analyzing-network-traffic-with-wireshark

name	analyzing-network-traffic-with-wireshark
description	Captures and analyzes network packet data using Wireshark and tshark to identify malicious traffic patterns, diagnose protocol issues, extract artifacts, and support incident response investigations on authorized network segments. . Use when working with analyzing network traffic with wireshark.
domain	cybersecurity
tags	["network-security","wireshark","packet-analysis","traffic-analysis","pcap"]
subdomain	network-security
version	1.0
author	oyi77
license	Apache-2.0
nist_csf	["PR.IR-01","DE.CM-01","ID.AM-03","PR.DS-02"]

Analyzing Network Traffic With Wireshark

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for analyzing network traffic with wireshark. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "analyzing network traffic with wireshark"

• "Captures and analyzes network packet data using Wireshark and tshark to identify"

• Investigating suspected network intrusions by examining packet-level evidence of command-and-control traffic, data exfiltration, or lateral movement

• Diagnosing network performance issues such as retransmissions, fragmentation, or DNS resolution failures

• Analyzing malware communication patterns by capturing traffic from sandboxed or isolated hosts

• Validating firewall and IDS rules by confirming what traffic is actually traversing network segments

• Extracting files, credentials, or indicators of compromise from captured network sessions

Do not use to capture traffic on networks without authorization, to intercept private communications without legal authority, or as a substitute for full-featured SIEM platforms in production monitoring.

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Wireshark 4.0+ and tshark command-line utility installed
• Root/sudo privileges or membership in the wireshark group for live packet capture
• Network interface access (physical NIC, span port, or network tap) to the monitored segment
• Sufficient disk space for packet capture files (estimate 1 GB per minute on busy gigabit links)
• Familiarity with TCP/IP protocols, HTTP, DNS, TLS, and SMB at the packet level

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": r"\b[a-f0-9]{64}\b",
}

 () -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}