic captured. TCP/UDP/ICMP as examples. |
Tcpdump Common Switches and Filters
| Switch/Filter | Description |
|---|---|
D |
Will display any interfaces available to capture from. |
i |
Selects an interface to capture from. ex. -i eth0 |
n |
Do not resolve hostnames. |
nn |
Do not resolve hostnames or well-known ports. |
e |
Will grab the ethernet header along with upper-layer data. |
X |
Show Contents of packets in hex and ASCII. |
XX |
Same as X, but will also specify ethernet headers. (like using Xe) |
v, vv, vvv |
Increase the verbosity of output shown and saved. |
c |
Grab a specific number of packets, then quit the program. |
s |
Defines how much of a packet to grab. |
S |
change relative sequence numbers in the capture display to absolute sequence numbers. (13248765839 instead of 101) |
q |
Print less protocol information. |
r file.pcap |
Read from a file. |
w file.pcap |
Write into a file |
host |
Host will filter visible traffic to show anything involving the designated host. Bi-directional |
src / dest |
src and dest are modifiers. We can use them to designate a source or destination host or port. |
net |
net will show us any traffic sourcing from or destined to the network designated. It uses / notation. |
proto |
will filter for a specific protocol type. (ether, TCP, UDP, and ICMP as examples) |
port |
port is bi-directional. It will show any traffic with the specified port as the source or destination. |
portrange |
Portrange allows us to specify a range of ports. (0-1024) |
less / greater "< >" |
less and greater can be used to look for a packet or protocol option of a specific size. |
and / && |
and && can be used to concatenate two different filters together. for example, src host AND port. |
or |
or Or allows for a match on either of two conditions. It does not have to meet both. It can be tricky. |
not |
not is a modifier saying anything but x. For example, not UDP. |
TShark
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
tshark -h |
Prints the help menu. |
tshark -D |
List available interfaces to capture from. |
tshark -i (int) |
Capture on a selected interface. Replace (int) with the interface name or number. |
tshark -i eth0 -f "host (ip)" |
apply a filter with (-f) looking for a specific host while utilizing tshark |
D |
Will display any interfaces available to capture from and then exit out. |
L |
Will list the Link-layer mediums you can capture from and then exit out. (ethernet as an example) |
i |
choose an interface to capture from. (-i eth0) |
f |
packet filter in libpcap syntax. Used during capture. |
c |
Grab a specific number of packets, then quit the program. Defines a stop condition. |
a |
Defines an autostop condition. It can be after a duration, specific file size, or after a certain number of packets. |
r (pcap-file) |
Read from a file. |
W (pcap-file) |
Write into a file using the pcapng format. |
P |
Will print the packet summary while writing into a file (-W) |
x |
will add Hex and ASCII output into the capture. |
h |
See the help menu |
WireShark
| Capture Filter | Description |
|---|---|
host x.x.x.x |
Capture only traffic pertaining to a certain host |
net x.x.x.x/24 |
Capture traffic to or from a specific network (using slash notation to specify the mask) |
src/dst net x.x.x.x/24 |
Using src or dst net will only capture traffic sourcing from the specified network or destined to the target network |
port # |
will filter out all traffic except the port you specify |
not |
will capture everything except the variable specified. ex. not port 80 |
and |
AND will concatenate your specified ports. ex. host 192.168.1.1 and port 80 |
portrange x-x |
Portrange will grab traffic from all ports within the range only |
ip / ether / tcp |
These filters will only grab traffic from specified protocol headers. |
broadcast / multicast / unicast |
Grabs a specific type of traffic. one to one, one to many, or one to all. |
| Display Filter | Description |
|---|---|
ip.addr == x.x.x.x |
Capture only traffic pertaining to a certain host. This is an OR statement. |
ip.addr == x.x.x.x/24 |
Capture traffic pertaining to a specific network. This is an OR statement. |
ip.src/dst == x.x.x.x |
Capture traffic to or from a specific host. |
dns / tcp / ftp / arp / ip |
filter traffic by a specific protocol. There are many more options. |
tcp.port == x |
filter by a specific tcp port. |
src.port / dst.port ==x |
will capture everything except the port specified. |
and / or / not |
AND will concatenate, OR will find either of two options, NOT will exclude your input option. |
tcp.stream eq # |
Allows us to follow a tcp session in which we captured the entire stream. Replace (#) with the session to reassemble. |
http |
Will filter for any traffic matching the http protocol. |
http && image-jfif |
This filter will display any packet with a jpeg image file. |
ftp |
Filters for the ftp protocol. |
ftp.request.command |
Will filter for any control commands sent over ftp control channel. |
ftp-data |
Will show any objects transfered over ftp. |