Hi,
You surely can make a dissector for a proprietary protocol, you just can't
distribute it without source code. From that sourcecode one can easily
write a protocol spec, or at least the static part of it. So don't
distribute it and you're fine.
The keyword here is distribution.
Thanx,
Jaap
On Wed, 31 Jan 2007, Abhik Sarkar wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I don't know if I am straying from the core of the topic here, but
> this particular topic has always foxed me.
>
> If a protocol is proprietery (in the sense that the specifications are
> not open and they might be released only under NDA), then wouldn't
> writing a dissector for it create legal problems one way or the other.
> If the dissector was written and made available to the world (as the
> GPL license would require) then the specifications would essentially
> be made public, which is not desired. On the other hand, if a company
> made a dissector for its own use for such a protocol, but did not make
> it public, then it would be a violation of the GPL!
>
> Tom, I guess the answer to your question would largely depend on what
> you mean by "proprietery". However, to dissect the protocol, I think
> some programming is needed, it might not be possible using
> configuration only.
>
> Best regards,
> Abhik.
>
> On 1/31/07, Hal Lander <hal_lander@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Hi Tom,
> >
> > I am just starting to learn how to use Wireshark myself (it used to be
> > Ethereal),messing about with a protocol sent within TCP.
> >
> > You should probably start by downloading Wireshark and running it on your
> > network to see what it does. It will capture and decode the TCP which it
> > knows about, but will not understand your proprietary protoco - though you
> > will see the bytesl. If you write a new dissector plugin for your protocol
> > Wireshark will then be able to decode it as well as the TCP.
> >
> > One problem will be that you seem to be wanting to run from log files, which
> > are probably not in a format that Wireshark can read.
> >
> > So, yes I would use Wireshark but I would try and capture the network data
> > using packages that already exist and which save a format that Wireshark can
> > already read.
> >
> > Hal
> >
> >
> > >From: Tom McLaughlin <tmcl98@xxxxxxxxx>
> > >Reply-To: Developer support list for Wireshark
> > ><wireshark-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > >To: wireshark-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > >Subject: [Wireshark-dev] Use ethereal as a proprietary protocol parser;no
> > >ethernet/IP decoding
> > >Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 15:09:09 -0800 (PST)
> > >
> > >Hello,
> > >I work for a company that build proprietary communication systems for the
> > >utility industry. We have a proprietary communcation protocol that can be
> > >wrapped in several standard protocols. I would like to build a log parser
> > >that looks like Ethereal for our protocol if possible. This would not be a
> > >new dissector from what I understand for other protocols wrapped in
> > >Ethernet or IP.
> > >
> > >Basically, get Ethereal to read in a file with a bunch of hex strings,
> > >somewhere define what the fields are, and use the Ethereal gui.
> > >
> > >Possible? Thoughts?
> > >
> > >Or would it be better to just start from scratch?
> > >
> > >Tom
> > >_______________________________________________
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> >
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