Babyshark is a PCAP TUI that helps you answer:
- What’s using the network?
- What looks broken/weird?
- What should I select next?
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Offline: open .pcap / .pcapng and browse:
- flows list → packets list → follow stream.
- stream search with highlighting + n / N navigation.
- Live: capture and inspect traffic in the TUI:
- list capture interfaces.
- live capture with optional display filter.
- optional write-to-file while capturing.
- Per-flow analysis:
- Health badges — colored dot (green/yellow/red) on each flow based on RST, incomplete handshakes, retransmissions.
- Asymmetry labels — DL/UL suffix in flow list + download-heavy/upload-heavy/balanced in details (falls back to A>B/B>A when local side is ambiguous).
- TCP timing — handshake RTT, server think time, data transfer duration in the details pane.
- TLS version display — shows negotiated version from ServerHello when visible, flags deprecated versions (<= TLS 1.1).
- Weird detectors:
- TCP resets, handshake-not-completed, DNS failures, retransmit/OOO hints, high-latency flows.
- Deprecated TLS — flags flows using TLS 1.0 or 1.1.
- Chatty hosts — flags ≥10 flows to the same destination within 60 seconds.
- Timeline view (T):
- Gantt — phase-colored horizontal bars (handshake / TLS / data / close) with hostname labels.
- Scatter — per-packet direction/retransmit dot plot.
- Color legends, pattern callouts, and plain-English narrative in details.
- Notes/export:
- bookmark flows.
- export markdown report (latest + timestamped copies).
Website: github.com/vignesh07/babyshark
Support:
Developer: MIT License
License: Vignesh Natarajan
babyshark is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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