TCP Packet Generator Description

Purpose of the TCP Portion of the Packet Generator Tool

• The purpose of this tool is to give you a way to craft a TCP packet or set of TCP packets to send to a target, then observe the target's response with a packet capturing tool like Packet Viewer or view the results of those packets attacks in the log files on the target. For example, you might alter a TCP SYN packet with information that is not usually found in the packet in order to see the response of a web server to the malformed packet.

TCP Packet Generator Capabilities

• Sends TCP Packets to the IPv4 address specified.
• Full header control for the TCP packet. You can specify most parameters in the header such as source and destination IPv4 address, source and destination ports, packet length, packet types, flags and checksums. The ethernet source and destination address can also be defined.
• Data Payload can be added. The payload can be simple text or a file of your choosing. The length of the data payload is limited by the interface MTU and the packet type. We provide a Hex Editor to assist in creating or editing binary packet payloads.
• The packet size is limited to the MTU of your network, typically 1460 bytes for ethernet.
• Scripting. Simple scripting is provided so that you can send different types packets. Scripted packet transmission can be used to send packets with parameters changing according to your script.

What this tool does not do:

• This tool does not do handshaking of TCP connections - in other words, it does not listen for a response during a TCP handshake and send a different TCP packet in reply.
• This is not a packet flooding tool. Burst rate is about 20Khz and this may vary from computer to computer.
• This is not a bandwidth testing tool. You are looking for a piece of dedicated hardware: Agilent Technologies and Fluke both make these type of devices.
• This is not a traffic generator capable of stressing a network interface.
• Do not use this tool if you have an active virtual machine ethernet interface. This tool works best with physical ethernet interfaces. You are welcome to try it with your virtual machine, but do not count on it working perfectly.
• This tool cannot send custom packets through WAN (PPP/SLIP) interfaces like modems or wireless cellular modems.

A video of the Packet Generator tool sending TCP Packets

More Information about the Packet Generator

• Packet Generator Overview.
• Creating a UDP packet.
• Creating an ICMP packet.
• Creating a CDP packet.
• Creating an ARP or RARP packet.