tcpdump is a common computer network debugging tool that runs under the command line.
It allows the user to intercept and display TCP/IP and other packets being transmitted or received over a network to which the computer is attached.
This program allows you to dump the traffic on a network.
It can be used to print out the headers of packets on a network interface, filter packets that match a certain expression. You can use this tool to track down network problems, to detect “ping attacks” or to monitor network activities.
Key Features
- Able to examine:
- IPv4.
- ICMPv4.
- IPv6.
- ICMPv6.
- UDP.
- TCP.
- SNMP.
- AFS BGP.
- RIP.
- PIM.
- DVMRP.
- IGMP.
- SMB.
- OSPF.
- NFS.
- and many other packet types.
Website: www.tcpdump.org
Support:
Developer: Tcpdump team
License: BSD License
tcpdump is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Network Analyzers | |
|---|---|
| Wireshark | Network protocol analyzer with a rich and powerful feature set |
| Sniffnet | Visualise live network traffic with a friendly interface |
| Kismet | Wireless network and device detector, sniffer, wardriving tool |
| Ettercap | Comprehensive suite for man in the middle attacks |
| IPTraf-ng | Feature-laden network statistic monitoring tool |
| Zeek | Network security monitoring with deep traffic insight |
| netsniff-ng | Swiss army knife for daily Linux network plumbing |
| Kyanos | Networking analysis tool using eBPF |
| Arkime | Indexes full packet captures for rapid, large-scale traffic investigation |
| EtherApe | Graphical network monitor |
| darkstat | Captures network traffic, calculates usage statistics, and serves reports |
| justniffer | Network TCP packet sniffer with reliable TCP flow rebuilding |
| tcpflow | TCP/IP packet demultiplexer |
| tcpdump | Powerful and hugely respected command-line packet analyzer |
| sniffglue | Packet sniffer written in Rust |
| sniffer | Alternative network traffic sniffer |
| RustNet | Terminal monitor for connections and bandwidth |
| Malcolm | Traffic analysis suite for capture, hunting and forensics |
| dsniff | Collection of tools for network auditing and penetration testing |
| ngrep | grep applied to the network layer |
| Network Monitor | Rreal-time network connection monitoring tool |
| sniffit | CORBA based sniffer system with ncurses interactive mode |
| Jomon | Network forensics and sniffer tool |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category.The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form. |


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