Ethereal-dev: Re: [Ethereal-dev] HW address resolving mechanism

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From: Jaap Keuter <jaap.keuter@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 17:59:21 +0100 (CET)
Hello Jim,

I've made a trace on a simple network (no fancy VLAN stuff). Take a peak
at the attached file which I've produced with 0.10.8 on a Win2k machine.
(warning: long lines). The column headings tell what format it's in,
these are the details (from preferences):

######## User Interface: Columns ########

# Packet list column format.
# Each pair of strings consists of a column title and its format.
column.format: "No.", "%m", "Time", "%t", "Source", "%s", "Src L2", "%hs",
	"Src L2 (resolved)", "%rhs", "Src L2 (unresolved)", "%uhs",
	"Dst L2", "%rhd", "Destination", "%d", "Protocol", "%p",
	"Size", "%L", "Info", "%i"

Now how come there are IP addresses in the HW address resolved columns?
Is this by design or not, and if so it's broken, hence my original
question.

Thanx for the input,
Jaap

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005, James V. Fields wrote:

> This column only resolves the hardware address to a display that
> includes the manufacturer's name.  It does not attempt to match a MAC
> address to an IP address.  Even if you line this up next to a "network
> address" column, what you're seeing is a result of how layer 2 packet
> forwarding works - any packets coming from the other side of a router
> (from the sniffer's perspective) will show a source MAC of the local
> router interface, which will also be the destination MAC for packets
> destined for machines outside the local net.  This is a fairly basic
> layer 2 / layer 3 networking concept worth reviewing.  You may want to
> check out the excellent Sniffing FAQ by Robert Graham.  His site seems
> to be down, but here is a link to another site hosting the file:
> http://linuxsecurity.net/resource_files/intrusion_detection/sniffing-faq.html
>
>
> Jaap Keuter wrote:
> > Hello list,
> >
> > I've run into trouble with the Hardware to IP address resolution mechanism
> > in Ethereal (check the column Hardware address resolved). It gets confused
> > if multiple LAN's (VLAN's) are present on the same wire. An interface
> > seems to get related to the first IP address seen on a packet from that
> > interface. Can anyone point me to where this resolution mechanism is, and
> > where it gets its knowledge from?
> >
> > Thanx,
> > Jaap
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Ethereal-dev mailing list
> > Ethereal-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> > http://www.ethereal.com/mailman/listinfo/ethereal-dev
> >
>
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>
No.     Time        Source                Src L2                Src L2 (resolved)     Src L2 (unresolved)   Dst L2                Destination           Protocol Size   Info
      1 0.000000    192.168.23.103        192.168.23.103        192.168.23.103        00:08:02:ca:6c:6c     Broadcast             Broadcast             ARP      42     Who has 192.168.23.22?  Tell 192.168.23.103
      2 0.731700    Cisco_71:0e:a8        Cisco_71:0e:a8        Cisco_71:0e:a8        00:02:4b:71:0e:a8     01:00:0c:cc:cc:cd     01:00:0c:cc:cc:cd     STP      64     Conf. Root = 32768/00:01:42:48:05:2a  Cost = 8  Port = 0x80e9
      3 1.214656    HewlettP_d8:b5:b6     HewlettP_d8:b5:b6     HewlettP_d8:b5:b6     00:30:6e:d8:b5:b6     CDP/VTP               CDP/VTP               CDP      157    Cisco Discovery Protocol
      4 1.922094    192.168.23.103        192.168.23.103        192.168.23.103        00:08:02:ca:6c:6c     192.168.23.254        130.139.41.80         SMB      107    Echo Request
      5 1.922532    130.139.41.80         192.168.23.254        192.168.23.254        00:d0:bc:f2:03:78     192.168.23.103        192.168.23.103        SMB      107    Echo Response