Security project · case file

PCAP Quick Profiler

Installable PCAP triage with complete-capture statistics, HTTP/TLS evidence, CSP-protected reports, and public-unicast-filtered VirusTotal enrichment.

Status
Tested portfolio tool
Role
Tool developer and security analyst
Tools
Python, TShark, PyShark, PCAP, HTTP, TLS, JA3, VirusTotal
Last reviewed
2026-09-01
Verified outcome
Produces JSON, CSV, text, and CSP-protected HTML; complete-capture totals were independently validated and installed entry points are exercised by Repository CI.

Executive summary

PCAP Quick Profiler converts packet captures into a fast first-pass analyst view: complete packet/byte totals, protocol mix, top endpoints and ports, HTTP/TLS observations, JA3 values, and heuristic beacon leads.

It is a triage tool, not a maliciousness verdict. Encrypted payloads are not decrypted, heuristic findings require validation, and generated reports can contain sensitive or attacker-controlled evidence.

Security and correctness work

  • Escapes attacker-controlled report fields and applies restrictive Content Security Policy protection.
  • Reports complete-capture packet and byte totals instead of presenting a focused protocol subset as the whole capture.
  • Consolidates execution under one canonical installable package.
  • Exercises pcap-profiler, pcap-profiler-vt, and python -m pcap_quick_profiler from built wheels.
  • Restricts VirusTotal enrichment to validated, globally routable unicast IPv4/IPv6 values.
  • Rejects private, reserved, multicast, ULA, and malformed candidates both at report extraction and immediately before requests.
  • Keeps VT_API_KEY in the environment and never writes it into reports.

Measured validation

  • A historical sample was independently confirmed with TShark at 13 packets and 1,590 bytes.
  • Repository CI generates a deterministic one-packet, 60-byte fixture with source 10.1.1.1, destination 10.2.2.2, and UDP destination port 53.
  • The expanded verifier checks packet count, byte count, source, destination, and port.
  • Package builds, clean-installed entry points, dependency auditing, secret scanning, and supported Python versions are enforced by Repository CI.

Demonstration

Open sanitized demonstration report ↗

Outputs

  • JSON machine-readable summary
  • CSV endpoint and port counts
  • Human-readable text summary
  • Escaped, CSP-protected HTML report
  • Optional VirusTotal JSON and Markdown enrichment reports

Evidence