How to find URL in PCAP Wireshark Filter?
Introduction
Wireshark, also known as the world’s foremost network protocol analyzer for personal computers, is a free and open-source packet analyzer. Its use includes monitoring traffic on a computer network or capturing data packets being sent over the Internet. It has been used by IT professionals around the world since 1998 to monitor networks. The software can be run either as a GUI application or in command line mode via terminal emulator such as ssh under Linux and Windows’s cmd prompt.
Jess here. I made 6-Figures in IT without needing a degree. If you like my blog, you can support it by checking out my progress to $188k per year in tech. (P.S. Now, I work remotely.)
What is a PCAP file?
A PCAP file is an abbreviation for “Packet Capture”. It’s a type of data capture that records network packets. It is used for troubleshooting connection issues, monitoring network bandwidth usage, and security investigations.
The PCAP file will contain all the data sent or received by your network device (also called sniffing). The source and destination IP address, the protocol used (UDP port number), the packet size, the HTTP method, the response code, and the status line. Pcap is a file format that can be opened by Wireshark in order to view network traffic in detail. Wireshark is a free and very powerful network analyzer that can be used to monitor, troubleshoot and analyze network problems. Pcap files can also be opened in other applications such as NetworkMiner or NetworkFox.
Jess here.
My e-book is now available.
Where you can learn how to make gobs of money in tech.
Feel free to check it out.
How to find URL in PCAP Wireshark Filter?
Type HTTP in the Filter box, then press enter on the keyboard. This will return all HTTP traffic it can find within packets of your PCAP file. This example shows all web traffic including Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Amazon, etc.
Click “Display” on the top menu. Scroll up to packet number 1. Click it to see inside of it. Then click “Follow TCP Stream” on the edit menu. Checkmark only HTTP packets. This will show every packet detail that belongs to HTTP traffic. It will not show all web traffic, just HTTP packets with URLs that start with HTTPS.
Click on any of the HTTP packets. This will highlight the packet in the window above. Scroll up to see all other HTTP packets. You will see the list of websites you visit most frequently. Most likely if you are looking for an HTTP packet, it is one with a URL.
Take note of several URLs in your PCAP file. Go to “Display” then click on “URLs (W3C)” under the HTTP options. It will find every URL that appears in your PCAP.
Every packet is displayed in the list with its complete URL address. If you click on any of them, it will show you inside of that packet and highlight the area where the URL appears for easier identification.
Why are URLs important for network security?
URLs are important because they point to a website. A network security threat may happen when someone is trying to access the webpage located in the URL. This URL may contain information about what is happening in the network. If a network security incident is happening – it can be shown in the HTML code of the webpage. In this case, it is useful to find URLs in the PCAP Wireshark filter.
Another reason why they are important is that when a person clicks on the URL it may lead them to bad websites which contain malware or phishing pages. In this case, it is better not to click on the URLs and use some special software to check if the URL is safe to visit.
In some cases, URLs are used for attacks against the network. In this case, it is useful to find the URL in the PCAP Wireshark filter. For example, a user may send many packets which contain a particular pattern of protocol and this packet will have a malicious payload inside. Special software on the other side will decode this pattern and will understand that this packet means something bad. It works like a special pattern in the URL that will be used to make an exploit.
It is important to find the URL in the PCAP Wireshark filter because it can show us where exactly is the malicious content, what kind of attack it is, and what type of malware is trying to do (download, modify data, etc.).
How to find URLs on your own computer or mobile device
If you’re trying to find a URL on your own computer or mobile device, the easiest way is to use the address bar in your browser. All you have to do is enter the URL. It will tell you from there if it’s a URL or something else, usually with a message such as “Not a valid URL”.
In general, the address bar of your browser will only search within the site you’re currently browsing. If you want to find a URL on another website, try using a search engine instead. You can either enter your search term with the “URL” modifier or put it in quotes to force search engines like Google into giving you only results in that match exactly.
Conclusion
It is important to be able to find URLs on your own PCAP files. This will help you see what has been going on and who may have accessed it. However, this can be trickier than expected because there are so many different types of URL formats that they could appear in different locations or with a variety of file extensions. One way around this is using the Wireshark Filter feature which enables users to only see data packets containing specific content such as HTTP request headers and Web pages. This makes finding URLs much easier by narrowing down your search results without having to sift through the entire contents of the PCAP file for clues about where URLs might reside while also providing some insights into how these sites were navigated and interacted with during testing.
