Wireshark Color Mastery: Enhance Your Network Analysis

Introduction

In this lab, you will learn how to create and apply colorizing rules in Wireshark, a powerful network protocol analyzer. Colorizing rules allow you to visually distinguish different types of network traffic based on specific criteria, making it easier to identify and analyze network activities of interest. By the end of this lab, you will have a better understanding of how to leverage Wireshark's colorizing capabilities to enhance your network analysis and cybersecurity investigations.

Skills Graph

%%%%{init: {'theme':'neutral'}}%%%% flowchart RL cysec(("`Cyber Security`")) -.-> cysec/WiresharkGroup(["`Wireshark`"]) cysec/WiresharkGroup -.-> cysec/ws_colorizing_rules("`Wireshark Colorizing Rules`") subgraph Lab Skills cysec/ws_colorizing_rules -.-> lab-288906{{"`Wireshark Color Mastery`"}} end

Explore and Export Coloring Rules

In this step, you will explore the existing colorizing rules in Wireshark and learn how to view and export.

Open Wireshark on your Linux machine by running the following command in the terminal:
```
wireshark
```
Once Wireshark is open, go to View > Coloring Rules... to open the Wireshark Coloring Rules Default dialog.
In the Wireshark Coloring Rules Default dialog, you will see a list of existing colorizing rules. These rules are applied based on their order in the list. Take a moment to examine the rules and their descriptions.
You can disable or enable the visibility of a rule by selecting the rule and clicking the checkbox. This allows you to temporarily enable or disable specific rules without having to delete them.
To export the current set of colorizing rules, click the Export... button.
In the Wireshark Coloring Rules Default dialog, click Export... to save the colorizing rules to a file.

Navigate to the /home/labex/project directory and save the file with a descriptive name such as colorizing_rules.txt.
Click OK to close the Wireshark Coloring Rules Default dialog.

Create a New Colorizing Rule

In this step, you will learn how to create a new colorizing rule to highlight specific network traffic.

In Wireshark, go to View > Coloring Rules... to open the Wireshark Coloring Rules Default dialog again.
Click the + button to create a new colorizing rule.
At the top of the Coloring Rules dialog box, a new rule entry called New coloring rule will appear. Double-click the New coloring rule entry to edit the rule name. For example, HTTP Traffic. In the Filter field, enter the filter expression to be used for this rule. For example, to highlight HTTP traffic, enter http.
About the coloring options:

The foreground button allows you to choose the color that will be used to highlight the packets matching the rule.

The background button allows you to choose the background color for the highlighted packets.
Optionally, you can adjust the rule's priority by dragging the rule up or down in the list. Rules are applied based on their order in the list, with higher priority rules taking precedence over lower priority rules.
Click the checkbox to enable the newly created coloring rule, and then click OK to save the new coloring rule.
When you open a capture file or start a live capture in Wireshark, you should now see the network packets matching the filter expression displayed with the color you selected for the rule.

PS: You can start the browser by clicking on Run Program... from the Applications button in the lower left corner and typing Firefox.

Modify an Existing Colorizing Rule

In this step, you will learn how to modify an existing colorizing rule to change its behavior.

In Wireshark, go to View > Coloring Rules... to open the Wireshark Coloring Rules Default dialog.
Select the colorizing rule you want to modify from the list.
Double-click the rule which you want to modify and you can modify the rule's name, filter expression, color. Or change priority by dragging the rule up or down in the list.
modify the rule's name, filter expression you just created as required.

rule's name: HTTP Traffic -> Web Traffic
filter expression: http -> http and tcp.port == 80
After making the desired changes, click OK to save the modified rule.
Open the capture file in Wireshark or start a live capture. You should now see the network packets affected by the modified rule displayed in an updated color or filter expression.

Importing Coloring Rules

In this step, you will learn how to import coloring rules into Wireshark.

In Wireshark, go to View > Coloring Rules... to open the Wireshark Coloring Rules Default dialog.
To import colorizing rules, click the Import... button in the Wireshark Coloring Rules Default dialog.
In the Wireshark Import Coloring Rules dialog, navigate to the /home/labex/project directory and select the colorizing_rules.txt file you exported earlier.
Click Open to import the colorizing rules.
Scroll the wheel down and you should now find the newly imported coloring rule at the bottom of the list in the Coloring Rules dialog box.

Summary

In this lab, you learned how to create, modify, import, and export colorizing rules in Wireshark. By leveraging colorizing rules, you can visually distinguish different types of network traffic based on specific criteria, making it easier to identify and analyze network activities of interest. This skill can be invaluable in cybersecurity investigations, network troubleshooting, and protocol analysis tasks.

Through the hands-on exercises, you gained practical experience in creating new colorizing rules, modifying existing rules, and managing your ruleset by importing and exporting rules. By mastering these techniques, you can enhance your network analysis workflow and improve your ability to quickly identify and prioritize network traffic patterns of interest.

Wireshark Color Mastery