VMware Workstation Vnetsniffer

Did you know VMware Workstation ships with a sniffer? I should have know about it before now. Lenny Zeltser mentioned it in his 2001 paper on reverse engineering malware. There's only 15 references in Google Groups, however.

Vnetsniffer is very limited with regard to reporting. Here is sample output:

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation>vnetsniffer
usage: vnetsniffer [/e] (/p "pvnID" | VMnet?)

C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Workstation>runas /u:administrator "vnetsniffer /e vmnet0"
Enter password for administrator:
Attempting to start "vnetsniffer /e vmnet0" as user "administrator"...

len  203 src 00:03:47:0f:1f:3c dst 00:13:10:65:2f:ab IP src 192.168.2.4  
   dst 208.185.174.52  TCP
len   60 src 00:13:10:65:2f:ab dst 00:03:47:0f:1f:3c ARP sender
 00:13:10:65:2f:ab 192.168.2.1     target 00:00:00:00:00:00 192.168.2.4   
 ARP request
len   42 src 00:03:47:0f:1f:3c dst 00:13:10:65:2f:ab ARP sender
 00:03:47:0f:1f:3c 192.168.2.4     target 00:13:10:65:2f:ab 192.168.2.1     
 ARP reply
len  203 src 00:03:47:0f:1f:3c dst 00:13:10:65:2f:ab IP src 192.168.2.4   
   dst 208.185.174.52  TCP
len  342 src 00:0c:29:22:b7:2d dst ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff IP src 0.0.0.0      
   dst 255.255.255.255 UDP
len  203 src 00:03:47:0f:1f:3c dst 00:13:10:65:2f:ab IP src 192.168.2.4   
   dst 208.185.174.52  TCP
len  342 src 00:0c:29:22:b7:2d dst ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff IP src 0.0.0.0      
   dst 255.255.255.255 UDP
len  342 src 00:0c:29:22:b7:2d dst ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff IP src 0.0.0.0      
   dst 255.255.255.255 UDP
len  203 src 00:03:47:0f:1f:3c dst 00:13:10:65:2f:ab IP src 192.168.2.4   
   dst 208.185.174.52  TCP
len  435 src 00:13:10:65:2f:ab dst 00:03:47:0f:1f:3c IP src 208.185.174.52
   dst 192.168.2.4     TCP

This output doesn't even show TCP or UDP ports, which would be very helpful. Vnetsniffer seems best suited for basic troubleshooting of virtual switches, thanks to the ability to specify a vmnet to monitor. Here I chose vmnet0, which is the default bridged interface. vmnet1 is used for host-only networking, and vmnet8 is used for NAT.

Comments

John Ward said…
Depending on my need, I usually just run Ethereal on the host OS... Although that is cool, I had no idea this utility shipped with VMWare.
3:51 PM
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
3:35 AM
Anonymous said…
Who know - what's format file of "vnetsniffer /w filename" ???
2:34 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Zeek in Action Videos

Image
This is a quick note to point blog readers to my Zeek in Action YouTube video series for the Zeek network security monitoring project .  Each video addresses a topic that I think might be of interest to people trying to understand their network using Zeek and adjacent tools and approaches, like Suricata, Wireshark, and so on.  I am especially pleased with Video 6 on monitoring wireless networks . It took me several weeks to research material for this video. I had to buy new hardware and experiment with a Linux distro that I had not used before -- Parrot .  Please like and subscribe, and let me know if there is a topic you think might make a good video.
Read more

MITRE ATT&CK Tactics Are Not Tactics

Image
Just what are "tactics"? Introduction MITRE ATT&CK  is a great resource, but something about it has bothered me since I first heard about it several years ago. It's a minor point, but I wanted to document it in case it confuses anyone else. The MITRE ATT&CK Design and Philosophy document from March 2020 says the following: At a high-level, ATT&CK is a behavioral model that consists of the following core components: • Tactics, denoting short-term, tactical adversary goals during an attack; • Techniques, describing the means by which adversaries achieve tactical goals; • Sub-techniques, describing more specific means by which adversaries achieve tactical goals at a lower level than techniques; and • Documented adversary usage of techniques, their procedures, and other metadata. My concern is with MITRE's definition of "tactics" as "short-term, tactical adversary goals during an attack," which is oddly recursive. The key word in the tacti
Read more

New Book! The Best of TaoSecurity Blog, Volume 4

Image
  I've completed the TaoSecurity Blog book series . The new book is  The Best of TaoSecurity Blog, Volume 4: Beyond the Blog with Articles, Testimony, and Scholarship .  It's available now for Kindle , and I'm working on the print edition.  I'm running a 50% off promo on Volumes 1-3 on Kindle through midnight 20 April. Take advantage before the prices go back up. I described the new title thus: Go beyond TaoSecurity Blog with this new volume from author Richard Bejtlich. In the first three volumes of the series, Mr. Bejtlich selected and republished the very best entries from 18 years of writing and over 18 million blog views, along with commentaries and additional material.  In this title, Mr. Bejtlich collects material that has not been published elsewhere, including articles that are no longer available or are stored in assorted digital or physical archives. Volume 4 offers early white papers that Mr. Bejtlich wrote as a network defender, either for technical or pol
Read more