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Packet Analysis - TShark

I recommend you to follow the Terminal Setup before using TShark1.

Why use TShark

TShark bring easy and fast statistics. TShark is a terminal oriented version of Wireshark designed for capturing and displaying packets when an interactive user interface isn’t necessary or available.2

Packet Analysis

Throughout this guide I will be using a pcap3 from malware-traffic-analysis.net

following Structured Analysis

File/Stream reading

Options:

-i <interface>, interface <interface>
-D, --list-interfaces    print list of interfaces and exit
-r <infile>, --read-file <infile> set the filename to read from (or '-' for stdin)
-c <packet count>        stop after n packets (default: infinite)

Stream

List interfaces by using the command tshark --list-interfaces sudo permission is usually required to select hardware interfaces.

tshark --interface eth0

Example

File

tshark --read-file 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap

Example

Statistics

4 To view the available statistics use the following command: tshark -z help. Example

Options:

-z <statistics>         Use the -q option if you’re reading a capture file and only want the statistics printed, not any per-packet information.
-z help                 Display all possible values for -z.
-z io,phs               Create Protocol Hierarchy Statistics listing both number of packets and bytes.
-z io,stat,<interval>   Collect packet/bytes statistics for the capture in intervals of interval seconds.
-z endpoints,<type>     Create a table that lists all endpoints that could be seen in the capture. 
-z conv,<type>          Create a table that lists all conversations that could be seen in the capture.
-z http,stat            Count the HTTP response status codes and the HTTP request methods.
-z http_req,tree        Calculate the HTTP requests by server. Displayed values are the server name and the URI path.
-z http_srv,tree        Calculate the HTTP requests and responses by server.
-z credentials          Collect credentials (username/passwords) from packets. Currently implemented protocols include FTP, HTTP, IMAP, POP, and SMTP.

Protocol Hierarchy & General Statistics

tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z io,phs
tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z io,stat,600

Example: Protocol Hierarchy | Example: Bytes statistic

Endpoints

tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z endpoints,ip
tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z endpoints,tcp | less

Example: IP Endpoints | Example: TCP Endpoints

Conversations

tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z conv,eth
tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z conv,ip
tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z conv,tcp

Example: eth | Example: ip | Example: tcp

HTTP

tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z http,stat
tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z http_req,tree
tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z http_srv,tree

Example: HTTP Stat | Example: HTTP Requests | Example: HTTP Response

Credentials

tshark -r 2022-03-21-traffic-analysis-exercise.pcap -q -z credentials

Filtering

https://www.tcpdump.org/manpages/pcap-filter.7.html

Export Objects

Options:

--export-objects <protocol>,<destdir>   
    Export all objects within a protocol into directory destdir. 
    The available values for protocol can be listed with --export-objects help.

Process and Save Output

  1. tshark(1) Manual Page ↩

  2. D.2. tshark: Terminal-based Wireshark ↩

  3. 2022-03-21 - TRAFFIC ANALYSIS EXERCISE - BURNINCANDLE ↩

  4. TShark: Working with statistics ↩

Last update: 2022-06-20