PCAP-FILTER(7) - phpMan

PCAP-FILTER(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual PCAP-FILTER(7)

NAME
pcap-filter - packet filter syntax

DESCRIPTION
pcap_compile() is used to compile a string into a filter program. The resulting filter
program can then be applied to some stream of packets to determine which packets will be
supplied to pcap_loop(), pcap_dispatch(), pcap_next(), or pcap_next_ex().

The filter expression consists of one or more primitives. Primitives usually consist of
an id (name or number) preceded by one or more qualifiers. There are three different
kinds of qualifier:

type type qualifiers say what kind of thing the id name or number refers to. Possible
types are host, net , port and portrange. E.g., `host foo', `net 128.3', `port
20', `portrange 6000-6008'. If there is no type qualifier, host is assumed.

dir dir qualifiers specify a particular transfer direction to and/or from id. Possible
directions are src, dst, src or dst, src and dst, ra, ta, addr1, addr2, addr3, and
addr4. E.g., `src foo', `dst net 128.3', `src or dst port ftp-data'. If there is
no dir qualifier, src or dst is assumed. The ra, ta, addr1, addr2, addr3, and
addr4 qualifiers are only valid for IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN link layers. For some
link layers, such as SLIP and the ``cooked'' Linux capture mode used for the
``any'' device and for some other device types, the inbound and outbound qualifiers
can be used to specify a desired direction.

proto proto qualifiers restrict the match to a particular protocol. Possible protos are:
ether, fddi, tr, wlan, ip, ip6, arp, rarp, decnet, tcp and udp. E.g., `ether src
foo', `arp net 128.3', `tcp port 21', `udp portrange 7000-7009', `wlan addr2
0:2:3:4:5:6'. If there is no proto qualifier, all protocols consistent with the
type are assumed. E.g., `src foo' means `(ip or arp or rarp) src foo' (except the
latter is not legal syntax), `net bar' means `(ip or arp or rarp) net bar' and
`port 53' means `(tcp or udp) port 53'.

[`fddi' is actually an alias for `ether'; the parser treats them identically as meaning
``the data link level used on the specified network interface.'' FDDI headers contain
Ethernet-like source and destination addresses, and often contain Ethernet-like packet
types, so you can filter on these FDDI fields just as with the analogous Ethernet fields.
FDDI headers also contain other fields, but you cannot name them explicitly in a filter
expression.

Similarly, `tr' and `wlan' are aliases for `ether'; the previous paragraph's statements
about FDDI headers also apply to Token Ring and 802.11 wireless LAN headers. For 802.11
headers, the destination address is the DA field and the source address is the SA field;
the BSSID, RA, and TA fields aren't tested.]

In addition to the above, there are some special `primitive' keywords that don't follow
the pattern: gateway, broadcast, less, greater and arithmetic expressions. All of these
are described below.

More complex filter expressions are built up by using the words and, or and not to combine
primitives. E.g., `host foo and not port ftp and not port ftp-data'. To save typing,
identical qualifier lists can be omitted. E.g., `tcp dst port ftp or ftp-data or domain'
is exactly the same as `tcp dst port ftp or tcp dst port ftp-data or tcp dst port domain'.

Allowable primitives are:

dst host host
True if the IPv4/v6 destination field of the packet is host, which may be either an
address or a name.

src host host
True if the IPv4/v6 source field of the packet is host.

host host
True if either the IPv4/v6 source or destination of the packet is host.

Any of the above host expressions can be prepended with the keywords, ip, arp,
rarp, or ip6 as in:
ip host host
which is equivalent to:
ether proto \ip and host host
If host is a name with multiple IP addresses, each address will be checked for a
match.

ether dst ehost
True if the Ethernet destination address is ehost. Ehost may be either a name from
/etc/ethers or a number (see ethers(3N) for numeric format).

ether src ehost
True if the Ethernet source address is ehost.

ether host ehost
True if either the Ethernet source or destination address is ehost.

gateway host
True if the packet used host as a gateway. I.e., the Ethernet source or destina-
tion address was host but neither the IP source nor the IP destination was host.
Host must be a name and must be found both by the machine's host-name-to-IP-address
resolution mechanisms (host name file, DNS, NIS, etc.) and by the machine's host-
name-to-Ethernet-address resolution mechanism (/etc/ethers, etc.). (An equivalent
expression is
ether host ehost and not host host
which can be used with either names or numbers for host / ehost.) This syntax does
not work in IPv6-enabled configuration at this moment.

dst net net
True if the IPv4/v6 destination address of the packet has a network number of net.
Net may be either a name from the networks database (/etc/networks, etc.) or a net-
work number. An IPv4 network number can be written as a dotted quad (e.g.,
192.168.1.0), dotted triple (e.g., 192.168.1), dotted pair (e.g, 172.16), or single
number (e.g., 10); the netmask is 255.255.255.255 for a dotted quad (which means
that it's really a host match), 255.255.255.0 for a dotted triple, 255.255.0.0 for
a dotted pair, or 255.0.0.0 for a single number. An IPv6 network number must be
written out fully; the netmask is ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, so IPv6 "network"
matches are really always host matches, and a network match requires a netmask
length.

src net net
True if the IPv4/v6 source address of the packet has a network number of net.

net net
True if either the IPv4/v6 source or destination address of the packet has a net-
work number of net.

net net mask netmask
True if the IPv4 address matches net with the specific netmask. May be qualified
with src or dst. Note that this syntax is not valid for IPv6 net.

net net/len
True if the IPv4/v6 address matches net with a netmask len bits wide. May be qual-
ified with src or dst.

dst port port
True if the packet is ip/tcp, ip/udp, ip6/tcp or ip6/udp and has a destination port
value of port. The port can be a number or a name used in /etc/services (see
tcp(4P) and udp(4P)). If a name is used, both the port number and protocol are
checked. If a number or ambiguous name is used, only the port number is checked
(e.g., dst port 513 will print both tcp/login traffic and udp/who traffic, and port
domain will print both tcp/domain and udp/domain traffic).

src port port
True if the packet has a source port value of port.

port port
True if either the source or destination port of the packet is port.

dst portrange port1-port2
True if the packet is ip/tcp, ip/udp, ip6/tcp or ip6/udp and has a destination port
value between port1 and port2. port1 and port2 are interpreted in the same fashion
as the port parameter for port.

src portrange port1-port2
True if the packet has a source port value between port1 and port2.

portrange port1-port2
True if either the source or destination port of the packet is between port1 and
port2.

Any of the above port or port range expressions can be prepended with the keywords,
tcp or udp, as in:
tcp src port port
which matches only tcp packets whose source port is port.

less length
True if the packet has a length less than or equal to length. This is equivalent
to:
len <= length.

greater length
True if the packet has a length greater than or equal to length. This is equiva-
lent to:
len >= length.

ip proto protocol
True if the packet is an IPv4 packet (see ip(4P)) of protocol type protocol. Pro-
tocol can be a number or one of the names icmp, icmp6, igmp, igrp, pim, ah, esp,
vrrp, udp, or tcp. Note that the identifiers tcp, udp, and icmp are also keywords
and must be escaped via backslash (\), which is \\ in the C-shell. Note that this
primitive does not chase the protocol header chain.

ip6 proto protocol
True if the packet is an IPv6 packet of protocol type protocol. Note that this
primitive does not chase the protocol header chain.

proto protocol
True if the packet is an IPv4 or IPv6 packet of protocol type protocol. Note that
this primitive does not chase the protocol header chain.

tcp, udp, icmp
Abbreviations for:
proto p
where p is one of the above protocols.

ip6 protochain protocol
True if the packet is IPv6 packet, and contains protocol header with type protocol
in its protocol header chain. For example,
ip6 protochain 6
matches any IPv6 packet with TCP protocol header in the protocol header chain. The
packet may contain, for example, authentication header, routing header, or hop-by-
hop option header, between IPv6 header and TCP header. The BPF code emitted by
this primitive is complex and cannot be optimized by the BPF optimizer code, so
this can be somewhat slow.

ip protochain protocol
Equivalent to ip6 protochain protocol, but this is for IPv4.

protochain protocol
True if the packet is an IPv4 or IPv6 packet of protocol type protocol. Note that
this primitive chases the protocol header chain.

ether broadcast
True if the packet is an Ethernet broadcast packet. The ether keyword is optional.

ip broadcast
True if the packet is an IPv4 broadcast packet. It checks for both the all-zeroes
and all-ones broadcast conventions, and looks up the subnet mask on the interface
on which the capture is being done.

If the subnet mask of the interface on which the capture is being done is not
available, either because the interface on which capture is being done has no net-
mask or because the capture is being done on the Linux "any" interface, which can
capture on more than one interface, this check will not work correctly.

ether multicast
True if the packet is an Ethernet multicast packet. The ether keyword is optional.
This is shorthand for `ether[0] & 1 != 0'.

ip multicast
True if the packet is an IPv4 multicast packet.

ip6 multicast
True if the packet is an IPv6 multicast packet.

ether proto protocol
True if the packet is of ether type protocol. Protocol can be a number or one of
the names ip, ip6, arp, rarp, atalk, aarp, decnet, sca, lat, mopdl, moprc, iso,
stp, ipx, or netbeui. Note these identifiers are also keywords and must be escaped
via backslash (\).

[In the case of FDDI (e.g., `fddi protocol arp'), Token Ring (e.g., `tr protocol
arp'), and IEEE 802.11 wireless LANS (e.g., `wlan protocol arp'), for most of those
protocols, the protocol identification comes from the 802.2 Logical Link Control
(LLC) header, which is usually layered on top of the FDDI, Token Ring, or 802.11
header.

When filtering for most protocol identifiers on FDDI, Token Ring, or 802.11, the
filter checks only the protocol ID field of an LLC header in so-called SNAP format
with an Organizational Unit Identifier (OUI) of 0x000000, for encapsulated Ether-
net; it doesn't check whether the packet is in SNAP format with an OUI of 0x000000.
The exceptions are:

iso the filter checks the DSAP (Destination Service Access Point) and SSAP
(Source Service Access Point) fields of the LLC header;

stp and netbeui
the filter checks the DSAP of the LLC header;

atalk the filter checks for a SNAP-format packet with an OUI of 0x080007 and the
AppleTalk etype.

In the case of Ethernet, the filter checks the Ethernet type field for most of
those protocols. The exceptions are:

iso, stp, and netbeui
the filter checks for an 802.3 frame and then checks the LLC header as it
does for FDDI, Token Ring, and 802.11;

atalk the filter checks both for the AppleTalk etype in an Ethernet frame and for
a SNAP-format packet as it does for FDDI, Token Ring, and 802.11;

aarp the filter checks for the AppleTalk ARP etype in either an Ethernet frame or
an 802.2 SNAP frame with an OUI of 0x000000;

ipx the filter checks for the IPX etype in an Ethernet frame, the IPX DSAP in
the LLC header, the 802.3-with-no-LLC-header encapsulation of IPX, and the
IPX etype in a SNAP frame.

ip, ip6, arp, rarp, atalk, aarp, decnet, iso, stp, ipx, netbeui
Abbreviations for:
ether proto p
where p is one of the above protocols.

lat, moprc, mopdl
Abbreviations for:
ether proto p
where p is one of the above protocols. Note that not all applications using
pcap(3PCAP) currently know how to parse these protocols.

decnet src host
True if the DECNET source address is host, which may be an address of the form
``10.123'', or a DECNET host name. [DECNET host name support is only available on
ULTRIX systems that are configured to run DECNET.]

decnet dst host
True if the DECNET destination address is host.

decnet host host
True if either the DECNET source or destination address is host.

ifname interface
True if the packet was logged as coming from the specified interface (applies only
to packets logged by OpenBSD's or FreeBSD's pf(4)).

on interface
Synonymous with the ifname modifier.

rnr num
True if the packet was logged as matching the specified PF rule number (applies
only to packets logged by OpenBSD's or FreeBSD's pf(4)).

rulenum num
Synonymous with the rnr modifier.

reason code
True if the packet was logged with the specified PF reason code. The known codes
are: match, bad-offset, fragment, short, normalize, and memory (applies only to
packets logged by OpenBSD's or FreeBSD's pf(4)).

rset name
True if the packet was logged as matching the specified PF ruleset name of an
anchored ruleset (applies only to packets logged by OpenBSD's or FreeBSD's pf(4)).

ruleset name
Synonomous with the rset modifier.

srnr num
True if the packet was logged as matching the specified PF rule number of an
anchored ruleset (applies only to packets logged by OpenBSD's or FreeBSD's pf(4)).

subrulenum num
Synonomous with the srnr modifier.

action act
True if PF took the specified action when the packet was logged. Known actions
are: pass and block and, with later versions of pf(4)), nat, rdr, binat and scrub
(applies only to packets logged by OpenBSD's or FreeBSD's pf(4)).

wlan ra ehost
True if the IEEE 802.11 RA is ehost. The RA field is used in all frames except for
management frames.

wlan ta ehost
True if the IEEE 802.11 TA is ehost. The TA field is used in all frames except for
management frames and CTS (Clear To Send) and ACK (Acknowledgment) control frames.

wlan addr1 ehost
True if the first IEEE 802.11 address is ehost.

wlan addr2 ehost
True if the second IEEE 802.11 address, if present, is ehost. The second address
field is used in all frames except for CTS (Clear To Send) and ACK (Acknowledgment)
control frames.

wlan addr3 ehost
True if the third IEEE 802.11 address, if present, is ehost. The third address
field is used in management and data frames, but not in control frames.

wlan addr4 ehost
True if the fourth IEEE 802.11 address, if present, is ehost. The fourth address
field is only used for WDS (Wireless Distribution System) frames.

type wlan_type
True if the IEEE 802.11 frame type matches the specified wlan_type. Valid
wlan_types are: mgt, ctl and data.

type wlan_type subtype wlan_subtype
True if the IEEE 802.11 frame type matches the specified wlan_type and frame sub-
type matches the specified wlan_subtype.

If the specified wlan_type is mgt, then valid wlan_subtypes are: assoc-req, assoc-
resp, reassoc-req, reassoc-resp, probe-req, probe-resp, beacon, atim, disassoc,
auth and deauth.

If the specified wlan_type is ctl, then valid wlan_subtypes are: ps-poll, rts, cts,
ack, cf-end and cf-end-ack.

If the specified wlan_type is data, then valid wlan_subtypes are: data, data-cf-
ack, data-cf-poll, data-cf-ack-poll, null, cf-ack, cf-poll, cf-ack-poll, qos-data,
qos-data-cf-ack, qos-data-cf-poll, qos-data-cf-ack-poll, qos, qos-cf-poll and qos-
cf-ack-poll.

subtype wlan_subtype
True if the IEEE 802.11 frame subtype matches the specified wlan_subtype and frame
has the type to which the specified wlan_subtype belongs.

dir dir
True if the IEEE 802.11 frame direction matches the specified dir. Valid direc-
tions are: nods, tods, fromds, dstods, or a numeric value.

vlan [vlan_id]
True if the packet is an IEEE 802.1Q VLAN packet. If [vlan_id] is specified, only
true if the packet has the specified vlan_id. Note that the first vlan keyword
encountered in expression changes the decoding offsets for the remainder of expres-
sion on the assumption that the packet is a VLAN packet. The vlan [vlan_id]
expression may be used more than once, to filter on VLAN hierarchies. Each use of
that expression increments the filter offsets by 4.

For example:
vlan 100 && vlan 200
filters on VLAN 200 encapsulated within VLAN 100, and
vlan && vlan 300 && ip
filters IPv4 protocols encapsulated in VLAN 300 encapsulated within any higher
order VLAN.

mpls [label_num]
True if the packet is an MPLS packet. If [label_num] is specified, only true is
the packet has the specified label_num. Note that the first mpls keyword encoun-
tered in expression changes the decoding offsets for the remainder of expression on
the assumption that the packet is a MPLS-encapsulated IP packet. The mpls
[label_num] expression may be used more than once, to filter on MPLS hierarchies.
Each use of that expression increments the filter offsets by 4.

For example:
mpls 100000 && mpls 1024
filters packets with an outer label of 100000 and an inner label of 1024, and
mpls && mpls 1024 && host 192.9.200.1
filters packets to or from 192.9.200.1 with an inner label of 1024 and any outer
label.

pppoed True if the packet is a PPP-over-Ethernet Discovery packet (Ethernet type 0x8863).

pppoes [session_id]
True if the packet is a PPP-over-Ethernet Session packet (Ethernet type 0x8864).
If [session_id] is specified, only true if the packet has the specified session_id.
Note that the first pppoes keyword encountered in expression changes the decoding
offsets for the remainder of expression on the assumption that the packet is a
PPPoE session packet.

For example:
pppoes 0x27 && ip
filters IPv4 protocols encapsulated in PPPoE session id 0x27.

iso proto protocol
True if the packet is an OSI packet of protocol type protocol. Protocol can be a
number or one of the names clnp, esis, or isis.

clnp, esis, isis
Abbreviations for:
iso proto p
where p is one of the above protocols.

l1, l2, iih, lsp, snp, csnp, psnp
Abbreviations for IS-IS PDU types.

vpi n True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, with a virtual path
identifier of n.

vci n True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, with a virtual channel
identifier of n.

lane True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is an ATM LANE
packet. Note that the first lane keyword encountered in expression changes the
tests done in the remainder of expression on the assumption that the packet is
either a LANE emulated Ethernet packet or a LANE LE Control packet. If lane isn't
specified, the tests are done under the assumption that the packet is an LLC-encap-
sulated packet.

llc True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is an LLC-encapsu-
lated packet.

oamf4s True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is a segment OAM F4
flow cell (VPI=0 & VCI=3).

oamf4e True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is an end-to-end
OAM F4 flow cell (VPI=0 & VCI=4).

oamf4 True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is a segment or
end-to-end OAM F4 flow cell (VPI=0 & (VCI=3 | VCI=4)).

oam True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is a segment or
end-to-end OAM F4 flow cell (VPI=0 & (VCI=3 | VCI=4)).

metac True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on a meta sig-
naling circuit (VPI=0 & VCI=1).

bcc True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on a broadcast
signaling circuit (VPI=0 & VCI=2).

sc True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on a signaling
circuit (VPI=0 & VCI=5).

ilmic True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on an ILMI cir-
cuit (VPI=0 & VCI=16).

connectmsg
True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on a signaling
circuit and is a Q.2931 Setup, Call Proceeding, Connect, Connect Ack, Release, or
Release Done message.

metaconnect
True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on a meta sig-
naling circuit and is a Q.2931 Setup, Call Proceeding, Connect, Release, or Release
Done message.

expr relop expr
True if the relation holds, where relop is one of >, <, >=, <=, =, !=, and expr is
an arithmetic expression composed of integer constants (expressed in standard C
syntax), the normal binary operators [+, -, *, /, &, |, <<, >>], a length operator,
and special packet data accessors. Note that all comparisons are unsigned, so
that, for example, 0x80000000 and 0xffffffff are > 0. To access data inside the
packet, use the following syntax:
proto [ expr : size ]
Proto is one of ether, fddi, tr, wlan, ppp, slip, link, ip, arp, rarp, tcp, udp,
icmp, ip6 or radio, and indicates the protocol layer for the index operation.
(ether, fddi, wlan, tr, ppp, slip and link all refer to the link layer. radio
refers to the "radio header" added to some 802.11 captures.) Note that tcp, udp
and other upper-layer protocol types only apply to IPv4, not IPv6 (this will be
fixed in the future). The byte offset, relative to the indicated protocol layer,
is given by expr. Size is optional and indicates the number of bytes in the field
of interest; it can be either one, two, or four, and defaults to one. The length
operator, indicated by the keyword len, gives the length of the packet.

For example, `ether[0] & 1 != 0' catches all multicast traffic. The expression
`ip[0] & 0xf != 5' catches all IPv4 packets with options. The expression `ip[6:2]
& 0x1fff = 0' catches only unfragmented IPv4 datagrams and frag zero of fragmented
IPv4 datagrams. This check is implicitly applied to the tcp and udp index opera-
tions. For instance, tcp[0] always means the first byte of the TCP header, and
never means the first byte of an intervening fragment.

Some offsets and field values may be expressed as names rather than as numeric val-
ues. The following protocol header field offsets are available: icmptype (ICMP
type field), icmpcode (ICMP code field), and tcpflags (TCP flags field).

The following ICMP type field values are available: icmp-echoreply, icmp-unreach,
icmp-sourcequench, icmp-redirect, icmp-echo, icmp-routeradvert, icmp-routersolicit,
icmp-timxceed, icmp-paramprob, icmp-tstamp, icmp-tstampreply, icmp-ireq, icmp-ire-
qreply, icmp-maskreq, icmp-maskreply.

The following TCP flags field values are available: tcp-fin, tcp-syn, tcp-rst, tcp-
push, tcp-ack, tcp-urg.

Primitives may be combined using:

A parenthesized group of primitives and operators (parentheses are special to the
Shell and must be escaped).

Negation (`!' or `not').

Concatenation (`&&' or `and').

Alternation (`||' or `or').

Negation has highest precedence. Alternation and concatenation have equal precedence and
associate left to right. Note that explicit and tokens, not juxtaposition, are now
required for concatenation.

If an identifier is given without a keyword, the most recent keyword is assumed. For
example,
not host vs and ace
is short for
not host vs and host ace
which should not be confused with
not ( host vs or ace )

EXAMPLES
To select all packets arriving at or departing from sundown:
host sundown

To select traffic between helios and either hot or ace:
host helios and \( hot or ace \)

To select all IP packets between ace and any host except helios:
ip host ace and not helios

To select all traffic between local hosts and hosts at Berkeley:
net ucb-ether

To select all ftp traffic through internet gateway snup:
gateway snup and (port ftp or ftp-data)

To select traffic neither sourced from nor destined for local hosts (if you gateway to one
other net, this stuff should never make it onto your local net).
ip and not net localnet

To select the start and end packets (the SYN and FIN packets) of each TCP conversation
that involves a non-local host.
tcp[tcpflags] & (tcp-syn|tcp-fin) != 0 and not src and dst net localnet

To select all IPv4 HTTP packets to and from port 80, i.e. print only packets that contain
data, not, for example, SYN and FIN packets and ACK-only packets. (IPv6 is left as an
exercise for the reader.)
tcp port 80 and (((ip[2:2] - ((ip[0]&0xf)<<2)) - ((tcp[12]&0xf0)>>2)) != 0)

To select IP packets longer than 576 bytes sent through gateway snup:
gateway snup and ip[2:2] > 576

To select IP broadcast or multicast packets that were not sent via Ethernet broadcast or
multicast:
ether[0] & 1 = 0 and ip[16] >= 224

To select all ICMP packets that are not echo requests/replies (i.e., not ping packets):
icmp[icmptype] != icmp-echo and icmp[icmptype] != icmp-echoreply