Malware, DoS attacks, SQLi, and data exfiltration are some of the problems that many security officers have to face every day. Having advanced knowledge in communications and protocol analysis is therefore essential to investigate and detect any of these attacks. Tshark is the ideal tool for professionals who wish to meet these needs, or students who want to delve into the world of networking.

Instant Traffic Analysis with Tshark How-to is a practical, hands-on guide for network administrators and security officers who want to take advantage of the filtering features provided by Tshark, the command-line version of Wireshark. With this guide you will learn how to get the most out of Tshark from environments lacking GUI, ideal for example in Unix/Linux servers, offering you much flexibility to identify and display network traffic.

The book begins by explaining the basic theoretical concepts of Tshark and the process of data collection. Subsequently, you will see several alternatives to capture traffic based on network infrastructure and the goals of the network administrator. The rest of the book will focus on explaining the most interesting parameters of the tool from a totally practical standpoint.

You will also learn how to decode protocols and how to get evidence of suspicious network traffic. You will become familiar with the many practical filters of Tshark that identify malware-infected computers and lots of network attacks such as DoS attacks, DHCP/ARP spoof, and DNS flooding. Finally, you will see some tricks to automate certain tasks with Tshark and python scripts.

You will learn everything you need to get the most out of Tshark and overcome a wide range of network problems. In addition you will learn a variety of concepts related to networking and network attacks currently exploited.

Approach

Filled with practical, step-by-step instructions and clear explanations for the most important and useful tasks. This How-to guide will explore TShark. As this is the terminal version, it will show the user all commands and syntax as well as all options for Tshark and its common uses through small recipes.

Who this book is for

This book is intended for network administrators and security officers who have to deal daily with a variety of network problems and security incidents. It will also be a good learning aid for Cisco students wishing to implement and understand the many theoretical concepts related to traffic data and communications in greater depth.