In a world where security tools are more advanced than the thief’s equipment, theft will no longer happen! But the problem is that the thief is always one step ahead of the security equipment. The situation is the same in the digital world.

Security experts must always be one step ahead of hackers to both predict security attacks and prevent or terminate them with the right tools. If you agree with us so far, join us to introduce one of these security control tools. Packet Capture, a tool that has other uses and benefits in addition to providing security and responding to potential attacks.

What is Packet Capture?

In short, it can be said that Packet Capture or PCAP is a tool to maintain the safe and efficient operation of networks. Of course, this tool also has inappropriate and illegal uses and may be used by hackers to steal information and such things; But in this article, what we are most interested in is the correct and productive use of Packet Capture.

In the word-for-word translation, Packet means package and Capture means to observe and record it. Packet Capture is a tool that checks the device’s connection to the Internet and prevents it from being hacked. This program only needs file access and can check individual programs and their connections. The PCap application helps analyze networks, manage network traffic, and define network performance issues, allowing the IT team to identify security issues, network abuse, packet loss, and network congestion.

Packet Capture software enables network administrators to directly monitor information systems. The set of this process is called Packet Sniffing or network analysis (protocol analysis) and its implementation tool is the Packet Capture program.

But how does this tool work?

How does Packet Capture work?

Using Sniffer (network packet analysis tool), you can analyze and review the data recorded by the Packet Capture program. To choose the right sniffer, you must consider the device used and its operating system. Do you use Windows or Linux? For example, Wideshark for analyzing pcap format files. It is a good program and it allows you to collect network traffic and make it readable.

Packet Capture can be a switch, a piece of hardware for a laptop or even a mobile phone. Choosing the type of PCP depends on our expectations and the goals we pursue.

Packet capture has many uses and in the next section, we want to take a look at these uses.

What is the use of Packet Capture?

Packet Capture is a key application for network administrators and security officials. It is also a suitable method to identify intrusion in the network and other suspicious activities, in order to deal with them. By downloading packet capture, you can enjoy its many features. Applications such as:

1. Bandwidth usage monitoring and network troubleshooting

Sometimes some users object to accessing a particular server. In this situation, PKP helps the network manager by identifying the problem and analyzing it.

2. Identifying malware and solving security problems

Packet Capture can identify and block IPs that are driving up network traffic. By using this feature, problems caused by DoS and DDoS attacks are temporarily solved.

3. Response to possible attacks

By identifying alarms while analyzing recorded data, potential attacks can be predicted and countered.

4. Identify rogue and attacking DHCPs

Earlier in the DNS article, we have explained DHCP completely. Packet capture helps identify attacker DHCPs. Rogue DHCPs are servers that try to connect to the network earlier than the primary server (your server).

5. Help to learn

Packet capture also helps to learn and study in the field of network by inspecting and capturing the packet.

To learn about different types of packet capture, follow us in the next section.

What are the types of Packet Capture?

Packet Capture has various versions. LibPcap, WinPcap, Pcapng, and NPcap are all versions of the Packet Capture program. For example, LibPcap is open source and written in C/C++ programming language, which can be used for Linux and Mac (unix-like systems). This PayCap program records packets and has the ability to filter them as well. For Windows operating system, Wireshark and Snort packet capture can be used, which support WinPcap.

Pcapng is a more advanced version of PCAP that is both more informative and more professional. However, PCAP is compatible with more tools.

What is meant by Packet Capture tool?

The information that Packet Capture collects is stored as PCAP files. Pcap tools are tools like Wireshark and TCPdump whose task is to analyze the network protocol, record and examine packets with the possibility of searching and filtering, following TCP streams, analyzing TCP and collecting packets.

TCPdump can only be used on Mac; While Wireshark covers Windows, Mac and Linux. Many users prefer to capture packets using TCPdump, save them as PCAP files and use Wireshark to analyze them.

If you agree, let’s check the positive points of packet capture in the next section.

9 advantages of Packet Capture

The advantages of using Packet Capture can be summarized in the following nine points:

1. The use of pcap provides an overview of network traffic, the resulting information of which can be used for further analysis.
2. With the help of this tool, you can find network problems and have a detailed look at the network.
3. With the help of pcap, you can monitor network resources and how they are used.
4. Packet Capture helps identify and analyze data.
5. Downloading Packet Capture can be an effective measure to ensure network security.
6. P-Capture detects the location of malware penetration.
7. PCAP is compatible with a wide range of programs and different versions and has the ability to run in them.
8. If you don’t use PayCap, monitoring the package will lead to security risks.
9. It is possible to save the packets recorded through pcap and postpone its analysis to another time. This capability provides the possibility of data analysis by various experts.

As a rule, there are some flaws that we will talk about in the next section.

What are the disadvantages of Packet Capture?

Like any other tool, PCap has its own disadvantages, limitations and shortcomings. Among these disadvantages, the following can be mentioned:

1. With packet capture you can monitor the network; But this is not enough to ensure your security and other measures are necessary.
2. PCap is only a tool to prevent certain types of attacks. Some attacks are hardware-based and PiCapture cannot detect them.
3. Sometimes attacks are encrypted and Sniffer cannot detect them. Therefore, it is not strange that they cannot be tracked by PCap.
4. Sometimes it is not possible to find the starting point of a DDOS attack with the help of Packet Capture.
5. Recorded packages are usually large in size and require a significant amount of space to store.
6. Sometimes the volume of collected and unnecessary information is very high and useful and necessary information is lost among them.

Now that we have talked about the pros and cons of Packet Capture, there is only one minor point left. We also ask for it so that our article is presented in the most complete way possible.

What is tPacketCapture?

tPacketCapture is a software that can capture packets on Android devices. The format of the files saved by the tPacketCapture program, like other programs in this category, is PCAP, which can be examined and analyzed by introduced software (such as Wireshark).

Of course, to perform this process, the recorded files need to be transferred to a system suitable for the software used. (For Wireshark, the Windows operating system is a suitable option.)

Conclusion

In general, Packet Capture is very useful and useful for learning, troubleshooting and dealing with security incidents. The disadvantages of this program are mostly related to its limitation and inadequacy, and therefore it can be fixed. If you have any questions about this topic, write them in the comments section so that we can answer you as soon as possible.