pcap

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

PCAP ( p acket cap ture) is a free programming interface (API) for network traffic up capture. Unix-like operating systems implement pcap in the form of the libpcap library ; Windows PCs use the WinPcap adaptation for this functionality.

Network analysis programs that contain a sniffer function use these interfaces to pick up packets directly on the network interface. The library also supports a list of all available network interfaces and the option of saving "overheard" packets in a file. The data collected in this way can then be evaluated using appropriate tools. A file saved in this way can be interpreted by both libpcap and WinPcap programs.

The API is structured in such a way that it can be integrated directly by C and C ++ . Other programming languages ​​like Java , .NET or scripting languages usually use a wrapper .

List of programs with libpcap / WinPcap

There are a number of commercial and open source products that use pcap functionality:

  • tcpdump , a tool to record network traffic on a Linux computer ( Windump for Windows).
  • ngrep , known as network grep , is a program to find certain strings in packets and display them legibly.
  • Wireshark (formerly Ethereal), a graphical network analysis tool.
  • Snort , a free implementation of IDS and IPS .
  • ssldump , a free SSLv3 / TLS analysis tool.
  • Tranalyzer, a free PCAP analysis and troubleshooting tool
  • Nmap , a very popular port scanner and finger printer expert.
  • Captcp , comprehensive tool for the analysis of TCP.
  • FRITZ! Powerline installation program from AVM

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. libpcap packet capture tutorial (English) - Implementation tutorial for C and C ++ by Martin Casado , at Stanford University