Security Power Tools

Chapter 6. Custom Packet Generation

The Internet is based on packets: nodes on the Internet exchange packets in order to communicate. At the most primitive level, packets are just well-defined pulses traveling across a copper wire. With this in mind, it’s possible to manipulate packets as they’re exchanged or to craft custom packets. There are many reasons for working at this level; e.g., identifying operating systems and other software on the network, attacking other systems on the network (or verifying that their network stack is implemented correctly, which is often the same thing), or mapping out the structure of a network. This chapter introduces some tools that you can use to work with packets at this low level.

There are two basic groups of tools that an individual can use to generate custom packets on a computer network. The first group forces you to use the techniques hardcoded within the tools, which usually require less intimate knowledge of the technology and allow someone to start leveraging custom packets almost immediately. However, with this group of tools, the user is confined to the techniques included with the tool and cannot tweak, modify, or add to this pool of included techniques. The second group of tools allows you to create your own techniques and add them to your toolbox. This group offers limitless flexibility and functionality, but requires more work on the part of the user. In this chapter, we will explore some tools from both groups, but concentrate ...