The Perl Toolchain Summit needs more sponsors. If your company depends on Perl, please support this very important event.

NAME

Net::Packet::Dump - a tcpdump-like object providing frame capturing

SYNOPSIS

   use Net::Packet::Dump;

   #
   # Example live capture (sniffer like)
   #

   # Instanciate object, will start capturing from network
   my $dump = Net::Packet::Dump->new(
      filter  => 'tcp',
      noStore => 1,
   );

   while (1) {
      if (my $frame = $dump->next) {
         print $frame->l2->print, "\n" if $frame->l2;
         print $frame->l3->print, "\n" if $frame->l3;
         print $frame->l4->print, "\n" if $frame->l4;
         print $frame->l7->print, "\n" if $frame->l7;
      }
   }

   #
   # Example offline analysis
   #

   my $dump2 = Net::Packet::Dump->new(
      unlinkOnDestroy => 0,
      file            => 'existant-file.pcap',
      callStart       => 0,
   );

   # Analyze the .pcap file, build an array of Net::Packet::Frame's
   $dump->analyze;

   # Browses captured frames
   for ($dump->frames) {
      # Do what you want
      print $_->l2->print, "\n" if $_->l2;
      print $_->l3->print, "\n" if $_->l3;
      print $_->l4->print, "\n" if $_->l4;
      print $_->l7->print, "\n" if $_->l7;
   }

DESCRIPTION

This module is the capturing part of Net::Packet framework. It is basically a tcpdump process. When a capture starts, the tcpdump process is forked, and saves all traffic to a .pcap file. The parent process can call next, nextAll or analyze to convert captured frames from .pcap file to Net::Packet::Frames.

Then, you can call recv method on your sent frames to see if a corresponding reply is waiting in the frames array attribute of Net::Packet::Dump.

By default, if you use this module to analyze frames you've sent (very likely ;)), and you've sent those frames at layer 4 (using Net::Packet::DescL4) (for example), lower layers will be wiped on storing in frames array. This behaviour can be disabled using noLayerWipe attribute.

ATTRIBUTES

env

Stores a Net::Packet::Env object. It is used in start method, for example. The default is to use the global $Env object created when using Net::Packet.

file

Where to save captured frames. By default, a random name file is chosen, named like `netpacket-tmp-$$.@{[getRandom32bitsInt()]}.pcap'.

filter

A pcap filter to restrain what to capture. It also works in offline mode, to analyze only what you want, and not all traffic. Default to capture all traffic. WARNING: every time a packet passes this filter, and the next method is called, the internal counter used by b<timeoutOnNext> is reset. So the timeout attribute can only be used if you now exactly that the filter will only catch what you want and not perturbating traffic.

overwrite

If the file exists, setting this to 1 will overwrite it. Default to not overwrite it.

waitOnStop

When the stop method is called, you should wait a few seconds before stopping the capture. The default is to wait for 3 seconds.

timeout

Is auto set to 1 when a timeout has occured. It is not set to 0 automatically, you need to do it yourself.

timeoutOnNext

Each time next method is called, an internal counter is incremented if no frame has been capture. When a frame is captured (that is, a frame passed the pcap filter), the timeout attribute is reset to 0. When the counter reaches the value of timeoutOnNext, the timeout attribute is set to 1, meaning no frames have been captured during the specified amount of time. Default to 3 seconds.

nextFrame

This one stores the latest received frame after a call to next method. If a next call is done, and no frame is received, this attribute is set to undef.

callStart

When set to 1, the capturing process starts right after new method has finished executing. When set to 0, you must call start method to start capturing. Default to 1.

isRunning

When the capturing process is running, this is set to 1. So, when start method has been called, it is set to 1, and when stop method is called, set to 0.

unlinkOnDestroy

When the Net::Packet::Dump object goes out of scope, the DESTROY method is called, and if this attribute is set to 1, the file is removed. BEWARE: default to 1.

noStore

If you set this attribute to 1, frames will not be stored in frames array. It is used in sniffer-like programs, in order to avoid memory exhaustion by keeping all captured Net::Packet::Frame into memory. Default is to store frames.

noLayerWipe

As explained in DESCRIPTION, if you send packets at layer 4, layer 2 and 3 are not keeped when stored in frames. The same is true when sending at layer 3 (layer 2 is not kept). Default to wipe those layers. WARNING: if you set it to 1, and you need the recv method from Net::Packet::Frame, it will fail. In fact, this is a speed improvements, that is in order to find matching frame for your request, they are stored in a hash, using layer as keys (getKey and getKeyReverse are used to get keys from each layer. So, if you do not wipe layers, a key will be used to store the frame, but another will be used to search for it, and no match will be found. This is a current limitation I'm working on to remove.

noEnvSet

By default, when a Net::Packet::Dump object is created, the default $Env object has its dump attribute pointing to it. If you do not want this behaviour, you can disable it by setting it to 1. Default to 0.

frames

Stores all analyzed frames found in a pcap file in this array.

framesSorted

Stores all analyzed frames found in a pcap file in this hash, using keys to store and search related packet request/replies.

METHODS

new

Object contructor. Default values for attributes:

env: $Env

file: "netpacket-tmp-$$.@{[getRandom32bitsInt()]}.pcap"

filter: ""

overwrite: 0

waitOnStop: 3

timeout: 0

timeoutOnNext: 3

callStart: 1

isRunning: 0

unlinkOnDestroy: 1

noStore: 0

noLayerWipe: 0

noEnvSet: 0

start

Forks the tcpdump-like process that do frame capturing saved to a file. It does not forks a new process if the specified file attribute exists, and overwrite attributes is set to 0. It also sets isRunning to 1 if a process is forked.

stop

Kills the tcpdump-like process, and sets isRunning to 0. It first waits waitOnStop seconds before killing it.

flush

Will removed all analyzed frames from frames array and framesSorted hash. Use it with caution, because recv from Net::Packet::Frame relies on those.

next

Returns the next captured frames; undef if none found in .pcap file. In all cases, nextFrame attribute is set (either to the captured frame or undef). Each time this method is run, a comparison is done to see if no frame has been captured during timeoutOnNext amount of seconds. If so, timeout attribute is set to 1 to reflect the pending timeout. When a frame is received, it is stored in frames array, and in framesSorted hash, used to quickly recv it (see Net::Packet::Frame), and internal counter for time elapsed since last received packet is reset.

nextAll
analyze

Calls next method until it returns undef (meaning no new frame waiting to be analyzed from pcap file).

framesFor (scalar)

You pass a Net::Packet::Frame has parameter, and it returns an array of all frames relating to the connection. For example, when you send a TCP SYN packet, this method will return TCP packets relating to the used source/destination IP, source/destination port, and also related ICMP packets.

AUTHOR

Patrice <GomoR> Auffret

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2004-2005, Patrice <GomoR> Auffret

You may distribute this module under the terms of the Artistic license. See Copying file in the source distribution archive.

RELATED MODULES

NetPacket, Net::RawIP, Net::RawSock