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Using Lua to tag SYN-ACK followed by a RST

asked 2024-04-26 14:57:58 +0000

echo gravatar image

updated 2024-04-26 15:01:31 +0000

I have a large capture file and need to select all SYN-ACKs which result in an RST packet. There are thousands of those, so this is not a manual job.

I came up with the following solution: Create a Lua script to find all RST packets and go over the capture again to tag all matching SYN-ACK packets. Reason for the 2nd pass is that the RST obviously occurs AFTER the SYN-ACK.

I am new to Lua but managed to get a long way with the help of google and Chat-GPT, but I simply don't get all the way there. The current error is on line 34 and is that there is 'No such 'fields' method/field for object type 'Pinfo' But, everytime I address it I run into other errors.

Anybody with Lua experience who knows what I am doing wrong?

Script:

-- Define a custom field for tagging purposes.
-- This field will be used to indicate whether a TCP SYN packet is followed by an RST packet.
local f_tcp_syn_followed_by_rst = ProtoField.bool("tcp.syn_followed_by_rst", "SYN followed by RST", 8, nil, 0x01)

-- Create a new protocol to hold the custom field.
-- This protocol will be used for tagging TCP packets in Wireshark.
local tcp_tagging_proto = Proto("tcp_tagging", "TCP Tagging Protocol")
tcp_tagging_proto.fields = { f_tcp_syn_followed_by_rst }

-- Tables to hold the stream information
-- This table will keep track of TCP streams that have an RST packet.
local rst_stream_table = {}

-- Define field extractors
local tcp_stream_field = Field.new("tcp.stream")
local tcp_flags_field = Field.new("tcp.flags")

-- Function to analyze RST packets and register them with their stream number.
-- This function will be called for each packet to check if it is an RST packet and record its stream number.
local function analyze_packet_rst(pinfo, tvb, tree)
    local tcp_stream = tcp_stream_field().value -- Extract the numeric value
    local flags = tcp_flags_field().value -- Extract the numeric value
    local rst_flag = bit32.band(flags, 0x04) ~= 0 -- Check if the RST flag is set.

    -- If the RST flag is set, record the stream number in the rst_stream_table.
    if rst_flag then
        rst_stream_table[tcp_stream] = true
    end
end

-- Function to find SYN-ACK packets and tag them if an RST was found for the same stream.
-- This function tags SYN-ACK packets that are followed by an RST packet in the same TCP stream.
local function analyze_packet_tag(pinfo, tvb, tree)
    local tcp_stream = pinfo.fields.tcp.stream -- Get the TCP stream number from the packet info.
    local flags = tvb(13, 1):uint() -- Extract the TCP flags from the packet.
    local syn_flag = bit32.band(flags, 0x02) ~= 0 -- Check if the SYN flag is set.
    local ack_flag = bit32.band(flags, 0x10) ~= 0 -- Check if the ACK flag is set.

    -- If this is a SYN-ACK packet and the stream has an RST, set the custom field to true.
    if syn_flag and ack_flag and rst_stream_table[tcp_stream] then
        local subtree = tree:add(tcp_tagging_proto, tvb()) -- Add the protocol to the packet tree.
        subtree:add(f_tcp_syn_followed_by_rst, tvb(), true) -- Set the custom field value.
        pinfo.cols.info:append(" [SYN followed by RST]") -- Append a note to the packet info column.
    end ...
(more)
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2 Answers

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answered 2024-04-26 15:56:04 +0000

SYN-bit gravatar image

Apart from the (very flexible) Lua solution, you could also use the TCP completeness filter to achieve (kind of) the same. The filter tcp.completeness & 62 == 34will display all TCP sessions in which there was seen:

  • a SYN/ACK (2)
  • no bare ACK (4)
  • no data (8)
  • no FIN (16)
  • a RST (32)

I'm leaving out the SYN(1) as there might be sessions where the capture started straight after the SYN, if you only want sessions in which the SYN is also present, you can just use tcp.completeness == 35

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Comments

Oh, and after re-reading your question, you only want to see the SYN/ACK packets, so you can filter with tcp.completeness & 62 == 34 and tcp.flags & 18 == 18

SYN-bit gravatar imageSYN-bit ( 2024-04-26 15:58:11 +0000 )edit
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answered 2024-04-26 15:28:47 +0000

Chuckc gravatar image

I didn't verify the logic of "SYN-ACKs which result in an RST packet" but this will load and execute clean.

-- Create a new protocol to hold the custom field.
-- This protocol will be used for tagging TCP packets in Wireshark.
local tcp_tagging_proto = Proto("tcp_tagging", "TCP Tagging Protocol")

-- Define a custom field for tagging purposes.
-- This field will be used to indicate whether a TCP SYN packet is followed by an RST packet.
local f_tcp_syn_followed_by_rst = ProtoField.bool("tcp_tagging.syn_followed_by_rst", "SYN followed by RST", 8, nil, 0x01)

tcp_tagging_proto.fields = { f_tcp_syn_followed_by_rst }

-- Tables to hold the stream information
-- This table will keep track of TCP streams that have an RST packet.
local rst_stream_table = {}

-- Define field extractors
local tcp_stream_field = Field.new("tcp.stream")
local tcp_flags_field = Field.new("tcp.flags")

-- Function to analyze RST packets and register them with their stream number.
-- This function will be called for each packet to check if it is an RST packet and record its stream number.
-- Function to analyze RST packets and register them with their stream number.
local function analyze_packet_rst(pinfo, tvb, tree)
    local tcp_stream = tcp_stream_field().value -- Extract the numeric value
    local flags = tcp_flags_field().value -- Extract the numeric value

    local rst_flag = bit32.band(flags, 0x04) ~= 0 -- Check if the RST flag is set.

    -- If the RST flag is set, record the stream number in the rst_stream_table.
    if rst_flag then
        rst_stream_table[tcp_stream] = true
    end
end

-- Function to find SYN-ACK packets and tag them if an RST was found for the same stream.
-- This function tags SYN-ACK packets that are followed by an RST packet in the same TCP stream.
local function analyze_packet_tag(pinfo, tvb, tree)
    local tcp_stream = tcp_stream_field().value -- Extract the numeric value
    local flags = tcp_flags_field().value -- Extract the numeric value

    local syn_flag = bit32.band(flags, 0x02) ~= 0 -- Check if the SYN flag is set.
    local ack_flag = bit32.band(flags, 0x10) ~= 0 -- Check if the ACK flag is set.

    -- If this is a SYN-ACK packet and the stream has an RST, set the custom field to true.
    if syn_flag and ack_flag and rst_stream_table[tcp_stream] then
        local subtree = tree:add(tcp_tagging_proto, tvb()) -- Add the protocol to the packet tree.
        subtree:add(f_tcp_syn_followed_by_rst, tvb(), true) -- Set the custom field value.
        pinfo.cols.info:append(" [SYN followed by RST]") -- Append a note to the packet info column.
    end
end


-- Dissector function for the custom protocol.
-- This function calls the two analysis functions to process each packet.
function tcp_tagging_proto.dissector(tvb, pinfo, tree)
    if ((tcp_stream_field() ~= nil) and (tcp_flags_field() ~= nil)) then
        analyze_packet_rst(pinfo, tvb, tree) -- Call the function to analyze RST packets.
        analyze_packet_tag(pinfo, tvb, tree) -- Call the function to tag SYN-ACK packets.
    end
end

-- Register the protocol as a postdisector.
-- This will ensure that the protocol is called after the standard dissectors.
register_postdissector(tcp_tagging_proto)

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Asked: 2024-04-26 14:57:58 +0000

Seen: 708 times

Last updated: Apr 26