Getting Started in Packet Decoding with Chris Brenton

In this class, we will go beyond the fundamentals of how IP communicates and dive into the subtle nuances. This will help the student identify anomalous patterns when they occur.

One of the core disciplines of security is understanding how systems communicate over the Internet. This skill set is crucial to spotting abnormal behavior and attack patterns.

Much of this class is spent focusing on the IP, ICMP, UDP, and TCP headers. We will step through each of the fields within each header to ensure that the student understands how the data within that field plays a role in communications. This knowledge is deepened by observing the behavior in packet decodes, some of which are normal traffic while some are common attacks.

This class assumes that you are new to decoding network traffic. There are no prerequisites beyond being able to load and run a virtual machine (VM) on your system and some familiarity with working at the command line. The class is filled with hands-on exercises, many of which are walk-throughs of packet decoding tools that will guide you through the process. Full labs are then used to reinforce what you have learned.