PCAP-FILTER(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual PCAP-FILTER(7)
NAME
pcap-filter - packet filter syntax
DESCRIPTION
pcap_compile() is used to compile a string into a filter program. The resulting filter program can then be
applied to some stream of packets to determine which packets will be supplied to pcap_loop(), pcap_dispatch(),
pcap_next(), or pcap_next_ex().
The filter expression consists of one or more primitives. Primitives usually consist of an id (name or num‐
ber) preceded by one or more qualifiers. There are three different kinds of qualifier:
type type qualifiers say what kind of thing the id name or number refers to. Possible types are host, net ,
port and portrange. E.g., `host foo', `net 128.3', `port 20', `portrange 6000-6008'. If there is no
type qualifier, host is assumed.
dir dir qualifiers specify a particular transfer direction to and/or from id. Possible directions are src,
dst, src or dst, src and dst, ra, ta, addr1, addr2, addr3, and addr4. E.g., `src foo', `dst net
128.3', `src or dst port ftp-data'. If there is no dir qualifier, src or dst is assumed. The ra, ta,
addr1, addr2, addr3, and addr4 qualifiers are only valid for IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN link layers. For
some link layers, such as SLIP and the ``cooked'' Linux capture mode used for the ``any'' device and
for some other device types, the inbound and outbound qualifiers can be used to specify a desired
direction.
proto proto qualifiers restrict the match to a particular protocol. Possible protos are: ether, fddi, tr,
wlan, ip, ip6, arp, rarp, decnet, tcp and udp. E.g., `ether src foo', `arp net 128.3', `tcp port 21',
`udp portrange 7000-7009', `wlan addr2 0:2:3:4:5:6'. If there is no proto qualifier, all protocols
consistent with the type are assumed. E.g., `src foo' means `(ip or arp or rarp) src foo' (except the
latter is not legal syntax), `net bar' means `(ip or arp or rarp) net bar' and `port 53' means `(tcp or
udp) port 53'.
[`fddi' is actually an alias for `ether'; the parser treats them identically as meaning ``the data link level
used on the specified network interface.'' FDDI headers contain Ethernet-like source and destination
addresses, and often contain Ethernet-like packet types, so you can filter on these FDDI fields just as with
the analogous Ethernet fields. FDDI headers also contain other fields, but you cannot name them explicitly in
a filter expression.
Similarly, `tr' and `wlan' are aliases for `ether'; the previous paragraph's statements about FDDI headers
also apply to Token Ring and 802.11 wireless LAN headers. For 802.11 headers, the destination address is the
DA field and the source address is the SA field; the BSSID, RA, and TA fields aren't tested.]
In addition to the above, there are some special `primitive' keywords that don't follow the pattern: gateway,
broadcast, less, greater and arithmetic expressions. All of these are described below.
More complex filter expressions are built up by using the words and, or and not to combine primitives. E.g.,
`host foo and not port ftp and not port ftp-data'. To save typing, identical qualifier lists can be omitted.
E.g., `tcp dst port ftp or ftp-data or domain' is exactly the same as `tcp dst port ftp or tcp dst port ftp-
data or tcp dst port domain'.
Allowable primitives are:
dst host host
True if the IPv4/v6 destination field of the packet is host, which may be either an address or a name.
src host host
True if the IPv4/v6 source field of the packet is host.
ether src ehost
True if the Ethernet source address is ehost.
ether host ehost
True if either the Ethernet source or destination address is ehost.
gateway host
True if the packet used host as a gateway. I.e., the Ethernet source or destination address was host
but neither the IP source nor the IP destination was host. Host must be a name and must be found both
by the machine's host-name-to-IP-address resolution mechanisms (host name file, DNS, NIS, etc.) and by
the machine's host-name-to-Ethernet-address resolution mechanism (/etc/ethers, etc.). (An equivalent
expression is
ether host ehost and not host host
which can be used with either names or numbers for host / ehost.) This syntax does not work in
IPv6-enabled configuration at this moment.
dst net net
True if the IPv4/v6 destination address of the packet has a network number of net. Net may be either a
name from the networks database (/etc/networks, etc.) or a network number. An IPv4 network number can
be written as a dotted quad (e.g., 192.168.1.0), dotted triple (e.g., 192.168.1), dotted pair (e.g,
172.16), or single number (e.g., 10); the netmask is 255.255.255.255 for a dotted quad (which means
that it's really a host match), 255.255.255.0 for a dotted triple, 255.255.0.0 for a dotted pair, or
255.0.0.0 for a single number. An IPv6 network number must be written out fully; the netmask is
ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff, so IPv6 "network" matches are really always host matches, and a network match
requires a netmask length.
src net net
True if the IPv4/v6 source address of the packet has a network number of net.
net net
True if either the IPv4/v6 source or destination address of the packet has a network number of net.
net net mask netmask
True if the IPv4 address matches net with the specific netmask. May be qualified with src or dst.
Note that this syntax is not valid for IPv6 net.
net net/len
True if the IPv4/v6 address matches net with a netmask len bits wide. May be qualified with src or
dst.
dst port port
True if the packet is ip/tcp, ip/udp, ip6/tcp or ip6/udp and has a destination port value of port. The
port can be a number or a name used in /etc/services (see tcp(4P) and udp(4P)). If a name is used,
both the port number and protocol are checked. If a number or ambiguous name is used, only the port
number is checked (e.g., dst port 513 will print both tcp/login traffic and udp/who traffic, and port
domain will print both tcp/domain and udp/domain traffic).
src port port
True if the packet has a source port value of port.
port port
True if either the source or destination port of the packet is port.
which matches only tcp packets whose source port is port.
less length
True if the packet has a length less than or equal to length. This is equivalent to:
len <= length.
greater length
True if the packet has a length greater than or equal to length. This is equivalent to:
len >= length.
ip proto protocol
True if the packet is an IPv4 packet (see ip(4P)) of protocol type protocol. Protocol can be a number
or one of the names icmp, icmp6, igmp, igrp, pim, ah, esp, vrrp, udp, or tcp. Note that the identi‐
fiers tcp, udp, and icmp are also keywords and must be escaped via backslash (\), which is \\ in the C-
shell. Note that this primitive does not chase the protocol header chain.
ip6 proto protocol
True if the packet is an IPv6 packet of protocol type protocol. Note that this primitive does not
chase the protocol header chain.
proto protocol
True if the packet is an IPv4 or IPv6 packet of protocol type protocol. Note that this primitive does
not chase the protocol header chain.
tcp, udp, icmp
Abbreviations for:
proto p
where p is one of the above protocols.
ip6 protochain protocol
True if the packet is IPv6 packet, and contains protocol header with type protocol in its protocol
header chain. For example,
ip6 protochain 6
matches any IPv6 packet with TCP protocol header in the protocol header chain. The packet may contain,
for example, authentication header, routing header, or hop-by-hop option header, between IPv6 header
and TCP header. The BPF code emitted by this primitive is complex and cannot be optimized by the BPF
optimizer code, so this can be somewhat slow.
ip protochain protocol
Equivalent to ip6 protochain protocol, but this is for IPv4.
protochain protocol
True if the packet is an IPv4 or IPv6 packet of protocol type protocol. Note that this primitive
chases the protocol header chain.
ether broadcast
True if the packet is an Ethernet broadcast packet. The ether keyword is optional.
ip broadcast
True if the packet is an IPv4 broadcast packet. It checks for both the all-zeroes and all-ones broad‐
cast conventions, and looks up the subnet mask on the interface on which the capture is being done.
If the subnet mask of the interface on which the capture is being done is not available, either because
the interface on which capture is being done has no netmask or because the capture is being done on the
ether proto protocol
True if the packet is of ether type protocol. Protocol can be a number or one of the names ip, ip6,
arp, rarp, atalk, aarp, decnet, sca, lat, mopdl, moprc, iso, stp, ipx, or netbeui. Note these identi‐
fiers are also keywords and must be escaped via backslash (\).
[In the case of FDDI (e.g., `fddi protocol arp'), Token Ring (e.g., `tr protocol arp'), and IEEE 802.11
wireless LANS (e.g., `wlan protocol arp'), for most of those protocols, the protocol identification
comes from the 802.2 Logical Link Control (LLC) header, which is usually layered on top of the FDDI,
Token Ring, or 802.11 header.
When filtering for most protocol identifiers on FDDI, Token Ring, or 802.11, the filter checks only the
protocol ID field of an LLC header in so-called SNAP format with an Organizational Unit Identifier
(OUI) of 0x000000, for encapsulated Ethernet; it doesn't check whether the packet is in SNAP format
with an OUI of 0x000000. The exceptions are:
iso the filter checks the DSAP (Destination Service Access Point) and SSAP (Source Service Access
Point) fields of the LLC header;
stp and netbeui
the filter checks the DSAP of the LLC header;
atalk the filter checks for a SNAP-format packet with an OUI of 0x080007 and the AppleTalk etype.
In the case of Ethernet, the filter checks the Ethernet type field for most of those protocols. The
exceptions are:
iso, stp, and netbeui
the filter checks for an 802.3 frame and then checks the LLC header as it does for FDDI, Token
Ring, and 802.11;
atalk the filter checks both for the AppleTalk etype in an Ethernet frame and for a SNAP-format packet
as it does for FDDI, Token Ring, and 802.11;
aarp the filter checks for the AppleTalk ARP etype in either an Ethernet frame or an 802.2 SNAP frame
with an OUI of 0x000000;
ipx the filter checks for the IPX etype in an Ethernet frame, the IPX DSAP in the LLC header, the
802.3-with-no-LLC-header encapsulation of IPX, and the IPX etype in a SNAP frame.
ip, ip6, arp, rarp, atalk, aarp, decnet, iso, stp, ipx, netbeui
Abbreviations for:
ether proto p
where p is one of the above protocols.
lat, moprc, mopdl
Abbreviations for:
ether proto p
where p is one of the above protocols. Note that not all applications using pcap(3PCAP) currently know
how to parse these protocols.
decnet src host
True if the DECNET source address is host, which may be an address of the form ``10.123'', or a DECNET
host name. [DECNET host name support is only available on ULTRIX systems that are configured to run
on interface
Synonymous with the ifname modifier.
rnr num
True if the packet was logged as matching the specified PF rule number (applies only to packets logged
by OpenBSD's or FreeBSD's pf(4)).
rulenum num
Synonymous with the rnr modifier.
reason code
True if the packet was logged with the specified PF reason code. The known codes are: match, bad-off‐
set, fragment, short, normalize, and memory (applies only to packets logged by OpenBSD's or FreeBSD's
pf(4)).
rset name
True if the packet was logged as matching the specified PF ruleset name of an anchored ruleset (applies
only to packets logged by OpenBSD's or FreeBSD's pf(4)).
ruleset name
Synonomous with the rset modifier.
srnr num
True if the packet was logged as matching the specified PF rule number of an anchored ruleset (applies
only to packets logged by OpenBSD's or FreeBSD's pf(4)).
subrulenum num
Synonomous with the srnr modifier.
action act
True if PF took the specified action when the packet was logged. Known actions are: pass and block
and, with later versions of pf(4)), nat, rdr, binat and scrub (applies only to packets logged by Open‐
BSD's or FreeBSD's pf(4)).
wlan ra ehost
True if the IEEE 802.11 RA is ehost. The RA field is used in all frames except for management frames.
wlan ta ehost
True if the IEEE 802.11 TA is ehost. The TA field is used in all frames except for management frames
and CTS (Clear To Send) and ACK (Acknowledgment) control frames.
wlan addr1 ehost
True if the first IEEE 802.11 address is ehost.
wlan addr2 ehost
True if the second IEEE 802.11 address, if present, is ehost. The second address field is used in all
frames except for CTS (Clear To Send) and ACK (Acknowledgment) control frames.
wlan addr3 ehost
True if the third IEEE 802.11 address, if present, is ehost. The third address field is used in man‐
agement and data frames, but not in control frames.
wlan addr4 ehost
True if the fourth IEEE 802.11 address, if present, is ehost. The fourth address field is only used
If the specified wlan_type is ctl, then valid wlan_subtypes are: ps-poll, rts, cts, ack, cf-end and cf-
end-ack.
If the specified wlan_type is data, then valid wlan_subtypes are: data, data-cf-ack, data-cf-poll,
data-cf-ack-poll, null, cf-ack, cf-poll, cf-ack-poll, qos-data, qos-data-cf-ack, qos-data-cf-poll, qos-
data-cf-ack-poll, qos, qos-cf-poll and qos-cf-ack-poll.
subtype wlan_subtype
True if the IEEE 802.11 frame subtype matches the specified wlan_subtype and frame has the type to
which the specified wlan_subtype belongs.
dir dir
True if the IEEE 802.11 frame direction matches the specified dir. Valid directions are: nods, tods,
fromds, dstods, or a numeric value.
vlan [vlan_id]
True if the packet is an IEEE 802.1Q VLAN packet. If [vlan_id] is specified, only true if the packet
has the specified vlan_id. Note that the first vlan keyword encountered in expression changes the
decoding offsets for the remainder of expression on the assumption that the packet is a VLAN packet.
The vlan [vlan_id] expression may be used more than once, to filter on VLAN hierarchies. Each use of
that expression increments the filter offsets by 4.
For example:
vlan 100 && vlan 200
filters on VLAN 200 encapsulated within VLAN 100, and
vlan && vlan 300 && ip
filters IPv4 protocols encapsulated in VLAN 300 encapsulated within any higher order VLAN.
mpls [label_num]
True if the packet is an MPLS packet. If [label_num] is specified, only true is the packet has the
specified label_num. Note that the first mpls keyword encountered in expression changes the decoding
offsets for the remainder of expression on the assumption that the packet is a MPLS-encapsulated IP
packet. The mpls [label_num] expression may be used more than once, to filter on MPLS hierarchies.
Each use of that expression increments the filter offsets by 4.
For example:
mpls 100000 && mpls 1024
filters packets with an outer label of 100000 and an inner label of 1024, and
mpls && mpls 1024 && host 192.9.200.1
filters packets to or from 192.9.200.1 with an inner label of 1024 and any outer label.
pppoed True if the packet is a PPP-over-Ethernet Discovery packet (Ethernet type 0x8863).
pppoes [session_id]
True if the packet is a PPP-over-Ethernet Session packet (Ethernet type 0x8864). If [session_id] is
specified, only true if the packet has the specified session_id. Note that the first pppoes keyword
encountered in expression changes the decoding offsets for the remainder of expression on the assump‐
tion that the packet is a PPPoE session packet.
For example:
pppoes 0x27 && ip
filters IPv4 protocols encapsulated in PPPoE session id 0x27.
vpi n True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, with a virtual path identifier of n.
vci n True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, with a virtual channel identifier of n.
lane True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is an ATM LANE packet. Note that the
first lane keyword encountered in expression changes the tests done in the remainder of expression on
the assumption that the packet is either a LANE emulated Ethernet packet or a LANE LE Control packet.
If lane isn't specified, the tests are done under the assumption that the packet is an LLC-encapsulated
packet.
llc True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is an LLC-encapsulated packet.
oamf4s True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is a segment OAM F4 flow cell (VPI=0 &
VCI=3).
oamf4e True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is an end-to-end OAM F4 flow cell
(VPI=0 & VCI=4).
oamf4 True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is a segment or end-to-end OAM F4 flow
cell (VPI=0 & (VCI=3 | VCI=4)).
oam True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is a segment or end-to-end OAM F4 flow
cell (VPI=0 & (VCI=3 | VCI=4)).
metac True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on a meta signaling circuit (VPI=0 &
VCI=1).
bcc True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on a broadcast signaling circuit
(VPI=0 & VCI=2).
sc True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on a signaling circuit (VPI=0 &
VCI=5).
ilmic True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on an ILMI circuit (VPI=0 & VCI=16).
connectmsg
True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on a signaling circuit and is a
Q.2931 Setup, Call Proceeding, Connect, Connect Ack, Release, or Release Done message.
metaconnect
True if the packet is an ATM packet, for SunATM on Solaris, and is on a meta signaling circuit and is a
Q.2931 Setup, Call Proceeding, Connect, Release, or Release Done message.
expr relop expr
True if the relation holds, where relop is one of >, <, >=, <=, =, !=, and expr is an arithmetic
expression composed of integer constants (expressed in standard C syntax), the normal binary operators
[+, -, *, /, &, |, <<, >>], a length operator, and special packet data accessors. Note that all com‐
parisons are unsigned, so that, for example, 0x80000000 and 0xffffffff are > 0. To access data inside
the packet, use the following syntax:
proto [ expr : size ]
Proto is one of ether, fddi, tr, wlan, ppp, slip, link, ip, arp, rarp, tcp, udp, icmp, ip6 or radio,
and indicates the protocol layer for the index operation. (ether, fddi, wlan, tr, ppp, slip and link
all refer to the link layer. radio refers to the "radio header" added to some 802.11 captures.) Note
that tcp, udp and other upper-layer protocol types only apply to IPv4, not IPv6 (this will be fixed in
protocol header field offsets are available: icmptype (ICMP type field), icmpcode (ICMP code field),
and tcpflags (TCP flags field).
The following ICMP type field values are available: icmp-echoreply, icmp-unreach, icmp-sourcequench,
icmp-redirect, icmp-echo, icmp-routeradvert, icmp-routersolicit, icmp-timxceed, icmp-paramprob, icmp-
tstamp, icmp-tstampreply, icmp-ireq, icmp-ireqreply, icmp-maskreq, icmp-maskreply.
The following TCP flags field values are available: tcp-fin, tcp-syn, tcp-rst, tcp-push, tcp-ack, tcp-
urg.
Primitives may be combined using:
A parenthesized group of primitives and operators (parentheses are special to the Shell and must be
escaped).
Negation (`!' or `not').
Concatenation (`&&' or `and').
Alternation (`||' or `or').
Negation has highest precedence. Alternation and concatenation have equal precedence and associate left to
right. Note that explicit and tokens, not juxtaposition, are now required for concatenation.
If an identifier is given without a keyword, the most recent keyword is assumed. For example,
not host vs and ace
is short for
not host vs and host ace
which should not be confused with
not ( host vs or ace )
EXAMPLES
To select all packets arriving at or departing from sundown:
host sundown
To select traffic between helios and either hot or ace:
host helios and \( hot or ace \)
To select all IP packets between ace and any host except helios:
ip host ace and not helios
To select all traffic between local hosts and hosts at Berkeley:
net ucb-ether
To select all ftp traffic through internet gateway snup:
gateway snup and (port ftp or ftp-data)
To select traffic neither sourced from nor destined for local hosts (if you gateway to one other net, this
stuff should never make it onto your local net).
ip and not net localnet
To select the start and end packets (the SYN and FIN packets) of each TCP conversation that involves a non-
local host.
tcp[tcpflags] & (tcp-syn|tcp-fin) != 0 and not src and dst net localnet
icmp[icmptype] != icmp-echo and icmp[icmptype] != icmp-echoreply
SEE ALSO
pcap(3PCAP)
BUGS
Please send problems, bugs, questions, desirable enhancements, etc. to:
[email protected]
Filter expressions on fields other than those in Token Ring headers will not correctly handle source-routed
Token Ring packets.
Filter expressions on fields other than those in 802.11 headers will not correctly handle 802.11 data packets
with both To DS and From DS set.
ip6 proto should chase header chain, but at this moment it does not. ip6 protochain is supplied for this
behavior.
Arithmetic expression against transport layer headers, like tcp[0], does not work against IPv6 packets. It
only looks at IPv4 packets.
6 January 2008 PCAP-FILTER(7)
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