Stripping payload from a tcpdump?

Question

Is there an automated way (either in tcpdump or via a helper app Out There) to generate a pcap file that contains only Ethernet, IP and Layer 4 (TCP in my case) headers, so that there is no payload/application data in the resulting pcap? I've found that since header sizes often vary, it's impossible to pick a capture size that won't catch any payload data.

Answer 1

You can strip out the TCP payload very easily with Python's scapy module

BEFORE

[mpenning@hotcoffee tshark_wd]$ tcpdump -n -r sample.pcap 
reading from file sample.pcap, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet)
00:25:42.443559 IP 192.168.12.237.1052 > 192.168.12.236.22: Flags [P.], 
    seq 2445372969:2445373021, ack 1889447842, win 63432, length 52
00:25:42.443607 IP 192.168.12.236.22 > 192.168.12.237.1052: Flags [.], 
    ack 52, win 65535, length 0
00:25:42.443980 IP 192.168.12.236.22 > 192.168.12.237.1052: Flags [P.], 
    seq 1:389, ack 52, win 65535, length 388

PAYLOAD STRIPPING

Running this as root in linux...

#!/usr/bin/env python
from scapy.all import *
INFILE = 'sample.pcap'
OUTFILE = 'stripped.pcap'
paks = rdpcap(INFILE)
for pak in paks:
    pak[TCP].remove_payload()
wrpcap(OUTFILE, paks)

AFTER

[mpenning@hotcoffee tshark_wd]$ tcpdump -n -r stripped.pcap 
reading from file sample.pcap, link-type EN10MB (Ethernet)
00:25:42.443559 IP truncated-ip - 52 bytes missing! 192.168.12.237.1052 
    > 192.168.12.236.22: Flags [P.], seq 2445372969:2445373021, 
    ack 1889447842, win 63432, length 52
00:25:42.443607 IP 192.168.12.236.22 > 192.168.12.237.1052: Flags [.], 
    ack 52, win 65535, length 0
00:25:42.443980 IP truncated-ip - 388 bytes missing! 192.168.12.236.22 
    > 192.168.12.237.1052: Flags [P.], seq 1:389, 
    ack 52, win 65535, length 388

In the tcpdump above, notice the "XX bytes missing!" messages. That is because we have removed the TCP payload.