Packet Sniffing and Wireshark

Introduction
The first part of the lab introduces packet sniffer, Wireshark. Wireshark is a free opensource
network protocol analyzer. It is used for network troubleshooting and communication protocol
analysis. Wireshark captures network packets in real time and
display them in human-readable format. It provides many advanced features including
live capture and offline analysis, three-pane packet browser, coloring rules for analysis.
This document uses Wireshark for the experiments, and it covers Wireshark installation,
packet capturing, and protocol analysis.

Figure 1: Wireshark opening screen

Background
TCP/IP Network Stack

Figure 2: Encapsulation of Data in the TCP/IP Network Stack

This background section briefly explains the concept of TCP/IP network stack to help you better
understand the experiments. TCP/IP is the most commonly used network model for Internet
services. Because its most important protocols, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and
the Internet Protocol (IP) were the first networking protocols defined in this standard, it is named
as TCP/IP. However, it contains multiple layers including application layer, transport layer,
network layer, and data link layer.
 Application Layer: The application layer includes the protocols used by most applications
for providing user services. Examples of application layer protocols are Hypertext
Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Secure Shell (SSH), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP).
 Transport Layer: The transport layer establishes process-to-process connectivity, and it
provides end-to-end services that are independent of underlying user data. To implement
the process-to-process communication, the protocol introduces a concept of port. The
examples of transport layer protocols are Transport Control Protocol (TCP) and User
Datagram Protocol (UDP). The TCP provides flow control, connection establishment,
and reliable transmission of data, while the UDP is a connectionless transmission model.
 Internet Layer: The Internet layer is responsible for sending packets to across networks. It
has two functions: 1) Host identification by using IP addressing system (IPv4 and IPv6);
and 2) packets routing from source to destination. The examples of Internet layer
protocols are Internet Protocol (IP), Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), and
Address Resolution Protocol (ARP).
 Link Layer: The link layer defines the networking methods within the scope of the local
network link. It is used to move the packets between two hosts on the same link. A
common example of link layer protocols is Ethernet.
Packet Sniffer
Packet sniffer is a basic tool for observing network packet exchanges in a computer. As the name
suggests, a packet sniffer captures (“sniffs”) packets being sent/received from/by your computer;
it will also typically store and/or display the contents of the various protocol fields in these
captured packets. A packet sniffer itself is passive. It observes messages being sent and received
by applications and protocols running on your computer, but never sends packets itself.

Figure 3 shows the structure of a packet sniffer. At the right of Figure 3 are the protocols (in
this case, Internet protocols) and applications (such as a web browser or ftp client) that normally
run on your computer. The packet sniffer, shown within the dashed rectangle in Figure 3 is an
addition to the usual software in your computer, and consists of two parts. The packet capture
library receives a copy of every link-layer frame that is sent from or received by your computer.
Messages exchanged by higher layer protocols such as HTTP, FTP, TCP, UDP, DNS, or IP all
are eventually encapsulated in link-layer frames that are transmitted over physical media such as
an Ethernet cable. In Figure 1, the assumed physical media is an Ethernet, and so all upper-layer
protocols are eventually encapsulated within an Ethernet frame. Capturing all link-layer frames
thus gives you access to all messages sent/received from/by all protocols and applications
executing in your computer.

The second component of a packet sniffer is the packet analyzer, which displays the
contents of all fields within a protocol message. In order to do so, the packet analyzer
 Figure 3: Packet Sniffer Structure

must “understand” the structure of all messages exchanged by protocols. For example, suppose
we are interested in displaying the various fields in messages exchanged by the HTTP protocol
in Figure 3. The packet analyzer understands the format of Ethernet frames, and so can identify
the IP datagram within an Ethernet frame. It also understands the IP datagram format, so that it
can extract the TCP segment within the IP datagram. Finally, it understands the TCP segment
structure, so it can extract the
HTTP message contained in the TCP segment. Finally, it understands the HTTP
protocol and so, for example, knows that the first bytes of an HTTP message will
contain the string “GET,” “POST,” or “HEAD”.

We will be using the Wireshark packet sniffer [http://www.wireshark.org/] for this lab,
allowing us to display the contents of messages being sent/received from/by protocols
at different levels of the protocol stack. (Technically speaking, Wireshark is a packet
analyzer that uses a packet capture library in your computer). Wireshark is a free
network protocol analyzer that runs on Windows, Linux/Unix, and Mac computers.

Getting Wireshark
Wireshark can also be downloaded from here: https://www.wireshark.org/download.html

Starting Wireshark
When you run the Wireshark program, the Wireshark graphic user interface will be
shown as Figure 4. Currently, the program is not capturing the packets.
 Figure 4: Initial Graphic User Interface of Wireshark

Then, you need to choose an interface. If you are running the Wireshark on your laptop,
you need to select WiFi interface. If you are at a desktop, you need to select the
Ethernet interface being used. Note that there could be multiple interfaces. In general,
you can select any interface but that does not mean that traffic will flow through that
interface. The network interfaces (i.e., the physical connections) that your computer has
to the network are shown.

The attached Figure 5 was taken from my computer.

After you select the interface, Wireshark will start to capture the packets as shown in
Figure 6.

Figure 5: Capture Interfaces in Wireshark

 Figure 6: Capturing Packets in Wireshark
Figure 7: Wireshark Graphical User Interface on Microsoft Windows

The Wireshark interface has five major components:

The command menus are standard pulldown menus located at the top of the window. Of
interest to us now is the File and Capture menus. The File menu allows you to save
captured packet data or open a file containing previously captured packet data, and exit
the Wireshark application. The Capture menu allows you to begin packet capture.

The packet-listing window displays a one-line summary for each packet captured,
including the packet number (assigned by Wireshark; this is not a packet number
contained in any protocol’s header), the time at which the packet was captured, the
packet’s source and destination addresses, the protocol type, and protocol-specific
information contained in the packet. The packet listing can be sorted according to any of
these categories by clicking on a column name. The protocol type field lists the highest-level
protocol that sent or received this packet, i.e., the protocol that is the source or
ultimate sink for this packet.

The packet-header details window provides details about the packet selected
(highlighted) in the packet-listing window. (To select a packet in the packet-listing
window, place the cursor over the packet’s one-line summary in the packet-listing
window and click with the left mouse button.). These details include information about
the Ethernet frame and IP datagram that contains this packet. The amount of Ethernet
and IP-layer detail displayed can be expanded or minimized by clicking on the rightpointing or
down-pointing arrowhead to the left of the Ethernet frame or IP datagram line in the packet
details window. If the packet has been carried over TCP or UDP, TCP or UDP details will also
be displayed, which can similarly be expanded or minimized. Finally, details about the highest-
level protocol that sent or received this packet are also provided.

The packet-contents window displays the entire contents of the captured frame, in
both ASCII and hexadecimal format.

Towards the top of the Wireshark graphical user interface, is the packet display filter
field, into which a protocol name or other information can be entered in order to filter the
information displayed in the packet-listing window (and hence the packet-header and packet-
contents windows). In the example below, we’ll use the packet-display filter
field to have Wireshark hide (not display) packets except those that correspond to HTTP
messages.

Capturing Packets
After downloading and installing Wireshark, you can launch it and click the name of an
interface under Interface List to start capturing packets on that interface. For example, if
you want to capture traffic on the wireless network, click your wireless interface.
Test Run
Do the following steps:
1. Start up the Wireshark program (select the WiFi interface).
2. Start up your favorite browser.
3. In your browser, go to the ESPN homepage by typing www.espn.com.
4. After your browser has displayed the http://www.espn.com page, stop Wireshark packet
capture by selecting stop in the Wireshark capture window.
5. Color Coding: You’ll probably see packets highlighted in green, blue, and black.
Wireshark uses colors to help you identify the types of traffic at a glance. By default,
green is TCP traffic, dark blue is DNS traffic, light blue is UDP traffic, and black
identifies TCP packets with problems — for example, they could have been delivered
out-of-order.
6. You now have live packet data that contains all protocol messages exchanged between
your computer and other network entities! However, as you will notice the HTTP
messages are not clearly shown because there are many other packets included in the
packet capture. Even though the only action you took was to open your browser, there are
many other programs in your computer that communicate via the network in the
background. To filter the connections to the ones we want to focus on, we have to use the
filtering functionality of Wireshark by typing “http” in the filtering field as shown below:

7. Notice that we now view only the packets that are of protocol HTTP. However, we also
still do not have the exact communication we want to focus on because using HTTP as a
filter is not descriptive enough to allow us to find our connection to
http://www.espn.com. We need to be more precise if we want to capture the correct set of
packets.
8. To further filter packets in Wireshark, we need to use a more precise filter. By setting the
http.host==www.espn.com, we are restricting the view to packets that have as an http
host the www.espn.com website. Notice that we need two equal signs to perform the
match “==” not just one. See the screenshot below:
9. Now, we can try another protocol. Let’s use Domain Name System (DNS) protocol as an
example here.

10. Let’s try now to find out what are those packets contain by following one of the
conversations (also called network flows), select one of the packets. Click on Analyze
then Follow then UDP Stream, and then you will see following screen.
 11. If we close this window and change the filter to “http” and then follow a packet from the
list of packets that match that filter, we should get the something similar to the following
screens. Note that we click on Analyze then Follow then TCP Stream this time.

Questions for the Lab

1. Carefully read the lab instructions and finish all tasks above.
2. If a packet is highlighted by black, what does it mean for the packet?
3. What is the filter command for listing all outgoing http traffic?
4. Why does DNS use Follow UDP Stream while HTTP use Follow TCP Stream?
5. Using Wireshark to capture the FTP password.
Use the FTP site ftp://test.rebex.net/
The username for the FTP server is “demo”, and the password is “password”.
You will use the username and password to login the FTP server while
Wireshark is running. Note that the FTP server is a public FTP server, make sure you select the
right interface for the capturing. You need to explain to me how you find the password and a
screenshot of the password packet. Have fun!