Packet Analysis Fundamentals

1 min read Advanced Security Topics

Packet Analysis Fundamentals

Understanding packet structure is essential for forensic analysis:

TCP/IP Stack Analysis:

Layer 2 - Data Link:

  • MAC addresses
  • VLAN tags
  • Frame types

Layer 3 - Network:

  • IP addresses
  • TTL values
  • Fragmentation

Layer 4 - Transport:

  • TCP flags and sequence numbers
  • UDP ports
  • Session establishment

Layer 7 - Application:

  • Protocol-specific data
  • Encrypted vs. cleartext
  • Application behavior