wireshark-filter - Wireshark display filter syntax and reference
wireshark [other options] [ -Y "display filter expression" | b<--display-filter "display filter expression" ]>
tshark [other options] [ -Y "display filter expression" ]
Wireshark and TShark share a powerful filter engine that helps remove the noise from a packet trace and lets you see only the packets that interest you. If a packet meets the requirements expressed in your filter, then it is displayed in the list of packets. Display filters let you compare the fields within a protocol against a specific value, compare fields against fields, and check the existence of specified fields or protocols.
Filters are also used by other features such as statistics generation and packet list colorization (the latter is only available to Wireshark). This manual page describes their syntax. A comprehensive reference of filter fields can be found within Wireshark and in the display filter reference at https://www.wireshark.org/docs/dfref/.
The simplest filter allows you to check for the existence of a protocol or field. If you want to see all packets which contain the IP protocol, the filter would be "ip" (without the quotation marks). To see all packets that contain a Token-Ring RIF field, use "tr.rif".
Think of a protocol or field in a filter as implicitly having the "exists" operator.
Fields can also be compared against values. The comparison operators can be expressed either through English-like abbreviations or through C-like symbols:
eq, == Equal
ne, != Not Equal
gt, > Greater Than
lt, < Less Than
ge, >= Greater than or Equal to
le, <= Less than or Equal toAdditional operators exist expressed only in English, not C-like syntax:
contains Does the protocol, field or slice contain a value
matches, ~ Does the protocol or text string match the given
case-insensitive Perl-compatible regular expressionThe "contains" operator allows a filter to search for a sequence of characters, expressed as a string (quoted or unquoted), or bytes, expressed as a byte array, or for a single character, expressed as a C-style character constant. For example, to search for a given HTTP URL in a capture, the following filter can be used:
http contains "https://www.wireshark.org"The "contains" operator cannot be used on atomic fields, such as numbers or IP addresses.
The "matches" or "~" operator allows a filter to apply to a specified Perl-compatible regular expression (PCRE). The "matches" operator is only implemented for protocols and for protocol fields with a text string representation. Matches are case-insensitive by default. For example, to search for a given WAP WSP User-Agent, you can write:
wsp.user_agent matches "cldc"This would match "cldc", "CLDC", "cLdC" or any other combination of upper and lower case letters.
You can force case sensitivity using
wsp.user_agent matches "(?-i)cldc"This is an example of PCRE's (?option) construct. (?-i) performs a case-sensitive pattern match but other options can be specified as well. More information can be found in the pcrepattern(3) man page at https://perldoc.perl.org/perlre.html).
The filter language has the following functions:
upper(string-field) - converts a string field to uppercase
lower(string-field) - converts a string field to lowercase
len(field) - returns the byte length of a string or bytes field
count(field) - returns the number of field occurrences in a frame
string(field) - converts a non-string field to stringupper() and lower() are useful for performing case-insensitive string comparisons. For example:
upper(ncp.nds_stream_name) contains "MACRO"
lower(mount.dump.hostname) == "angel"string() converts a field value to a string, suitable for use with operators like "matches" or "contains". Integer fields are converted to their decimal representation. It can be used with IP/Ethernet addresses (as well as others), but not with string or byte fields. For example:
string(frame.number) matches "[13579]$"gives you all the odd packets.
Each protocol field is typed. The types are:
ASN.1 object identifier
Boolean
Character string
Compiled Perl-Compatible Regular Expression (GRegex) object
Date and time
Ethernet or other MAC address
EUI64 address
Floating point (double-precision)
Floating point (single-precision)
Frame number
Globally Unique Identifier
IPv4 address
IPv6 address
IPX network number
Label
Protocol
Sequence of bytes
Signed integer, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 8 bytes
Time offset
Unsigned integer, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 8 bytes
1-byte ASCII characterAn integer may be expressed in decimal, octal, or hexadecimal notation, or as a C-style character constant. The following six display filters are equivalent:
frame.pkt_len > 10
frame.pkt_len > 012
frame.pkt_len > 0xa
frame.pkt_len > '\n'
frame.pkt_len > '\xa'
frame.pkt_len > '\012'Boolean values are either true or false. In a display filter expression testing the value of a Boolean field, "true" is expressed as 1 or any other non-zero value, and "false" is expressed as zero. For example, a token-ring packet's source route field is Boolean. To find any source-routed packets, a display filter would be:
tr.sr == 1Non source-routed packets can be found with:
tr.sr == 0Ethernet addresses and byte arrays are represented by hex digits. The hex digits may be separated by colons, periods, or hyphens:
eth.dst eq ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
aim.data == 0.1.0.d
fddi.src == aa-aa-aa-aa-aa-aa
echo.data == 7aIPv4 addresses can be represented in either dotted decimal notation or by using the hostname:
ip.dst eq www.mit.edu
ip.src == 192.168.1.1IPv4 addresses can be compared with the same logical relations as numbers: eq, ne, gt, ge, lt, and le. The IPv4 address is stored in host order, so you do not have to worry about the endianness of an IPv4 address when using it in a display filter.
Classless InterDomain Routing (CIDR) notation can be used to test if an IPv4 address is in a certain subnet. For example, this display filter will find all packets in the 129.111 Class-B network:
ip.addr == 129.111.0.0/16Remember, the number after the slash represents the number of bits used to represent the network. CIDR notation can also be used with hostnames, as in this example of finding IP addresses on the same Class C network as 'sneezy':
ip.addr eq sneezy/24The CIDR notation can only be used on IP addresses or hostnames, not in variable names. So, a display filter like "ip.src/24 == ip.dst/24" is not valid (yet).
IPX networks are represented by unsigned 32-bit integers. Most likely you will be using hexadecimal when testing IPX network values:
ipx.src.net == 0xc0a82c00Strings are enclosed in double quotes:
http.request.method == "POST"Inside double quotes, you may use a backslash to embed a double quote or an arbitrary byte represented in either octal or hexadecimal.
browser.comment == "An embedded \" double-quote"Use of hexadecimal to look for "HEAD":
http.request.method == "\x48EAD"Use of octal to look for "HEAD":
http.request.method == "\110EAD"This means that you must escape backslashes with backslashes inside double quotes.
smb.path contains "\\\\SERVER\\SHARE"looks for \\SERVER\SHARE in "smb.path".
You can take a slice of a field if the field is a text string or a byte array. For example, you can filter on the vendor portion of an ethernet address (the first three bytes) like this:
eth.src[0:3] == 00:00:83Another example is:
http.content_type[0:4] == "text"You can use the slice operator on a protocol name, too. The "frame" protocol can be useful, encompassing all the data captured by Wireshark or TShark.
token[0:5] ne 0.0.0.1.1
llc[0] eq aa
frame[100-199] contains "wireshark"The following syntax governs slices:
[i:j] i = start_offset, j = length
[i-j] i = start_offset, j = end_offset, inclusive.
[i] i = start_offset, length = 1
[:j] start_offset = 0, length = j
[i:] start_offset = i, end_offset = end_of_fieldOffsets can be negative, in which case they indicate the offset from the end of the field. The last byte of the field is at offset -1, the last but one byte is at offset -2, and so on. Here's how to check the last four bytes of a frame:
frame[-4:4] == 0.1.2.3or
frame[-4:] == 0.1.2.3A slice is always compared against either a string or a byte sequence. As a special case, when the slice is only 1 byte wide, you can compare it against a hex integer that 0xff or less (which means it fits inside one byte). This is not allowed for byte sequences greater than one byte, because then one would need to specify the endianness of the multi-byte integer. Also, this is not allowed for decimal numbers, since they would be confused with hex numbers that are already allowed as byte strings. Nevertheless, single-byte hex integers can be convenient:
frame[4] == 0xffSlices can be combined. You can concatenate them using the comma operator:
ftp[1,3-5,9:] == 01:03:04:05:09:0a:0bThis concatenates offset 1, offsets 3-5, and offset 9 to the end of the ftp data.
A field may be checked for matches against a set of values simply with the membership operator. For instance, you may find traffic on common HTTP/HTTPS ports with the following filter:
tcp.port in {80 443 8080}as opposed to the more verbose:
tcp.port == 80 or tcp.port == 443 or tcp.port == 8080To find HTTP requests using the HEAD or GET methods:
http.request.method in {"HEAD" "GET"}The set of values can also contain ranges:
tcp.port in {443 4430..4434}
ip.addr in {10.0.0.5 .. 10.0.0.9 192.168.1.1..192.168.1.9}
frame.time_delta in {10 .. 10.5}If a field is a text string or a byte array, it can be expressed in whichever way is most convenient.
So, for instance, the following filters are equivalent:
http.request.method == "GET"
http.request.method == 47.45.54A range can also be expressed in either way:
frame[60:2] gt 50.51
frame[60:2] gt "PQ"It is also possible to define tests with bit field operations. Currently the following bit field operation is supported:
bitwise_and, & Bitwise ANDThe bitwise AND operation allows testing to see if one or more bits are set. Bitwise AND operates on integer protocol fields and slices.
When testing for TCP SYN packets, you can write:
tcp.flags & 0x02That expression will match all packets that contain a "tcp.flags" field with the 0x02 bit, i.e. the SYN bit, set.
Similarly, filtering for all WSP GET and extended GET methods is achieved with:
wsp.pdu_type & 0x40When using slices, the bit mask must be specified as a byte string, and it must have the same number of bytes as the slice itself, as in:
ip[42:2] & 40:ffTests can be combined using logical expressions. These too are expressible in C-like syntax or with English-like abbreviations:
and, && Logical AND
or, || Logical OR
not, ! Logical NOTExpressions can be grouped by parentheses as well. The following are all valid display filter expressions:
tcp.port == 80 and ip.src == 192.168.2.1
not llc
http and frame[100-199] contains "wireshark"
(ipx.src.net == 0xbad && ipx.src.node == 0.0.0.0.0.1) || ipRemember that whenever a protocol or field name occurs in an expression, the "exists" operator is implicitly called. The "exists" operator has the highest priority. This means that the first filter expression must be read as "show me the packets for which tcp.port exists and equals 80, and ip.src exists and equals 192.168.2.1". The second filter expression means "show me the packets where not (llc exists)", or in other words "where llc does not exist" and hence will match all packets that do not contain the llc protocol. The third filter expression includes the constraint that offset 199 in the frame exists, in other words the length of the frame is at least 200.
A special caveat must be given regarding fields that occur more than once per packet. "ip.addr" occurs twice per IP packet, once for the source address, and once for the destination address. Likewise, "tr.rif.ring" fields can occur more than once per packet. The following two expressions are not equivalent:
ip.addr ne 192.168.4.1
not ip.addr eq 192.168.4.1The first filter says "show me packets where an ip.addr exists that does not equal 192.168.4.1". That is, as long as one ip.addr in the packet does not equal 192.168.4.1, the packet passes the display filter. The other ip.addr could equal 192.168.4.1 and the packet would still be displayed. The second filter says "don't show me any packets that have an ip.addr field equal to 192.168.4.1". If one ip.addr is 192.168.4.1, the packet does not pass. If neither ip.addr field is 192.168.4.1, then the packet is displayed.
It is easy to think of the 'ne' and 'eq' operators as having an implicit "exists" modifier when dealing with multiply-recurring fields. "ip.addr ne 192.168.4.1" can be thought of as "there exists an ip.addr that does not equal 192.168.4.1". "not ip.addr eq 192.168.4.1" can be thought of as "there does not exist an ip.addr equal to 192.168.4.1".
Be careful with multiply-recurring fields; they can be confusing.
Care must also be taken when using the display filter to remove noise from the packet trace. If, for example, you want to filter out all IP multicast packets to address 224.1.2.3, then using:
ip.dst ne 224.1.2.3may be too restrictive. Filtering with "ip.dst" selects only those IP packets that satisfy the rule. Any other packets, including all non-IP packets, will not be displayed. To display the non-IP packets as well, you can use one of the following two expressions:
not ip or ip.dst ne 224.1.2.3
not ip.addr eq 224.1.2.3The first filter uses "not ip" to include all non-IP packets and then lets "ip.dst ne 224.1.2.3" filter out the unwanted IP packets. The second filter has already been explained above where filtering with multiply occurring fields was discussed.
The entire list of display filters is too large to list here. You can can find references and examples at the following locations:
The online Display Filter Reference: https://www.wireshark.org/docs/dfref/
Help:Supported Protocols in Wireshark
tshark -G fields on the command line
The Wireshark wiki: https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/wikis/DisplayFilters
The wireshark-filters manpage is part of the Wireshark distribution. The latest version of Wireshark can be found at https://www.wireshark.org.
Regular expressions in the "matches" operator are provided by GRegex in GLib. See https://developer.gnome.org/glib/2.32/glib-regex-syntax.html or https://www.pcre.org/ for more information.
This manpage does not describe the capture filter syntax, which is different. See the manual page of pcap-filter(7) or, if that doesn't exist, tcpdump(8), or, if that doesn't exist, https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/wikis/CaptureFilters for a description of capture filters.
Display Filters are also described in the User's Guide: https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsug_html_chunked/ChWorkBuildDisplayFilterSection.html
wireshark(1), tshark(1), editcap(1), pcap(3), pcap-filter(7) or tcpdump(8) if it doesn't exist.
See the list of authors in the Wireshark man page for a list of authors of that code.