DHCP traffic can help identify hosts for almost any type of computer connected to your network. How do we find such host information using Wireshark? We filter on two types of activity: DHCP or NBNS. If you have access to full packet capture of your network traffic, a pcap retrieved on an internal IP address should reveal an associated MAC address and hostname. In most cases, alerts for suspicious activity are based on IP addresses.

Windows user account from Kerberos trafficĪny host generating traffic within your network should have three identifiers: a MAC address, an IP address, and a hostname.

Device models and operating systems from HTTP traffic.

Host information from NetBIOS Name Service (NBNS) traffic.

It assumes you understand network traffic fundamentals and will use these pcaps of IPv4 traffic to cover retrieval of four types of data: This tutorial offers tips on how to gather that pcap data using Wireshark, the widely used network protocol analysis tool.

When a host is infected or otherwise compromised, security professionals need to quickly review packet captures (pcaps) of suspicious network traffic to identify affected hosts and users.

Wireshark mac address filter example