dnspktflow(1) Analyze and draw DNS flow diagrams from a tcpdump file

SYNOPSIS


dnspktflow -o output.png file.tcpdump
dnspktflow -o output.png -x -a -t -q file.tcpdump

DESCRIPTION

The dnspktflow application takes a tcpdump network traffic dump file, passes it through the tshark application and then displays the resulting DNS packet flows in a ``flow-diagram'' image. dnspktflow can output a single image or a series of images which can then be shown in sequence as an animation.

dnspktflow was written as a debugging utility to help trace DNS queries and responses, especially as they apply to DNSSEC-enabled lookups.

REQUIREMENTS

This application requires the following Perl modules and software components to work:

  graphviz                  (http://www.graphviz.org/)
  GraphViz                  (Perl module)
  tshark                    (http://www.wireshark.org/)

The following is required for outputting screen presentations:

  MagicPoint                (http://member.wide.ad.jp/wg/mgp/)

If the following modules are installed, a GUI interface will be enabled for communication with dnspktflow:

  QWizard                   (Perl module)
  Getopt::GUI::Long         (Perl module)

OPTIONS

dnspktflow takes a wide variety of command-line options. These options are described below in the following functional groups: input packet selection, output file options, output visualization options, graphical options, and debugging.

Input Packet Selection

These options determine the packets that will be selected by dnspktflow.
-i STRING
--ignore-hosts=STRING
A regular expression of host names to ignore in the query/response fields.
-r STRING
--only-hosts=STRING
A regular expression of host names to analyze in the query/response fields.
-f
--show-frame-num
Display the packet frame numbers.
-b INTEGER
--begin-frame=INTEGER
Begin at packet frame NUMBER.

Output File Options

These options determine the type and location of dnspktflow's output.
-o STRING
--output-file=STRING
Output file name (default: out%03d.png as PNG format.)
--fig
Output format should be fig.
-O STRING
--tshark-out=STRING
Save tshark output to this file.
-m
--multiple-outputs
One picture per request (use %03d in the filename.)
-M STRING
--magic-point=STRING
Saves a MagicPoint presentation for the output.

Output Visualization Options:

These options determine specifics of dnspktflow's output.
--layout-style
Selects the graphviz layout style to use (dot, neato, twopi, circo, or fdp).
-L
--last-line-labels-only
Only show data on the last line drawn.
-z INTEGER
--most-lines=INTEGER
Only show at most INTEGER connections.
-T
--input-is-tshark-out
The input file is already processed by tshark.

Graphical Options:

These options determine fields included in dnspktflow's output.
-t
--show-type
Shows message type in result image.
-q
--show-queries
Shows query questions in result image.
-a
--show-answers
Shows query answers in result image.
-A
--show-authoritative
Shows authoritative information in result image.
-x
--show-additional
Shows additional information in result image.
-l
--show-label-lines
Shows lines attaching labels to lines.
--fontsize=INTEGER
Font Size

Debugging:

These options may assist in debugging dnspktflow.
-d
--dump-pkts
Dump data collected from the packets.
-h
--help
Show help for command line options.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 2004-2013 SPARTA, Inc. All rights reserved. See the COPYING file included with the DNSSEC-Tools package for details.

AUTHOR

Wes Hardaker <[email protected]>