SkillAgentSearch skills...

Dshell

Dshell is a network forensic analysis framework.

GenerateConvertImprove

Install / Use

/learn @USArmyResearchLab/Dshell
About this skill

Quality Score

0/100

Supported Platforms

Universal

README

Dshell

An extensible network forensic analysis framework. Enables rapid development of plugins to support the dissection of network packet captures.

Key features:

  • Deep packet analysis using specialized plugins
  • Robust stream reassembly
  • IPv4 and IPv6 support
  • Multiple user-selectable output formats and the ability to create custom output handlers
  • Chainable plugins
  • Parallel processing option to divide the handling of data source into separate Python processes
  • Enables development of external plugin packs to share and install new externally developed plugins without overlapping the core Dshell plugin directories

Guides

  • Dshell User Guide
    • A guide to installation as well as both basic and advanced analysis with examples
    • Helps new and experienced end users with using and understanding the decoder-shell (Dshell) framework
  • Dshell Developer Guide
    • A guide to plugin development with basic examples, as well as core function and class definitions, and an overview of data flow
    • Helps end users develop new, custom Dshell plugins as well as modify existing plugins

Requirements

Optional

  • oui.txt
    • used by some plugins that handle MAC addresses
    • place in <dshell>/data/
  • elasticsearch
    • used in the elasticout output module
    • only necessary if planning to use elasticsearch to store output
  • pyJA3
    • used in the tls plugin

Installation

  1. Install Dshell with pip
  • python3 -m pip install Dshell/ OR python3 -m pip install <Dshell-tarball>
  1. Configure geoip2 by placing the MaxMind GeoLite2 data set files (GeoLite2-ASN.mmdb, GeoLite2-City.mmdb, GeoLite2-Country.mmdb) in [...]/site-packages/dshell/data/GeoIP/
  2. Run dshell. This should drop you into a Dshell> prompt.

Basic Usage

  • decode -l
    • This will list all available plugins, alongside basic information about them
  • decode -h
    • Show generic command-line flags available to most plugins, such as the color blind friendly mode for all color output
  • decode -p <plugin>
    • Display information about a plugin, including available command line flags
  • decode -p <plugin> <pcap>
    • Run the selected plugin on a pcap or pcapng file
  • decode -p <plugin1>+<plugin2> <pcap>
    • Chain two (or more) plugins together and run them on a pcap file
  • decode -p <plugin> -i <interface>
    • Run the selected plugin live on an interface (may require superuser privileges)

Usage Examples

Showing DNS lookups in sample traffic

Dshell> decode -p dns ~/pcap/dns.cap | sort
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:47:46    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 4146, TXT? google.com., TXT: b'\x0fv=spf1 ptr ?all' **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:47:50    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 63343, MX? google.com., MX: b'\x00(\x05smtp4\xc0\x0c', MX: b'\x00\n\x05smtp5\xc0\x0c', MX: b'\x00\n\x05smtp6\xc0\x0c', MX: b'\x00\n\x05smtp1\xc0\x0c', MX: b'\x00\n\x05smtp2\xc0\x0c', MX: b'\x00(\x05smtp3\xc0\x0c' **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:47:59    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 18849, LOC? google.com. **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:48:07    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 39867, PTR? 104.9.192.66.in-addr.arpa., PTR: 66-192-9-104.gen.twtelecom.net. **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:49:18    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 30144, A? www.netbsd.org., A: 204.152.190.12 (ttl 82159s) **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:49:35    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 61652, AAAA? www.netbsd.org., AAAA: 2001:4f8:4:7:2e0:81ff:fe52:9a6b (ttl 86400s) **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:50:35    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 32569, AAAA? www.netbsd.org., AAAA: 2001:4f8:4:7:2e0:81ff:fe52:9a6b (ttl 86340s) **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:50:44    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 36275, AAAA? www.google.com., CNAME: 'www.l.google.com.' **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:50:54    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 56482, AAAA? www.l.google.com. **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:51:35    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 48159, AAAA? www.example.com. **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:51:46    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 9837, AAAA? www.example.notginh., NXDOMAIN **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:52:17    192.168.170.8:32795 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 65251, AAAA: 2001:4f8:0:2::d (ttl 600s), A: 204.152.184.88 (ttl 600s) **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:52:17    192.168.170.8:32796 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 23123, PTR? 1.0.0.127.in-addr.arpa., PTR: localhost. **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:52:17    192.168.170.8:32797 --   192.168.170.20:53    ** ID: 8330, NS: b'\x06ns-ext\x04nrt1\xc0\x0c', NS: b'\x06ns-ext\x04sth1\xc0\x0c', NS: b'\x06ns-ext\xc0\x0c', NS: b'\x06ns-ext\x04lga1\xc0\x0c' **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:52:17   192.168.170.56:1707  --      217.13.4.24:53    ** ID: 12910, SRV? _ldap._tcp.Default-First-Site-Name._sites.dc._msdcs.utelsystems.local., NXDOMAIN **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:52:17   192.168.170.56:1708  --      217.13.4.24:53    ** ID: 61793, SRV? _ldap._tcp.dc._msdcs.utelsystems.local., NXDOMAIN **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:52:17   192.168.170.56:1709  --      217.13.4.24:53    ** ID: 33633, SRV? _ldap._tcp.05b5292b-34b8-4fb7-85a3-8beef5fd2069.domains._msdcs.utelsystems.local., NXDOMAIN **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:52:17   192.168.170.56:1710  --      217.13.4.24:53    ** ID: 53344, A? GRIMM.utelsystems.local., NXDOMAIN **
[DNS] 2005-03-30 03:52:25   192.168.170.56:1711  --      217.13.4.24:53    ** ID: 30307, A? GRIMM.utelsystems.local., NXDOMAIN **

Following and reassembling a stream in sample traffic

Dshell> decode -p followstream ~/pcap/v6-http.cap 
Connection 1 (TCP)
Start: 2007-08-05 15:16:44.189851
End:   2007-08-05 15:16:44.219460
2001:6f8:102d:0:2d0:9ff:fee3:e8de: 59201 -> 2001:6f8:900:7c0::2:    80 (300 bytes)
2001:6f8:900:7c0::2:    80 -> 2001:6f8:102d:0:2d0:9ff:fee3:e8de: 59201 (2379 bytes)

GET / HTTP/1.0
Host: cl-1985.ham-01.de.sixxs.net
Accept: text/html, text/plain, text/css, text/sgml, */*;q=0.01
Accept-Encoding: gzip, bzip2
Accept-Language: en
User-Agent: Lynx/2.8.6rel.2 libwww-FM/2.14 SSL-MM/1.4.1 OpenSSL/0.9.8b



HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2007 19:16:44 GMT
Server: Apache
Content-Length: 2121
Connection: close
Content-Type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
<html>
 <head>
  <title>Index of /</title>
 </head>
 <body>
<h1>Index of /</h1>
<pre><img src="/icons/blank.gif" alt="Icon "> <a href="?C=N;O=D">Name</a>                    <a href="?C=M;O=A">Last modified</a>      <a href="?C=S;O=A">Size</a>  <a href="?C=D;O=A">Description</a><hr><img src="/icons/folder.gif" alt="[DIR]"> <a href="202-vorbereitung/">202-vorbereitung/</a>       06-Jul-2007 14:31    -   
<img src="/icons/layout.gif" alt="[   ]"> <a href="Efficient_Video_on_demand_over_Multicast.pdf">Efficient_Video_on_d..&gt;</a> 19-Dec-2006 03:17  291K  
<img src="/icons/unknown.gif" alt="[   ]"> <a href="Welcome%20Stranger!!!">Welcome Stranger!!!</a>     28-Dec-2006 03:46    0   
<img src="/icons/text.gif" alt="[TXT]"> <a href="barschel.htm">barschel.htm</a>            31-Jul-2007 02:21   44K  
<img src="/icons/folder.gif" alt="[DIR]"> <a href="bnd/">bnd/</a>                    30-Dec-2006 08:59    -   
<img src="/icons/folder.gif" alt="[DIR]"> <a href="cia/">cia/</a>                    28-Jun-2007 00:04    -   
<img src="/icons/layout.gif" alt="[   ]"> <a href="cisco_ccna_640-801_command_reference_guide.pdf">cisco_ccna_640-801_c..&gt;</a> 28-Dec-2006 03:48  236K  
<img src="/icons/folder.gif" alt="[DIR]"> <a href="doc/">doc/</a>                    19-Sep-2006 01:43    -   
<img src="/icons/folder.gif" alt="[DIR]"> <a href="freenetproto/">freenetproto/</a>           06-Dec-2006 09:00    -   
<img src="/icons/folder.gif" alt="[DIR]"> <a href="korrupt/">korrupt/</a>                03-Jul-2007 11:57    -   
<img src="/icons/folder.gif" alt="[DIR]"> <a href="mp3_technosets/">mp3_technosets/</a>         04-Jul-2007 08:56    -   
<img src="/icons/text.gif" alt="[TXT]"> <a href="neues_von_rainald_goetz.htm">neues_von_rainald_go..&gt;</a> 21-Mar-2007 23:27   31K  
<img src="/icons/text.gif" alt="[TXT]"> <a href="neues_von_rainald_goetz0.htm">neues_von_rainald_go..&gt;</a> 21-Mar-2007 23:29   36K  
<img src="/icons/layout.gif" alt="[   ]"> <a href="pruef.pdf">pruef.pdf</a>               28-Dec-2006 07:48   88K  
<hr></pre>
</body></html>

Chaining plugins to view flow data for a specific country code in sample traffic (note: TCP handshakes are not included in the packet count)

Dshell> decode -p country+netflow --country_code=JP ~/pcap/SkypeIRC.cap
2006-08-25 15:32:20.766761       192.168.1.2 ->  202.232.205.123  (-- -> JP)   UDP   60583   33438     1      0       64        0  0.0000s
2006-08-25 15:32:20.634046       192.168.1.2 ->  202.232.205.123  (-- -> JP)   UDP   60583   33435     1      0       64        0  0.0000s
2006-08-25 15:32:20.747503       192.168.1.2 ->  202.232.205.123  (-- -> JP)   UDP   60583   33437     1      0       64        0  0.0000s
2006-08-25 15:32:20.651501       192.168.1.2 ->  202.232.205.123  (-- -> JP)   UDP   60583   33436

Related Skills

node-connect

334.1k

Diagnose OpenClaw node connection and pairing failures for Android, iOS, and macOS companion apps

frontend-design

82.1k

Create distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces with high design quality. Use this skill when the user asks to build web components, pages, or applications. Generates creative, polished code that avoids generic AI aesthetics.

openai-whisper-api

334.1k

Transcribe audio via OpenAI Audio Transcriptions API (Whisper).

commit-push-pr

82.1k

Commit, push, and open a PR

USArmyResearchLab

View profile

View on GitHub
GitHub Stars5.5k
CategoryDevelopment
Updated10h ago
Forks1.1k
USArmyResearchLab/Dshell

Languages

Python

Security Score

80/100

Audited on Mar 24, 2026

No findings