RustNet is a cross-platform network monitoring tool built with Rust.
RustNet provides real-time visibility into network connections with detailed state information, connection lifecycle management, deep packet inspection, and a terminal user interface.
RustNet uses kernel eBPF programs by default on Linux for enhanced performance and lower overhead process identification.
This is free and open source software.
Features include:
- Real-time Network Monitoring: Monitor active TCP, UDP, ICMP, and ARP connections with detailed state information.
- Connection States: Track TCP states (ESTABLISHED, SYN_SENT, TIME_WAIT), QUIC states (QUIC_INITIAL, QUIC_HANDSHAKE, QUIC_CONNECTED), DNS states, SSH states, and activity-based UDP states.
- Deep Packet Inspection (DPI): Detect application protocols including HTTP, HTTPS/TLS with SNI, DNS, SSH with version detection, and QUIC with CONNECTION_CLOSE frame detection
- Smart Connection Lifecycle: Protocol-aware timeouts with visual staleness indicators (white → yellow → red) before cleanup.
- Process Identification: Associate network connections with running processes.
- Service Name Resolution: Identify well-known services using port numbers.
- Cross-platform Support: Works on Linux, macOS, Windows and potentially BSD systems.
- Advanced Filtering: Real-time vim/fzf-style filtering with keyword support (port:, src:, dst:, sni:, process:, state:).
- Terminal User Interface: Beautiful TUI built with ratatui with adjustable column widths.
- Multi-threaded Processing: Concurrent packet processing for high performance.
- Optional Logging: Detailed logging with configurable log levels (disabled by default).
Website: github.com/domcyrus/rustnet
Support:
Developer: Marco Cadetg
License: Apache License 2.0
RustNet is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |
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