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Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Decoding New TLS CLient Hello Extension

From: Jeff Morriss <jeff.morriss.ws@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2016 15:44:35 -0400


On Thu, Apr 14, 2016 at 3:07 PM, <nalini.elkins@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Guys,

I am trying to decode a new TLS extension in the Client Hello packet.  I have the following statement in my LUA:

local ssl_ext_table = DissectorTable.get("ssl.handshake.extension.type")

This is getting an error.  Would appreciate any help that anyone can give.

Where did you get that string?  I can't find it in the SSL dissector.

In order to get a dissector table (DissectorTable.get()) such a dissector table has to exist.  (A common mistake is to believe that there is a dissector table for every field (hf) in Wireshark--there isn't even though there are sometimes fields that share a name with a dissector table--"tcp.port" is a good example.)

So: you're getting an error because the SSL dissector does not publish such a table; in other words the dissector is not prepared to have other dissectors dissecting TLS extensions.

Your best path forward would likely be to just modify the SSL dissector's C code; ideally you could then push that code to Wireshark so future versions will dissect the extension too.