Besides the Wireshark GUI application, there are some command line tools which can be helpful for doing some more specialized things. These tools will be described in this chapter.

TShark is a terminal oriented version of Wireshark designed for capturing and displaying packets when an interactive user interface isn't necessary or available. It supports the same options as wireshark. For more information on tshark, see the manual pages (man tshark). TShark 1.11.0 (SVN Rev 49633 from /trunk) Dump and analyze network traffic. See http://www.wireshark.org for more information. Copyright 1998-2013 Gerald Combs <gerald@wireshark.org> and contributors. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Usage: tshark [options] ... Capture interface: -i <interface> name or idx of interface (def: first non-loopback) -f <capture filter> packet filter in libpcap filter syntax -s <snaplen> packet snapshot length (def: 65535) -p don't capture in promiscuous mode -I capture in monitor mode, if available -B <buffer size> size of kernel buffer (def: 1MB) -y <link type> link layer type (def: first appropriate) -D print list of interfaces and exit -L print list of link-layer types of iface and exit Capture stop conditions: -c <packet count> stop after n packets (def: infinite) -a <autostop cond.> ... duration:NUM - stop after NUM seconds filesize:NUM - stop this file after NUM KB files:NUM - stop after NUM files Capture output: -b <ringbuffer opt.> ... duration:NUM - switch to next file after NUM secs filesize:NUM - switch to next file after NUM KB files:NUM - ringbuffer: replace after NUM files RPCAP options: -A <user>:<password> use RPCAP password authentication Input file: -r <infile> set the filename to read from (no pipes or stdin!) Processing: -2 perform a two-pass analysis -R <read filter> packet Read filter in Wireshark display filter syntax -Y <display filter> packet displaY filter in Wireshark display filter syntax -n disable all name resolutions (def: all enabled) -N <name resolve flags> enable specific name resolution(s): "mntC" -d <layer_type>==<selector>,<decode_as_protocol> ... "Decode As", see the man page for details Example: tcp.port==8888,http -H <hosts file> read a list of entries from a hosts file, which will then be written to a capture file. (Implies -W n) Output: -w <outfile|-> write packets to a pcap-format file named "outfile" (or to the standard output for "-") -C <config profile> start with specified configuration profile -F <output file type> set the output file type, default is libpcap an empty "-F" option will list the file types -V add output of packet tree (Packet Details) -O <protocols> Only show packet details of these protocols, comma separated -P print packet summary even when writing to a file -S <separator> the line separator to print between packets -x add output of hex and ASCII dump (Packet Bytes) -T pdml|ps|psml|text|fields format of text output (def: text) -e <field> field to print if -Tfields selected (e.g. tcp.port, col.Info); this option can be repeated to print multiple fields -E<fieldsoption>=<value> set options for output when -Tfields selected: header=y|n switch headers on and off separator=/t|/s|<char> select tab, space, printable character as separator occurrence=f|l|a print first, last or all occurrences of each field aggregator=,|/s|<char> select comma, space, printable character as aggregator quote=d|s|n select double, single, no quotes for values -t ad|a|r|d|dd|e output format of time stamps (def: r: rel. to first) -u s|hms output format of seconds (def: s: seconds) -l flush standard output after each packet -q be more quiet on stdout (e.g. when using statistics) -Q only log true errors to stderr (quieter than -q) -g enable group read access on the output file(s) -W n Save extra information in the file, if supported. n = write network address resolution information -X <key>:<value> eXtension options, see the man page for details -z <statistics> various statistics, see the man page for details Miscellaneous: -h display this help and exit -v display version info and exit -o <name>:<value> ... override preference setting -K <keytab> keytab file to use for kerberos decryption -G [report] dump one of several available reports and exit default report="fields" use "-G ?" for more help

There are occasions when you want to capture packets using tcpdump rather than wireshark, especially when you want to do a remote capture and do not want the network load associated with running Wireshark remotely (not to mention all the X traffic polluting your capture). However, the default tcpdump parameters result in a capture file where each packet is truncated, because most versions of tcpdump, will, by default, only capture the first 68 or 96 bytes of each packet. To ensure that you capture complete packets, use the following command: tcpdump -i <interface> -s 65535 -w <some-file> You will have to specify the correct interface and the name of a file to save into. In addition, you will have to terminate the capture with ^C when you believe you have captured enough packets. tcpdump is not part of the Wireshark distribution. You can get it from: &TcpdumpWebsite; for various platforms.

Dumpcap is a network traffic dump tool. It captures packet data from a live network and writes the packets to a file. Dumpcap's native capture file format is libpcap format, which is also the format used by Wireshark, tcpdump and various other tools. Without any options set it will use the pcap library to capture traffic from the first available network interface and write the received raw packet data, along with the packets' time stamps into a libpcap file. Packet capturing is performed with the pcap library. The capture filter syntax follows the rules of the pcap library. Dumpcap 1.11.0 (SVN Rev 49633 from /trunk) Capture network packets and dump them into a pcapng file. See http://www.wireshark.org for more information. Usage: dumpcap [options] ... Capture interface: -i <interface> name or idx of interface (def: first non-loopback) or for remote capturing, use one of these formats: rpcap://<host>/<interface> TCP@<host>:<port> -f <capture filter> packet filter in libpcap filter syntax -s <snaplen> packet snapshot length (def: 65535) -p don't capture in promiscuous mode -I capture in monitor mode, if available -B <buffer size> size of kernel buffer in MB (def: 2MB) -y <link type> link layer type (def: first appropriate) -D print list of interfaces and exit -L print list of link-layer types of iface and exit -d print generated BPF code for capture filter -k set channel on wifi interface <freq>,[<type>] -S print statistics for each interface once per second -M for -D, -L, and -S, produce machine-readable output RPCAP options: -r don't ignore own RPCAP traffic in capture -u use UDP for RPCAP data transfer -A <user>:<password> use RPCAP password authentication -m <sampling type> use packet sampling count:NUM - capture one packet of every NUM timer:NUM - capture no more than 1 packet in NUM ms Stop conditions: -c <packet count> stop after n packets (def: infinite) -a <autostop cond.> ... duration:NUM - stop after NUM seconds filesize:NUM - stop this file after NUM KB files:NUM - stop after NUM files Output (files): -w <filename> name of file to save (def: tempfile) -g enable group read access on the output file(s) -b <ringbuffer opt.> ... duration:NUM - switch to next file after NUM secs filesize:NUM - switch to next file after NUM KB files:NUM - ringbuffer: replace after NUM files -n use pcapng format instead of pcap (default) -P use libpcap format instead of pcapng Miscellaneous: -N <packet_limit> maximum number of packets buffered within dumpcap -C <byte_limit> maximum number of bytes used for buffering packets within dumpcap -t use a separate thread per interface -q don't report packet capture counts -v print version information and exit -h display this help and exit Example: dumpcap -i eth0 -a duration:60 -w output.pcapng "Capture packets from interface eth0 until 60s passed into output.pcapng" Use Ctrl-C to stop capturing at any time.

Included with Wireshark is a small utility called capinfos, which is a command-line utility to print information about binary capture files. Capinfos 1.11.0 (SVN Rev 49633 from /trunk) Prints various information (infos) about capture files. See http://www.wireshark.org for more information. Usage: capinfos [options] <infile> ... General infos: -t display the capture file type -E display the capture file encapsulation -H display the SHA1, RMD160, and MD5 hashes of the file -k display the capture comment Size infos: -c display the number of packets -s display the size of the file (in bytes) -d display the total length of all packets (in bytes) -l display the packet size limit (snapshot length) Time infos: -u display the capture duration (in seconds) -a display the capture start time -e display the capture end time -o display the capture file chronological status (True/False) -S display start and end times as seconds Statistic infos: -y display average data rate (in bytes/sec) -i display average data rate (in bits/sec) -z display average packet size (in bytes) -x display average packet rate (in packets/sec) Output format: -L generate long report (default) -T generate table report -M display machine-readable values in long reports Table report options: -R generate header record (default) -r do not generate header record -B separate infos with TAB character (default) -m separate infos with comma (,) character -b separate infos with SPACE character -N do not quote infos (default) -q quote infos with single quotes (') -Q quote infos with double quotes (") Miscellaneous: -h display this help and exit -C cancel processing if file open fails (default is to continue) -A generate all infos (default) Options are processed from left to right order with later options superceeding or adding to earlier options. If no options are given the default is to display all infos in long report output format.

Rawshark reads a stream of packets from a file or pipe, and prints a line describing its output, followed by a set of matching fields for each packet on stdout. Rawshark 1.11.0 (SVN Rev 49633 from /trunk) Dump and analyze network traffic. See http://www.wireshark.org for more information. Copyright 1998-2013 Gerald Combs <gerald@wireshark.org> and contributors. This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Usage: rawshark [options] ... Input file: -r <infile> set the pipe or file name to read from Processing: -d <encap:dlt>|<proto:protoname> packet encapsulation or protocol -F <field> field to display -n disable all name resolution (def: all enabled) -N <name resolve flags> enable specific name resolution(s): "mntC" -p use the system's packet header format (which may have 64-bit timestamps) -R <read filter> packet filter in Wireshark display filter syntax -s skip PCAP header on input Output: -l flush output after each packet -S format string for fields (%D - name, %S - stringval, %N numval) -t ad|a|r|d|dd|e output format of time stamps (def: r: rel. to first) Miscellaneous: -h display this help and exit -o <name>:<value> ... override preference setting -v display version info and exit

Included with Wireshark is a small utility called editcap, which is a command-line utility for working with capture files. Its main function is to remove packets from capture files, but it can also be used to convert capture files from one format to another, as well as to print information about capture files. Editcap 1.11.0 (SVN Rev 49633 from /trunk) Edit and/or translate the format of capture files. See http://www.wireshark.org for more information. Usage: editcap [options] ... <infile> <outfile> [ <packet#>[-<packet#>] ... ] <infile> and <outfile> must both be present. A single packet or a range of packets can be selected. Packet selection: -r keep the selected packets; default is to delete them. -A <start time> only output packets whose timestamp is after (or equal to) the given time (format as YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss). -B <stop time> only output packets whose timestamp is before the given time (format as YYYY-MM-DD hh:mm:ss). Duplicate packet removal: -d remove packet if duplicate (window == 5). -D <dup window> remove packet if duplicate; configurable <dup window> Valid <dup window> values are 0 to 1000000. NOTE: A <dup window> of 0 with -v (verbose option) is useful to print MD5 hashes. -w <dup time window> remove packet if duplicate packet is found EQUAL TO OR LESS THAN <dup time window> prior to current packet. A <dup time window> is specified in relative seconds (e.g. 0.000001). NOTE: The use of the 'Duplicate packet removal' options with other editcap options except -v may not always work as expected. Specifically the -r, -t or -S options will very likely NOT have the desired effect if combined with the -d, -D or -w. Packet manipulation: -s <snaplen> truncate each packet to max. <snaplen> bytes of data. -C <choplen> chop each packet by <choplen> bytes. Positive values chop at the packet beginning, negative values at the packet end. -t <time adjustment> adjust the timestamp of each packet; <time adjustment> is in relative seconds (e.g. -0.5). -S <strict adjustment> adjust timestamp of packets if necessary to insure strict chronological increasing order. The <strict adjustment> is specified in relative seconds with values of 0 or 0.000001 being the most reasonable. A negative adjustment value will modify timestamps so that each packet's delta time is the absolute value of the adjustment specified. A value of -0 will set all packets to the timestamp of the first packet. -E <error probability> set the probability (between 0.0 and 1.0 incl.) that a particular packet byte will be randomly changed. Output File(s): -c <packets per file> split the packet output to different files based on uniform packet counts with a maximum of <packets per file> each. -i <seconds per file> split the packet output to different files based on uniform time intervals with a maximum of <seconds per file> each. -F <capture type> set the output file type; default is pcapng. an empty "-F" option will list the file types. -T <encap type> set the output file encapsulation type; default is the same as the input file. an empty "-T" option will list the encapsulation types. Miscellaneous: -h display this help and exit. -v verbose output. If -v is used with any of the 'Duplicate Packet Removal' options (-d, -D or -w) then Packet lengths and MD5 hashes are printed to standard-out. $ editcap -F editcap: option requires an argument -- 'F' editcap: The available capture file types for the "-F" flag are: 5views - InfoVista 5View capture btsnoop - Symbian OS btsnoop commview - TamoSoft CommView dct2000 - Catapult DCT2000 trace (.out format) erf - Endace ERF capture eyesdn - EyeSDN USB S0/E1 ISDN trace format k12text - K12 text file lanalyzer - Novell LANalyzer libpcap - Wireshark/tcpdump/... - libpcap modlibpcap - Modified tcpdump - libpcap netmon1 - Microsoft NetMon 1.x netmon2 - Microsoft NetMon 2.x nettl - HP-UX nettl trace ngsniffer - NA Sniffer (DOS) ngwsniffer_1_1 - NA Sniffer (Windows) 1.1 ngwsniffer_2_0 - NA Sniffer (Windows) 2.00x niobserver - Network Instruments Observer nokialibpcap - Nokia tcpdump - libpcap nseclibpcap - Wireshark - nanosecond libpcap nstrace10 - NetScaler Trace (Version 1.0) nstrace20 - NetScaler Trace (Version 2.0) pcapng - Wireshark - pcapng rf5 - Tektronix K12xx 32-bit .rf5 format rh6_1libpcap - RedHat 6.1 tcpdump - libpcap snoop - Sun snoop suse6_3libpcap - SuSE 6.3 tcpdump - libpcap visual - Visual Networks traffic capture $ editcap -T editcap: option requires an argument -- 'T' editcap: The available encapsulation types for the "-T" flag are: ap1394 - Apple IP-over-IEEE 1394 arcnet - ARCNET arcnet_linux - Linux ARCNET ascend - Lucent/Ascend access equipment atm-pdus - ATM PDUs atm-pdus-untruncated - ATM PDUs - untruncated atm-rfc1483 - RFC 1483 ATM ax25 - Amateur Radio AX.25 ax25-kiss - AX.25 with KISS header bacnet-ms-tp - BACnet MS/TP bacnet-ms-tp-with-direction - BACnet MS/TP with Directional Info ber - ASN.1 Basic Encoding Rules bluetooth-h4 - Bluetooth H4 bluetooth-h4-linux - Bluetooth H4 with linux header bluetooth-hci - Bluetooth without transport layer can20b - Controller Area Network 2.0B chdlc - Cisco HDLC chdlc-with-direction - Cisco HDLC with Directional Info cosine - CoSine L2 debug log dbus - D-Bus dct2000 - Catapult DCT2000 docsis - Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification dpnss_link - Digital Private Signalling System No 1 Link Layer dvbci - DVB-CI (Common Interface) enc - OpenBSD enc(4) encapsulating interface erf - Extensible Record Format ether - Ethernet ether-nettl - Ethernet with nettl headers fc2 - Fibre Channel FC-2 fc2sof - Fibre Channel FC-2 With Frame Delimiter fddi - FDDI fddi-nettl - FDDI with nettl headers fddi-swapped - FDDI with bit-swapped MAC addresses flexray - FlexRay frelay - Frame Relay frelay-with-direction - Frame Relay with Directional Info gcom-serial - GCOM Serial gcom-tie1 - GCOM TIE1 gprs-llc - GPRS LLC gsm_um - GSM Um Interface hhdlc - HiPath HDLC i2c - I2C ieee-802-11 - IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN ieee-802-11-airopeek - IEEE 802.11 plus AiroPeek radio header ieee-802-11-avs - IEEE 802.11 plus AVS radio header ieee-802-11-netmon - IEEE 802.11 plus Network Monitor radio header ieee-802-11-prism - IEEE 802.11 plus Prism II monitor mode radio header ieee-802-11-radio - IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN with radio information ieee-802-11-radiotap - IEEE 802.11 plus radiotap radio header ieee-802-16-mac-cps - IEEE 802.16 MAC Common Part Sublayer infiniband - InfiniBand ios - Cisco IOS internal ip-over-fc - RFC 2625 IP-over-Fibre Channel ip-over-ib - IP over Infiniband ipfix - IPFIX ipmb - Intelligent Platform Management Bus ipnet - Solaris IPNET irda - IrDA isdn - ISDN ixveriwave - IxVeriWave header and stats block jfif - JPEG/JFIF juniper-atm1 - Juniper ATM1 juniper-atm2 - Juniper ATM2 juniper-chdlc - Juniper C-HDLC juniper-ether - Juniper Ethernet juniper-frelay - Juniper Frame-Relay juniper-ggsn - Juniper GGSN juniper-mlfr - Juniper MLFR juniper-mlppp - Juniper MLPPP juniper-ppp - Juniper PPP juniper-pppoe - Juniper PPPoE juniper-svcs - Juniper Services juniper-vp - Juniper Voice PIC k12 - K12 protocol analyzer lapb - LAPB lapd - LAPD layer1-event - EyeSDN Layer 1 event lin - Local Interconnect Network linux-atm-clip - Linux ATM CLIP linux-lapd - LAPD with Linux pseudo-header linux-sll - Linux cooked-mode capture ltalk - Localtalk mime - MIME most - Media Oriented Systems Transport mp2ts - ISO/IEC 13818-1 MPEG2-TS mpeg - MPEG mtp2 - SS7 MTP2 mtp2-with-phdr - MTP2 with pseudoheader mtp3 - SS7 MTP3 mux27010 - MUX27010 netanalyzer - netANALYZER netanalyzer-transparent - netANALYZER-Transparent nfc-llcp - NFC LLCP nflog - NFLOG nstrace10 - NetScaler Encapsulation 1.0 of Ethernet nstrace20 - NetScaler Encapsulation 2.0 of Ethernet null - NULL packetlogger - PacketLogger pflog - OpenBSD PF Firewall logs pflog-old - OpenBSD PF Firewall logs, pre-3.4 ppi - Per-Packet Information header ppp - PPP ppp-with-direction - PPP with Directional Info pppoes - PPP-over-Ethernet session raw-icmp-nettl - Raw ICMP with nettl headers raw-icmpv6-nettl - Raw ICMPv6 with nettl headers raw-telnet-nettl - Raw telnet with nettl headers rawip - Raw IP rawip-nettl - Raw IP with nettl headers rawip4 - Raw IPv4 rawip6 - Raw IPv6 redback - Redback SmartEdge rtac-serial - RTAC serial-line sccp - SS7 SCCP sctp - SCTP sdh - SDH sdlc - SDLC sita-wan - SITA WAN packets slip - SLIP socketcan - SocketCAN symantec - Symantec Enterprise Firewall tnef - Transport-Neutral Encapsulation Format tr - Token Ring tr-nettl - Token Ring with nettl headers tzsp - Tazmen sniffer protocol unknown - Unknown unknown-nettl - Unknown link-layer type with nettl headers usb - Raw USB packets usb-linux - USB packets with Linux header usb-linux-mmap - USB packets with Linux header and padding usb-usbpcap - USB packets with USBPcap header user0 - USER 0 user1 - USER 1 user10 - USER 10 user11 - USER 11 user12 - USER 12 user13 - USER 13 user14 - USER 14 user15 - USER 15 user2 - USER 2 user3 - USER 3 user4 - USER 4 user5 - USER 5 user6 - USER 6 user7 - USER 7 user8 - USER 8 user9 - USER 9 v5-ef - V5 Envelope Function whdlc - Wellfleet HDLC wpan - IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless PAN wpan-nofcs - IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless PAN with FCS not present wpan-nonask-phy - IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless PAN non-ASK PHY x25-nettl - X.25 with nettl headers x2e-serial - X2E serial line capture x2e-xoraya - X2E Xoraya

Mergecap is a program that combines multiple saved capture files into a single output file specified by the -w argument. Mergecap knows how to read libpcap capture files, including those of tcpdump. In addition, Mergecap can read capture files from snoop (including Shomiti) and atmsnoop, LanAlyzer, Sniffer (compressed or uncompressed), Microsoft Network Monitor, AIX's iptrace, NetXray, Sniffer Pro, RADCOM's WAN/LAN analyzer, Lucent/Ascend router debug output, HP-UX's nettl, and the dump output from Toshiba's ISDN routers. There is no need to tell Mergecap what type of file you are reading; it will determine the file type by itself. Mergecap is also capable of reading any of these file formats if they are compressed using gzip. Mergecap recognizes this directly from the file; the '.gz' extension is not required for this purpose. By default, it writes the capture file in libpcap format, and writes all of the packets in the input capture files to the output file. The -F flag can be used to specify the format in which to write the capture file; it can write the file in libpcap format (standard libpcap format, a modified format used by some patched versions of libpcap, the format used by Red Hat Linux 6.1, or the format used by SuSE Linux 6.3), snoop format, uncompressed Sniffer format, Microsoft Network Monitor 1.x format, and the format used by Windows-based versions of the Sniffer software. Packets from the input files are merged in chronological order based on each frame's timestamp, unless the -a flag is specified. Mergecap assumes that frames within a single capture file are already stored in chronological order. When the -a flag is specified, packets are copied directly from each input file to the output file, independent of each frame's timestamp. If the -s flag is used to specify a snapshot length, frames in the input file with more captured data than the specified snapshot length will have only the amount of data specified by the snapshot length written to the output file. This may be useful if the program that is to read the output file cannot handle packets larger than a certain size (for example, the versions of snoop in Solaris 2.5.1 and Solaris 2.6 appear to reject Ethernet frames larger than the standard Ethernet MTU, making them incapable of handling gigabit Ethernet captures if jumbo frames were used). If the -T flag is used to specify an encapsulation type, the encapsulation type of the output capture file will be forced to the specified type, rather than being the type appropriate to the encapsulation type of the input capture file. Note that this merely forces the encapsulation type of the output file to be the specified type; the packet headers of the packets will not be translated from the encapsulation type of the input capture file to the specified encapsulation type (for example, it will not translate an Ethernet capture to an FDDI capture if an Ethernet capture is read and '-T fddi' is specified). Mergecap 1.11.0 (SVN Rev 49633 from /trunk) Merge two or more capture files into one. See http://www.wireshark.org for more information. Usage: mergecap [options] -w <outfile>|- <infile> [<infile> ...] Output: -a concatenate rather than merge files. default is to merge based on frame timestamps. -s <snaplen> truncate packets to <snaplen> bytes of data. -w <outfile>|- set the output filename to <outfile> or '-' for stdout. -F <capture type> set the output file type; default is pcapng. an empty "-F" option will list the file types. -T <encap type> set the output file encapsulation type; default is the same as the first input file. an empty "-T" option will list the encapsulation types. Miscellaneous: -h display this help and exit. -v verbose output. A simple example merging dhcp-capture.libpcap and imap-1.libpcap into outfile.libpcap is shown below. $ mergecap -w outfile.libpcap dhcp-capture.libpcap imap-1.libpcap

There may be some occasions when you wish to convert a hex dump of some network traffic into a libpcap file. Text2pcap is a program that reads in an ASCII hex dump and writes the data described into a libpcap-style capture file. text2pcap can read hexdumps with multiple packets in them, and build a capture file of multiple packets. text2pcap is also capable of generating dummy Ethernet, IP and UDP headers, in order to build fully processable packet dumps from hexdumps of application-level data only. Text2pcap understands a hexdump of the form generated by od -A x -t x1. In other words, each byte is individually displayed and surrounded with a space. Each line begins with an offset describing the position in the file. The offset is a hex number (can also be octal - see -o), of more than two hex digits. Here is a sample dump that text2pcap can recognize: 000000 00 e0 1e a7 05 6f 00 10 ........ 000008 5a a0 b9 12 08 00 46 00 ........ 000010 03 68 00 00 00 00 0a 2e ........ 000018 ee 33 0f 19 08 7f 0f 19 ........ 000020 03 80 94 04 00 00 10 01 ........ 000028 16 a2 0a 00 03 50 00 0c ........ 000030 01 01 0f 19 03 80 11 01 ........ There is no limit on the width or number of bytes per line. Also the text dump at the end of the line is ignored. Bytes/hex numbers can be uppercase or lowercase. Any text before the offset is ignored, including email forwarding characters '>'. Any lines of text between the bytestring lines is ignored. The offsets are used to track the bytes, so offsets must be correct. Any line which has only bytes without a leading offset is ignored. An offset is recognized as being a hex number longer than two characters. Any text after the bytes is ignored (e.g. the character dump). Any hex numbers in this text are also ignored. An offset of zero is indicative of starting a new packet, so a single text file with a series of hexdumps can be converted into a packet capture with multiple packets. Multiple packets are read in with timestamps differing by one second each. In general, short of these restrictions, text2pcap is pretty liberal about reading in hexdumps and has been tested with a variety of mangled outputs (including being forwarded through email multiple times, with limited line wrap etc.) There are a couple of other special features to note. Any line where the first non-whitespace character is '#' will be ignored as a comment. Any line beginning with #TEXT2PCAP is a directive and options can be inserted after this command to be processed by text2pcap. Currently there are no directives implemented; in the future, these may be used to give more fine grained control on the dump and the way it should be processed e.g. timestamps, encapsulation type etc. Text2pcap also allows the user to read in dumps of application-level data, by inserting dummy L2, L3 and L4 headers before each packet. Possibilities include inserting headers such as Ethernet, Ethernet + IP, Ethernet + IP + UDP, or Ethernet + Ip + TCP before each packet. This allows Wireshark or any other full-packet decoder to handle these dumps. Text2pcap 1.11.0 (SVN Rev 49633 from /trunk) Generate a capture file from an ASCII hexdump of packets. See http://www.wireshark.org for more information. Usage: text2pcap [options] <infile> <outfile> where <infile> specifies input filename (use - for standard input) <outfile> specifies output filename (use - for standard output) Input: -o hex|oct|dec parse offsets as (h)ex, (o)ctal or (d)ecimal; default is hex. -t <timefmt> treat the text before the packet as a date/time code; the specified argument is a format string of the sort supported by strptime. Example: The time "10:15:14.5476" has the format code "%H:%M:%S." NOTE: The subsecond component delimiter, '.', must be given, but no pattern is required; the remaining number is assumed to be fractions of a second. NOTE: Date/time fields from the current date/time are used as the default for unspecified fields. -D the text before the packet starts with an I or an O, indicating that the packet is inbound or outbound. This is only stored if the output format is PCAP-NG. -a enable ASCII text dump identification. The start of the ASCII text dump can be identified and excluded from the packet data, even if it looks like a HEX dump. NOTE: Do not enable it if the input file does not contain the ASCII text dump. Output: -l <typenum> link-layer type number; default is 1 (Ethernet). See http://www.tcpdump.org/linktypes.html for a list of numbers. Use this option if your dump is a complete hex dump of an encapsulated packet and you wish to specify the exact type of encapsulation. Example: -l 7 for ARCNet packets. -m <max-packet> max packet length in output; default is 65535 Prepend dummy header: -e <l3pid> prepend dummy Ethernet II header with specified L3PID (in HEX). Example: -e 0x806 to specify an ARP packet. -i <proto> prepend dummy IP header with specified IP protocol (in DECIMAL). Automatically prepends Ethernet header as well. Example: -i 46 -u <srcp>,<destp> prepend dummy UDP header with specified source and destination ports (in DECIMAL). Automatically prepends Ethernet & IP headers as well. Example: -u 1000,69 to make the packets look like TFTP/UDP packets. -T <srcp>,<destp> prepend dummy TCP header with specified source and destination ports (in DECIMAL). Automatically prepends Ethernet & IP headers as well. Example: -T 50,60 -s <srcp>,<dstp>,<tag> prepend dummy SCTP header with specified source/dest ports and verification tag (in DECIMAL). Automatically prepends Ethernet & IP headers as well. Example: -s 30,40,34 -S <srcp>,<dstp>,<ppi> prepend dummy SCTP header with specified source/dest ports and verification tag 0. Automatically prepends a dummy SCTP DATA chunk header with payload protocol identifier ppi. Example: -S 30,40,34 Miscellaneous: -h display this help and exit. -d show detailed debug of parser states. -q generate no output at all (automatically disables -d). -n use PCAP-NG instead of PCAP as output format.

In an ideal world idl2wrs would be mentioned in the users guide in passing and documented in the developers guide. As the developers guide has not yet been completed it will be documented here.

As you have probably guessed from the name, idl2wrs takes a user specified IDL file and attempts to build a dissector that can decode the IDL traffic over GIOP. The resulting file is "C" code, that should compile okay as a Wireshark dissector. idl2wrs basically parses the data struct given to it by the omniidl compiler, and using the GIOP API available in packet-giop.[ch], generates get_CDR_xxx calls to decode the CORBA traffic on the wire. It consists of 4 main files. README.idl2wrs This document wireshark_be.py The main compiler backend wireshark_gen.py A helper class, that generates the C code. idl2wrs A simple shell script wrapper that the end user should use to generate the dissector from the IDL file(s).

It is important to understand what CORBA traffic looks like over GIOP/IIOP, and to help build a tool that can assist in troubleshooting CORBA interworking. This was especially the case after seeing a lot of discussions about how particular IDL types are represented inside an octet stream. I have also had comments/feedback that this tool would be good for say a CORBA class when teaching students what CORBA traffic looks like "on the wire". It is also COOL to work on a great Open Source project such as the case with "Wireshark" ( &WiresharkWebSite; )

To use the idl2wrs to generate Wireshark dissectors, you need the following: Python must be installed. See omniidl from the omniORB package must be available. See Of course you need Wireshark installed to compile the code and tweak it if required. idl2wrs is part of the standard Wireshark distribution To use idl2wrs to generate an Wireshark dissector from an idl file use the following procedure: To write the C code to stdout. idl2wrs <your_file.idl> e.g.: idl2wrs echo.idl To write to a file, just redirect the output. idl2wrs echo.idl > packet-test-idl.c You may wish to comment out the register_giop_user_module() code and that will leave you with heuristic dissection. If you don't want to use the shell script wrapper, then try steps 3 or 4 instead. To write the C code to stdout. Usage: omniidl -p ./ -b wireshark_be <your file.idl> e.g.: omniidl -p ./ -b wireshark_be echo.idl To write to a file, just redirect the output. omniidl -p ./ -b wireshark_be echo.idl > packet-test-idl.c You may wish to comment out the register_giop_user_module() code and that will leave you with heuristic dissection. Copy the resulting C code to subdirectory epan/dissectors/ inside your Wireshark source directory. cp packet-test-idl.c /dir/where/wireshark/lives/epan/dissectors/ The new dissector has to be added to Makefile.common in the same directory. Look for the declaration CLEAN_DISSECTOR_SRC and add the new dissector there. For example, CLEAN_DISSECTOR_SRC = \ packet-2dparityfec.c \ packet-3com-njack.c \ ... becomes CLEAN_DISSECTOR_SRC = \ packet-test-idl.c \ packet-2dparityfec.c \ packet-3com-njack.c \ ... For the next steps, go up to the top of your Wireshark source directory. Run configure ./configure (or ./autogen.sh) Compile the code make Good Luck !!

Exception code not generated (yet), but can be added manually. Enums not converted to symbolic values (yet), but can be added manually. Add command line options etc More I am sure :-)

See the TODO list inside packet-giop.c

The "-p ./" option passed to omniidl indicates that the wireshark_be.py and wireshark_gen.py are residing in the current directory. This may need tweaking if you place these files somewhere else. If it complains about being unable to find some modules (e.g. tempfile.py), you may want to check if PYTHONPATH is set correctly. On my Linux box, it is PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/python2.4/

Reordercap allows to reorder a capture file according to the packets timestamp. Reordercap 1.11.0 Reorder timestamps of input file frames into output file. See http://www.wireshark.org for more information. Usage: reordercap [options] <infile> <outfile> Options: -n don't write to output file if the input file is ordered.