This is Pypacker: The fast and simple packet creation and parsing lib for Python. It lets you create packets manually by defining every aspect of all header data and dissect packets by parsing captured packet bytes.
Create Packets giving specific values or take the defaults:
ip = IP(src_s="127.0.0.1", dst_s="192.168.0.1", p=1) +
ICMP(type=8) +
Echo(id=123, seq=1, body_bytes=b"foobar")
Read packets from file (pcap format) and analyze all aspects of it:
pcap = ppcap.Reader(filename="packets.pcap")
cnt = 0
for ts, buf in pcap:
cnt += 1
eth = Ethernet(buf)
if eth[TCP] is not None:
print("%d: %s:%s -> %s:%s" % (ts, eth[IP].src_s, eth[TCP].sport, eth[IP].dst_s, eth[TCP].dport))
Send and receive packets on different layers:
packet_ip = ip.IP(src_s="127.0.0.1", dst_s="127.0.0.1") + tcp.TCP(dport=80)
psock = psocket.SocketHndl(mode=psocket.SocketHndl.MODE_LAYER_3, timeout=10)
packets = psock.sr(packet_ip, max_packets_recv=1)
for p in packets:
print("got layer 3 packet: %s" % p)
psock.close()
- Create network packets on different OSI layers using keywords like MyPacket(value=123) or raw bytes MyPacket(b"value")
- Concatination of layers via "+" like packet = layer1 + layer2
- Fast access to layers via packet[tcp.TCP] or packet.sublayerXYZ.tcp notation
- Readable packet structure using print(packet) or similar statements
- Read packets via Pcap/tcpdump file reader
- Live packet reading/writing using a capsulated socket API
- Auto Checksum calculation capabilities
- Match replies via "is_direction()"
- Create new protocols (see FAQ)
- visualization framework based on graph-tool (beta, see examples)
Pypacker is not as full-blown feature-rich as other packet-analyzer like Scapy, so you can't automatically create neat graphics out of TCP-sequence-numbers, use it as a port-scanner, fingerprint servers or use it as a fuzzer out of the box. Those kind of features can easy be written using open-source tools like gnuplot and very few lines of python-code.
Please feel free to post bug-reports / patches / feature-requests. Please read the bugtracker for already known bugs before filing a new one!
- Python 3.x
- Un*x based operating system
- (optional) graph-tool (>=2.2.31) and Gtk+ (>=3.12.2) for visualizer
Default way of installing Python modules: python setup.py install
See examples/examples.py and tests/test_pypacker.py.
Tests are executed as follows:
- Optional: Add Pypacker directory to the PYTHONPATH. This is only needed if tests are executed without installing Pypacker
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/dir/to/pypacker/
- execute tests
python tests/test_pypacker.py
Q: Where should I start learn to use Pypacker?
A: If you allready know Scapy starting by reading the examples should be OK. Otherwise there is a general introduction to pypacker included at the doc's which shows the usage and concepts of pypacker.
Q: Under which license Pypacker is issued?
A: It's the BSD License. See LICENCE and http://opensource.org/licenses/bsd-license.php for more information.
Q: Which protocols are supported?
A: Currently minimum supported protocols are: Ethernet, Radiotap, IEEE80211, ARP, DNS, STP, PPP, OSPF, VRRP, DTP, IP, ICMP, PIM, IGMP, IPX, TCP, UDP, SCTP, HTTP, NTP, RTP, DHCP, RIP, SIP, Telnet, HSRP, Diameter, SSL, TPKT, Pmap, Radius, BGP
Q: Are there any plans to support [protocol xyz]?
A: Support for particular protocols is added to Pypacker as a result of people contributing that support - no formal plans for adding support for particular protocols in particular future releases exist.
Q: Is there any documentation?
A: Pypacker is based on code of dpkt, which in turn didn't have any official and very little internal code documentation. This made understanding of the internal behaviour tricky. After all the code documentation was pretty much extended for Pypacker. Documentation can be found in these directories and files:
- doc (auto generated documentations showing general header field definitions + general intro into pypacker)
- examples/examples.py (many examples showing the usage of Pypacker)
- pypacker.py (general Packet structure)
Protocols itself (see layerXYZ) generally don't have much documentation because those are documented by their respective RFCs/official standards.
Q: How fast is pypacker?
A: For detailed results see performance tests in test directory. As a rule of thumb compared to scapy packet parsing from raw bytes is about 50 times faster.
Q: How can new protocols be added?
A: Short answer: Extend Packet class and add the class variable hdr to define header fields. Long answer: See HACKING file -> "Adding new protocols", class documentation for Packet class and all other implemented protocols.
Q: There is problem xyz with Pypacker using Windows 3.11/XP/7/8/mobile etc. Can you fix that?
A: No. There will be no windows support.