packETH

packETH is GUI and CLI packet generator tool for ethernet. It allows you to create and send any possible packet or sequence of packets on the ethernet link. It is very simple to use, powerful and supports many adjustments of parameters while sending packets. It runs on Linux.

With the GUI version (packETH) you can create and send packets. With the CLI version (packETHcli) you can only send already stored packets from pcap file. The CLI version also has a receiver mode, that can count packets and check if all packets that were sent were also received.

Some more information about installation, usage, GUI and CLI version and FAQ can also be found here.

Blog with some use cases.

NEWS

OCT&NOV 2023

migrated to GTK3 (many thanks to @qarkai)
vlan id field now accepts interger instead of HEX value

JUL 2019

packETHcli added burst mode (-m -6)

27.11.2018

packETHcli added receiver option (mode -m -9) to count received packets
packETHcli added option to incluce pattern (predifined or custom) which can be checked by packETHcli in receiver mode if all packets that were sent were also correctly received at the receiver site
packETHcli - nanoseconds support
Receiver mode
CLI tips

INSTALLATION

GUI

git clone https://github.com/jemcek/packETH.git

cd packETH  
./autogen.sh      # you will need aclocal, autoconf, autoheader and automake installed to run this
autoreconf -f -i  # optional - in case you get automake version mismatch, missing files etc...
./configure  
make  
make install      # optional
./packETH

Depending on your Linux distribution and type of installation additional packages may be needed. For example:

Centos 7.4 (minimal)

yum groupinstall 'Development Tools'  
yum install gtk3-devel.x86_64  
yum install dbus-x11

Ubuntu 18.04 server

sudo apt-get install build-essential  
sudo apt-get install autoconf  
sudo apt-get install pkg-config  
sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-dev
sudo apt-get install dbus-x11

CLI (you can also only compile cli version if you want)

cd cli  
make

USAGE

GUI version

./packETH (or packETH if you did the make install)

The usage of the program should be pretty straightforward. As you will see, there are 4 main windows (first four buttons from the left side). I call them:

Builder - the page where you build the packet and send it once
Gen-b - generator for sending packet currently build inside Builder with many options how to send it
Gen-s - generator that allows you to select up to 10 previosly built packets and send them in different manner
Pcap window - open a tcpdump/wireshark capture file and load the selected packet into builder

To send the packets you need the SuperUser rights.

CLI version

Type ./packETHcli -h for available options.

RECEIVER mode

packETHcli also has a reveiver mode (-m 9). In this mode packEThcli counts packets and displays statistics. If you add a pattern into packets sent by packETH or packETHcli then only packets with valid pattern will be counted. See manual for more help.

DONATIONS

If you would like to increase my motivation for further development, you can make a donation. The amount is not important at all, it is just a sign for me, that time I spent for this project helps someone.

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?business=FZ8CFZHYDW2RJ&no_recurring=0&currency_code=EUR

AUTHORS & SUPPORT

If you get into problems, please feel free to contact me.

Miha Jemec
jemcek@gmail.com
packETH (C) 2003-2023 by Miha Jemec, jemcek@gmail.com
Covered under the GPL.