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Wireshark-users: Re: [Wireshark-users] Writing a custom extension for the Packet Details window.

From: Guy Harris <guy@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 19:26:11 -0700

On Sep 19, 2006, at 12:24 PM, Bard Jason A NPRI wrote:

I have been trying to figure how, if possible, I can write a "module" that will further decode data in a UDP packet for troubleshooting in the Packet Details window. So rather than the rest of the packet after the User Datagram Protocol being lumped into "Data" which I have to look at in hex, I would have another subtree that would break down the info in the data portion into a more human readable format (the data is binary).

So I presume the data in that UDP packet is a message for some particular protocol?

If so, then, as Jaap Keuter noted, you'd want to write a dissector for that protocol.

I have something that does this now, but only in Etherpeek, they call them Analysis Modules.

So what exactly is it that an EtherPeek Analysis Module does? I searched for "analysis module" on the Wildpackets Web site, and found something that said about analysis modules for AirpPeek NX:

	Analysis Modules

Analysis Modules are external modules that provide expert analysis features to the program. An Analysis Module tests network traffic and provides detailed summaries and counts of key parameters of one specific type of traffic, posting its results in the Summary Statistics window and/or in the Summary column of the Packets view of
Capture windows and Packet File windows.

However, that doesn't sound like something that "further decodes data", it sounds as if it performs statistical analysis on data that's already been decoded. The *Peek term for what are called "dissectors" in Wireshark is "decode" or "protocol decoder"; if you want a subtree in the packet detail pane for the data in a UDP packet, you would, in *Peek terminology, want a decode/protocol decoder for the protocol for that data, not an analysis module.