pichi 0.3.6

Description:

pichi 0.3.6

Pichi is a small, cross-platform, fast pcap indexer using only standard libraries.
Where pichi shines is in pulling select traffic out of indexed pcaps. This is done by specifying one or more filters
(see below) during extraction. On average, pichi is 10 times as fast as sancp, and 5 times as fast as using tshark.
Pichi can write index data in two forms:


text
slower to write and read and larger, but easily parsable with standard command line tools and human-readable




binary
faster and smaller, but unusable without Pichi’s tools




Additionally, pichi has two output modes. These don’t change the format of the files written, only the number:


individual
Write one index file per input pcap, and use the output_path name directly




combined
Write one index file for all input pcaps, with index names based on the input file name and output_path as the
output directory




Additionally, since version 0.3.5 pichi can optionally output a bloom filter generated from IP addresses after indexing.
This allows for fast determination of whether a pcap contains traffic from an IP without having to parse the entire
index.

Usage
Pichi can be invoked from the command line, or it can be imported and used in python scripts as a library. The input is
one or more pcap files. If they are gzipped, Pichi will handle decompression transparently.

As a Library

Indexing a pcap
>>> from pichi import PichiBinaryIndexer
>>> indexer = PichiBinaryIndexer(input_pcaps=['demo_traffic.pcap'], index_name='Demo Pichi Index')
>>> indexer.index()
Mode is set to combined
Indexing `demo_traffic.pcap` . . .
Indexing completed: 1 file with 514 packets
>>>



Reading Index Data
>>> from pichi import PichiParser
>>> parser = PichiParser(index_file='pichi.pi')
>>> parser.parse_whole()
Parsing index `Demo Pichi Index`
Found file `demo_traffic.pcap`
Found 514 packets
>>>

parser is also an iterable that yields a PichiBinaryFileIndex or PichiTextFileIndex object describing the
originally indexed file. This object is itself an iterable which yields a PichiTextRecordRow object for each record.
When using parser as an iterable, the files and record rows are NOT saved in memory, so it is the preferred method
when dealing with large indexes. However, if the PichiParser is provided the store=True argument, this is
overwritten and already parsed files will be kept in parser.input_files, and rows will be kept in
input_file.rows. Once an index has been parsed in it’s entirety, parser.completed_index is set to True. When
calling PichiParser.parse_whole(), store is always set to True.


Extracting Traffic with an Index
>>> from pichi import PichiExtractor
>>> extractor = PichiExtractor(input_index='pichi.pi', output_pcap='pichi_demo.pcap')
>>> extractor.extract()
Extracting packets from index `Demo Pichi Index`
Writing to `pichi_demo.pcap`
Extracting from file 1: `demo_traffic.pcap`
Working . . .
Extracted 514 packets
>>>



Checking a Bloom Filter
>>> from pichi.bloom import BloomFilter
>>> bloom_filter = BloomFilter.from_file(filename='testing/20190430_22:57:35.pcap.bf')
>>> bloom_filter.bulk_check(items=['8.8.8.8', '1.1.1.1', '149.20.1.66'])
{'8.8.8.8': True, '1.1.1.1': False, '149.20.1.66': False}
>>>




From the Command Line

Indexing a pcap
$ pichi index -i demo_traffic.pcap -o pib.pi -f bin -m combined
Format is set to binary
Mode is set to combined
Indexing `demo_traffic.pcap` . . .
Indexing completed: 1 file(s) with 514 packets
$
Note: To generate a bloom filter along with the index, pass the -B argument to pichi.


Extracting Traffic with an Index
$ pichi extract -i pib.pi -o pichi_demo.pcap
Extracting packets from index `Demo Pichi Index`
Writing to `pichi_demo.pcap`
Extracting from file 1: `demo_traffic.pcap`
Working . . .
Extracted 514 packets
$


Checking a Bloom Filter
$ pichi bloom -b pib.bf -i '8.8.8.8 1.1.1.1 149.20.1.66'
8.8.8.8: True
1.1.1.1: False
149.20.1.66: False
$



Using Filters
When extracting packets using an index, one or more filter statements (a filter set) can be provided to limit the
packets written to those matching the statements. The ‘language’ is very basic, and a packet only gets written if it
passes ALL filter statements. Statements take the form of:
{variable}{comparator}{value}
Variables refer to fields in the index rows (outlined below).
Comparator must be one of:


==
Equal. The values must match, or the value in the index must be a subset of the value given (i.e., when value is
10.0.0.0/8 and the index value is 10.0.0.41, this will match true)




!=
Not equal. The opposite of the above.




>=
Greater than or equal to. mostly useful for ports, but can be applied to any numeric variable.




<=
Less than or equal to, opposite of the above.




Valid variables and values are:


host
An IPv4 or IPv6 host or CIDR format network, or a domain name. If EITHER the source or destination host matches this
value, the statement is true. For a CIDR format network, the statement is true if EITHER source or destination host
falls within the given network.




src_host
The same as host, but only looking at the source host.




dst_host
The same as host, but only looking at the destination host.




port
A port number or service name (from /etc/services or your OS’s equivalent). Note that for EtherTypes where there is
no concept of a port (ICMP, ARP, etc.), this field is set to 0. If EITHER the source or destination port matches this
value, the statement is true.




src_port
The same as port, but only looking at the source port.




dst_port
The same as port, but only looking at the destination port.




eth_type
The EtherType of the packet, must be a number. See
https://www.iana.org/assignments/ieee-802-numbers/ieee-802-numbers.xhtml for reference.




l2_proto
The L2 protocol number or name of the packet. See
https://www.iana.org/assignments/protocol-numbers/protocol-numbers.xhtml for reference.







File Format
As stated above, Pichi can write in two formats: text and binary. Both formats can also be compressed using gzip
on-the-fly by passing the indexer the output_compressed=True option.

Text Format
The text format is very simple and easy to send to tools like awk, sed, cut, etc.
There is no header or footer, and every packet record is contained on its own line with fields pipe-delimited:
{epoch}.{ms}|{in_filename}|{start}|{end}|{eth_proto}|{ip_proto}|{src_host}|{dst_host}|{src_port}|{dst_port}\n

{in_filename} is the name of the input pcap
{start} is the first byte of the packet
{end} is the last byte of the packet



Binary Format
The binary file format is also relatively simple. It was created to make writing as fast as possible, and parsing easy.
Remember that indexes may or may not be compressed with Gzip.
For an in-depth look at the binary format, please see the format spec. One small, handy trick to note, though:
>>> import struct
>>> with open('pichi.pi', 'rb') as fp:
... fp.seek(-5, 2)
... file_count = struct.unpack('B', fp.read(1))[0]
... packet_count = struct.unpack('I', fp.read(4))[0]




To-Do

Potentially store field values that have already passed a filter with text records and check against them first, to
speed up filter testing?
Have PichiIndexerBase objects optionally yield a PichiParser object when .index() is completed
PCAPNG Support (eek)
multithreaded indexing and extraction
Utilize mmap for index writing?
Allow specifying alternate pcap for extraction



Acknowledgements
The original idea comes from SANCP, which is a fantastic project that died too early:
http://sancp.sourceforge.net/