---------------------------------------- -- script-name: dns_dissector.lua -- -- author: Hadriel Kaplan -- Copyright (c) 2014, Hadriel Kaplan -- This code is in the Public Domain, or the BSD (3 clause) license if Public Domain does not apply -- in your country. -- -- Version: 2.1 -- -- Changes since 2.0: -- * fixed a bug with default settings -- * added ability for command-line to overide defaults -- -- Changes since 1.0: -- * made it use the new ProtoExpert class model for expert info -- * add a protocol column with the proto name -- * added heuristic dissector support -- * added preferences settings -- * removed byteArray2String(), and uses the new ByteArray:raw() method instead -- -- BACKGROUND: -- This is an example Lua script for a protocol dissector. The purpose of this script is two-fold: -- * To provide a reference tutorial for others writing Wireshark dissectors in Lua -- * To test various functions being called in various ways, so this script can be used in the test-suites -- I've tried to meet both of those goals, but it wasn't easy. No doubt some folks will wonder why some -- functions are called some way, or differently than previous invocations of the same function. I'm trying to -- to show both that it can be done numerous ways, but also I'm trying to test those numerous ways, and my more -- immediate need is for test coverage rather than tutorial guide. (the Lua API is sorely lacking in test scripts) -- -- OVERVIEW: -- This script creates an elementary dissector for DNS. It's neither comprehensive nor error-free with regards -- to the DNS protocol. That's OK. The goal isn't to fully dissect DNS properly - Wireshark already has a good -- DNS dissector built-in. We don't need another one. We also have other example Lua scripts, but I don't think -- they do a good job of explaining things, and the nice thing about this one is getting capture files to -- run it against is trivial. (plus I uploaded one) -- -- HOW TO RUN THIS SCRIPT: -- Wireshark and Tshark support multiple ways of loading Lua scripts: through a dofile() call in init.lua, -- through the file being in either the global or personal plugins directories, or via the command line. -- See the Wireshark USer's Guide chapter on Lua (https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsdg_html_chunked/wsluarm.html#wsluarm_intro). -- Once the script is loaded, it creates a new protocol named "MyDNS" (or "MYDNS" in some places). If you have -- a capture file with DNS packets in it, simply select one in the Packet List pane, right-click on it, and -- select "Decode As ...", and then in the dialog box that shows up scroll down the list of protocols to one -- called "MYDNS", select that and click the "ok" or "apply" button. Voila`, you're now decoding DNS packets -- using the simplistic dissector in this script. Another way is to download the capture file made for -- this script, and open that - since the DNS packets in it use UDP port 65333 (instead of the default 53), -- and since the MyDNS protocol in this script has been set to automatically decode UDP port 65333, it will -- automagically do it without doing "Decode As ...". -- ---------------------------------------- -- do not modify this table local debug_level = { DISABLED = 0, LEVEL_1 = 1, LEVEL_2 = 2 } -- set this DEBUG to debug_level.LEVEL_1 to enable printing debug_level info -- set it to debug_level.LEVEL_2 to enable really verbose printing -- note: this will be overridden by user's preference settings local DEBUG = debug_level.LEVEL_1 local default_settings = { debug_level = DEBUG, port = 65333, heur_enabled = false, } -- for testing purposes, we want to be able to pass in changes to the defaults -- from the command line; because you can't set lua preferences from the command -- line using the '-o' switch (the preferences don't exist until this script is -- loaded, so the command line thinks they're invalid preferences being set) -- so we pass them in as command arguments insetad, and handle it here: local args={...} -- get passed-in args if args and #args > 0 then for _, arg in ipairs(args) do local name, value = arg:match("(.+)=(.+)") if name and value then if tonumber(value) then value = tonumber(value) elseif value == "true" or value == "TRUE" then value = true elseif value == "false" or value == "FALSE" then value = false elseif value == "DISABLED" then value = debug_level.DISABLED elseif value == "LEVEL_1" then value = debug_level.LEVEL_1 elseif value == "LEVEL_2" then value = debug_level.LEVEL_2 else error("invalid commandline argument value") end else error("invalid commandline argument syntax") end default_settings[name] = value end end local dprint = function() end local dprint2 = function() end local function reset_debug_level() if default_settings.debug_level > debug_level.DISABLED then dprint = function(...) print(table.concat({"Lua:", ...}," ")) end if default_settings.debug_level > debug_level.LEVEL_1 then dprint2 = dprint end end end -- call it now reset_debug_level() dprint2("Wireshark version = ", get_version()) dprint2("Lua version = ", _VERSION) ---------------------------------------- -- Unfortunately, the older Wireshark/Tshark versions have bugs, and part of the point -- of this script is to test those bugs are now fixed. So we need to check the version -- end error out if it's too old. local major, minor, micro = get_version():match("(%d+)%.(%d+)%.(%d+)") if major and tonumber(major) <= 1 and ((tonumber(minor) <= 10) or (tonumber(minor) == 11 and tonumber(micro) < 3)) then error( "Sorry, but your Wireshark/Tshark version ("..get_version()..") is too old for this script!\n".. "This script needs Wireshark/Tshark version 1.11.3 or higher.\n" ) end -- more sanity checking -- verify we have the ProtoExpert class in wireshark, as that's the newest thing this file uses assert(ProtoExpert.new, "Wireshark does not have the ProtoExpert class, so it's too old - get the latest 1.11.3 or higher") ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- -- creates a Proto object, but doesn't register it yet local dns = Proto("mydns","MyDNS Protocol") ---------------------------------------- -- multiple ways to do the same thing: create a protocol field (but not register it yet) -- the abbreviation should always have "." before the specific abbreviation, to avoid collisions local pf_trasaction_id = ProtoField.new ("Transaction ID", "mydns.trans_id", ftypes.UINT16) local pf_flags = ProtoField.new ("Flags", "mydns.flags", ftypes.UINT16, nil, base.HEX) local pf_num_questions = ProtoField.uint16("mydns.num_questions", "Number of Questions") local pf_num_answers = ProtoField.uint16("mydns.num_answers", "Number of Answer RRs") local pf_num_authority_rr = ProtoField.uint16("mydns.num_authority_rr", "Number of Authority RRs") local pf_num_additional_rr = ProtoField.uint16("mydns.num_additional_rr", "Number of Additional RRs") -- within the flags field, we want to parse/show the bits separately -- note the "base" argument becomes the size of the bitmask'ed field when ftypes.BOOLEAN is used -- the "mask" argument is which bits we want to use for this field (e.g., base=16 and mask=0x8000 means we want the top bit of a 16-bit field) -- again the following shows different ways of doing the same thing basically local pf_flag_response = ProtoField.new ("Response", "mydns.flags.response", ftypes.BOOLEAN, {"this is a response","this is a query"}, 16, 0x8000, "is the message a response?") local pf_flag_opcode = ProtoField.new ("Opcode", "mydns.flags.opcode", ftypes.UINT16, nil, base.DEC, 0x7800, "operation code") local pf_flag_authoritative = ProtoField.new ("Authoritative", "mydns.flags.authoritative", ftypes.BOOLEAN, nil, 16, 0x0400, "is the response authoritative?") local pf_flag_truncated = ProtoField.bool ("mydns.flags.truncated", "Truncated", 16, nil, 0x0200, "is the message truncated?") local pf_flag_recursion_desired = ProtoField.bool ("mydns.flags.recursion_desired", "Recursion desired", 16, {"yes","no"}, 0x0100, "do the query recursivley?") local pf_flag_recursion_available = ProtoField.bool ("mydns.flags.recursion_available", "Recursion available", 16, nil, 0x0080, "does the server support recursion?") local pf_flag_z = ProtoField.uint16("mydns.flags.z", "World War Z - Reserved for future use", base.HEX, nil, 0x0040, "when is it the future?") local pf_flag_authenticated = ProtoField.bool ("mydns.flags.authenticated", "Authenticated", 16, {"yes","no"}, 0x0020, "did the server DNSSEC authenticate?") local pf_flag_checking_disabled = ProtoField.bool ("mydns.flags.checking_disabled", "Checking disabled", 16, nil, 0x0010) -- no, these aren't all the DNS response codes - this is just an example local rcodes = { [0] = "No Error", [1] = "Format Error", [2] = "Server Failure", [3] = "Non-Existent Domain", [9] = "Server Not Authoritative for zone" } -- the above rcodes table is used in this next ProtoField local pf_flag_rcode = ProtoField.uint16("mydns.flags.rcode", "Response code", base.DEC, rcodes, 0x000F) local pf_query = ProtoField.new("Query", "mydns.query", ftypes.BYTES) local pf_query_name = ProtoField.new("Name", "mydns.query.name", ftypes.STRING) local pf_query_name_len = ProtoField.new("Name Length", "mydns.query.name.len", ftypes.UINT8) local pf_query_label_count = ProtoField.new("Label Count", "mydns.query.label.count", ftypes.UINT8) local rrtypes = { [1] = "A (IPv4 host address)", [2] = "NS (authoritative name server)", [28] = "AAAA (for geeks only)" } local pf_query_type = ProtoField.uint16("mydns.query.type", "Type", base.DEC, rrtypes) -- again, not all class types are listed here local classes = { [0] = "Reserved", [1] = "IN (Internet)", [2] = "The 1%", [5] = "First class", [6] = "Business class", [65535] = "Cattle class" } local pf_query_class = ProtoField.uint16("mydns.query.class", "Class", base.DEC, classes, nil, "keep it classy folks") ---------------------------------------- -- this actually registers the ProtoFields above, into our new Protocol -- in a real script I wouldn't do it this way; I'd build a table of fields programmatically -- and then set dns.fields to it, so as to avoid forgetting a field dns.fields = { pf_trasaction_id, pf_flags, pf_num_questions, pf_num_answers, pf_num_authority_rr, pf_num_additional_rr, pf_flag_response, pf_flag_opcode, pf_flag_authoritative, pf_flag_truncated, pf_flag_recursion_desired, pf_flag_recursion_available, pf_flag_z, pf_flag_authenticated, pf_flag_checking_disabled, pf_flag_rcode, pf_query, pf_query_name, pf_query_name_len, pf_query_label_count, pf_query_type, pf_query_class } ---------------------------------------- -- create some expert info fields (this is new functionality in 1.11.3) -- Expert info fields are very similar to proto fields: they're tied to our protocol, -- they're created in a similar way, and registered by setting a 'experts' field to -- a table of them just as proto fields were put into the 'dns.fields' above -- The old way of creating expert info was to just add it to the tree, but that -- didn't let the expert info be filterable in wireshark, whereas this way does local ef_query = ProtoExpert.new("mydns.query.expert", "DNS query message", expert.group.REQUEST_CODE, expert.severity.CHAT) local ef_response = ProtoExpert.new("mydns.response.expert", "DNS response message", expert.group.RESPONSE_CODE, expert.severity.CHAT) local ef_ultimate = ProtoExpert.new("mydns.response.ultimate.expert", "DNS answer to life, the universe, and everything", expert.group.COMMENTS_GROUP, expert.severity.NOTE) -- some error expert info's local ef_too_short = ProtoExpert.new("mydns.too_short.expert", "DNS message too short", expert.group.MALFORMED, expert.severity.ERROR) local ef_bad_query = ProtoExpert.new("mydns.query.missing.expert", "DNS query missing or malformed", expert.group.MALFORMED, expert.severity.WARN) -- register them dns.experts = { ef_query, ef_too_short, ef_bad_query, ef_response, ef_ultimate } ---------------------------------------- -- we don't just want to display our protocol's fields, we want to access the value of some of them too! -- There are several ways to do that. One is to just parse the buffer contents in Lua code to find -- the values. But since ProtoFields actually do the parsing for us, and can be retrieved using Field -- objects, it's kinda cool to do it that way. So let's create some Fields to extract the values. -- The following creates the Field objects, but they're not 'registered' until after this script is loaded. -- Also, these lines can't be before the 'dns.fields = ...' line above, because the Field.new() here is -- referencing fields we're creating, and they're not "created" until that line above. -- Furthermore, you cannot put these 'Field.new()' lines inside the dissector function. -- Before Wireshark version 1.11, you couldn't even do this concept (of using fields you just created). local questions_field = Field.new("mydns.num_questions") local query_type_field = Field.new("mydns.query.type") local query_class_field = Field.new("mydns.query.class") local response_field = Field.new("mydns.flags.response") -- here's a little helper function to access the response_field value later. -- Like any Field retrieval, you can't retrieve a field's value until its value has been -- set, which won't happen until we actually use our ProtoFields in TreeItem:add() calls. -- So this isResponse() function can't be used until after the pf_flag_response ProtoField -- has been used inside the dissector. -- Note that calling the Field object returns a FieldInfo object, and calling that -- returns the value of the field - in this case a boolean true/false, since we set the -- "mydns.flags.response" ProtoField to ftype.BOOLEAN way earlier when we created the -- pf_flag_response ProtoField. Clear as mud? -- -- A shorter version of this function would be: -- local function isResponse() return response_field()() end -- but I though the below is easier to understand. local function isResponse() local response_fieldinfo = response_field() return response_fieldinfo() end -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- preferences handling stuff -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- a "enum" table for our enum pref, as required by Pref.enum() -- having the "index" number makes ZERO sense, and is completely illogical -- but it's what the code has expected it to be for a long time. Ugh. local debug_pref_enum = { { 1, "Disabled", debug_level.DISABLED }, { 2, "Level 1", debug_level.LEVEL_1 }, { 3, "Level 2", debug_level.LEVEL_2 }, } dns.prefs.debug = Pref.enum("Debug", default_settings.debug_level, "The debug printing level", debug_pref_enum) dns.prefs.port = Pref.uint("Port number", default_settings.port, "The UDP port number for MyDNS") dns.prefs.heur = Pref.bool("Heuristic enabled", default_settings.heur_enabled, "Whether heuristic dissection is enabled or not") ---------------------------------------- -- a function for handling prefs being changed function dns.prefs_changed() dprint2("prefs_changed called") default_settings.debug_level = dns.prefs.debug reset_debug_level() default_settings.heur_enabled = dns.prefs.heur if default_settings.port ~= dns.prefs.port then -- remove old one, if not 0 if default_settings.port ~= 0 then dprint2("removing MyDNS from port",default_settings.port) DissectorTable.get("udp.port"):remove(default_settings.port, dns) end -- set our new default default_settings.port = dns.prefs.port -- add new one, if not 0 if default_settings.port ~= 0 then dprint2("adding MyDNS to port",default_settings.port) DissectorTable.get("udp.port"):add(default_settings.port, dns) end end end dprint2("MyDNS Prefs registered") ---------------------------------------- ---- some constants for later use ---- -- the DNS header size local DNS_HDR_LEN = 12 -- the smallest possible DNS query field size -- has to be at least a label length octet, label character, label null terminator, 2-bytes type and 2-bytes class local MIN_QUERY_LEN = 7 ---------------------------------------- -- some forward "declarations" of helper functions we use in the dissector -- I don't usually use this trick, but it'll help reading/grok'ing this script I think -- if we don't focus on them. local getQueryName ---------------------------------------- -- The following creates the callback function for the dissector. -- It's the same as doing "dns.dissector = function (tvbuf,pkt,root)" -- The 'tvbuf' is a Tvb object, 'pktinfo' is a Pinfo object, and 'root' is a TreeItem object. -- Whenever Wireshark dissects a packet that our Proto is hooked into, it will call -- this function and pass it these arguments for the packet it's dissecting. function dns.dissector(tvbuf,pktinfo,root) dprint2("dns.dissector called") -- set the protocol column to show our protocol name pktinfo.cols.protocol:set("MYDNS") -- We want to check that the packet size is rational during dissection, so let's get the length of the -- packet buffer (Tvb). -- Because DNS has no additional payload data other than itself, and it rides on UDP without padding, -- we can use tvb:len() or tvb:reported_len() here; but I prefer tvb:reported_length_remaining() as it's safer. local pktlen = tvbuf:reported_length_remaining() -- We start by adding our protocol to the dissection display tree. -- A call to tree:add() returns the child created, so we can add more "under" it using that return value. -- The second argument is how much of the buffer/packet this added tree item covers/represents - in this -- case (DNS protocol) that's the remainder of the packet. local tree = root:add(dns, tvbuf:range(0,pktlen)) -- now let's check it's not too short if pktlen < DNS_HDR_LEN then -- since we're going to add this protocol to a specific UDP port, we're going to -- assume packets in this port are our protocol, so the packet being too short is an error -- the old way: tree:add_expert_info(PI_MALFORMED, PI_ERROR, "packet too short") -- the correct way now: tree:add_proto_expert_info(ef_too_short) dprint("packet length",pktlen,"too short") return end -- Now let's add our transaction id under our dns protocol tree we just created. -- The transaction id starts at offset 0, for 2 bytes length. tree:add(pf_trasaction_id, tvbuf:range(0,2)) -- We'd like to put the transaction id number in the GUI row for this packet, in its -- INFO column/cell. First we need the transaction id value, though. Since we just -- dissected it with the previous code line, we could now get it using a Field's -- FieldInfo extractor, but instead we'll get it directly from the TvbRange just -- to show how to do that. We'll use Field/FieldInfo extractors later on... local transid = tvbuf:range(0,2):uint() pktinfo.cols.info:set("(".. transid ..")") -- now let's add the flags, which are all in the packet bytes at offset 2 of length 2 -- instead of calling this again and again, let's just use a variable local flagrange = tvbuf:range(2,2) -- for our flags field, we want a sub-tree local flag_tree = tree:add(pf_flags, flagrange) -- I'm indenting this for clarity, because it's adding to the flag's child-tree -- let's add the type of message (query vs. response) local query_flag_tree = flag_tree:add(pf_flag_response, flagrange) -- let's also add an expert info about it if isResponse() then query_flag_tree:add_proto_expert_info(ef_response, "It's a response!") if transid == 42 then tree:add_tvb_expert_info(ef_ultimate, tvbuf:range(0,2)) end else query_flag_tree:add_proto_expert_info(ef_query) end -- we now know if it's a response or query, so let's put that in the -- GUI packet row, in the INFO column cell -- this line of code uses a Lua trick for doing something similar to -- the C/C++ 'test ? true : false' shorthand pktinfo.cols.info:prepend(isResponse() and "Response " or "Query ") flag_tree:add(pf_flag_opcode, flagrange) if isResponse() then flag_tree:add(pf_flag_authoritative, flagrange) end flag_tree:add(pf_flag_truncated, flagrange) if isResponse() then flag_tree:add(pf_flag_recursion_available, flagrange) else flag_tree:add(pf_flag_recursion_desired, flagrange) end flag_tree:add(pf_flag_z, flagrange) if isResponse() then flag_tree:add(pf_flag_authenticated, flagrange) flag_tree:add(pf_flag_rcode, flagrange) end flag_tree:add(pf_flag_checking_disabled, flagrange) -- now add more to the main mydns tree tree:add(pf_num_questions, tvbuf:range(4,2)) tree:add(pf_num_answers, tvbuf:range(6,2)) -- another way to get a TvbRange is just to call the Tvb like this tree:add(pf_num_authority_rr, tvbuf(8,2)) -- or if we're crazy, we can create a sub-TvbRange, from a sub-TvbRange of the TvbRange tree:add(pf_num_additional_rr, tvbuf:range(10,2):range()()) local num_queries = questions_field()() local pos = DNS_HDR_LEN if num_queries > 0 then -- let's create a sub-tree, using a plain text description (not a field from the packet) local queries_tree = tree:add("Queries") local pktlen_remaining = pktlen - pos while num_queries > 0 and pktlen_remaining > 0 do if pktlen_remaining < MIN_QUERY_LEN then -- old way: queries_tree:add_expert_info(PI_MALFORMED, PI_ERROR, "query field missing or too short") queries_tree:add_proto_expert_info(ef_bad_query) return end -- we don't know how long this query field in total is, so we have to parse it first before -- adding it to the tree, because we want to identify the correct bytes it covers local label_count, name, name_len = getQueryName(tvbuf:range(pos,pktlen_remaining)) if not label_count then q_tree:add_expert_info(PI_MALFORMED, PI_ERROR, name) return end -- now add the first query to the 'Queries' child tree we just created -- we're going to change the string generated by this later, after we figure out the subsequent fields. -- the whole query field is the query name field length we just got, plus the 20 byte type and 2-byte class local q_tree = queries_tree:add(pf_query, tvbuf:range(pos, name_len + 4)) q_tree:add(pf_query_name, tvbuf:range(pos, name_len), name) pos = pos + name_len pktinfo.cols.info:append(" "..name) -- the following tree items are generated by us, not encoded in the packet per se, so mark them as such q_tree:add(pf_query_name_len, name_len):set_generated() q_tree:add(pf_query_label_count, label_count):set_generated() q_tree:add(pf_query_type, tvbuf:range(pos, 2)) q_tree:add(pf_query_class, tvbuf:range(pos + 2, 2)) pos = pos + 4 -- now change the query text q_tree:set_text(name..": type "..query_type_field().display ..", class "..query_class_field().display) pktlen_remaining = pktlen_remaining - (name_len + 4) num_queries = num_queries - 1 end -- end of while loop if num_queries > 0 then -- we didn't process them all queries_tree:add_expert_info(PI_MALFORMED, PI_ERROR, num_queries .. " query field(s) missing") return end end dprint2("dns.dissector returning",pos) -- tell wireshark how much of tvbuff we dissected return pos end ---------------------------------------- -- we want to have our protocol dissection invoked for a specific UDP port, -- so get the udp dissector table and add our protocol to it DissectorTable.get("udp.port"):add(default_settings.port, dns) ---------------------------------------- -- we also want to add the heuristic dissector, for any UDP protocol -- first we need a heuristic dissection function -- this is that function - when wireshark invokes this, it will pass in the same -- things it passes in to the "dissector" function, but we only want to actually -- dissect it if it's for us, and we need to return true if it's for us, or else false -- figuring out if it's for us or not is not easy -- we need to try as hard as possible, or else we'll think it's for us when it's -- not and block other heuristic dissectors from getting their chance -- -- in practice, you'd never set a dissector like this to be heuristic, because there -- just isn't enough information to safely detect if it's DNS or not -- but I'm doing it to show how it would be done -- -- Note: this heuristic stuff is new in 1.11.3 local function heur_dissect_dns(tvbuf,pktinfo,root) dprint2("heur_dissect_dns called") -- if our preferences tell us not to do this, return false if not default_settings.heur_enabled then return false end if tvbuf:len() < DNS_HDR_LEN then dprint("heur_dissect_dns: tvb shorter than DNS_HDR_LEN of:",DNS_HDR_LEN) return false end local tvbr = tvbuf:range(0,DNS_HDR_LEN) -- the first 2 bytes are transaction id, which can be anything so no point in checking those -- the next 2 bytes contain flags, a couple of which have some values we can check against -- the opcode has to be 0, 1, 2, 4 or 5 -- the opcode field starts at bit offset 17 (in C-indexing), for 4 bits in length local check = tvbr:bitfield(17,4) if check == 3 or check > 5 then dprint("heur_dissect_dns: invalid opcode:",check) return false end -- the rcode has to be 0-10, 16-22 (we're ignoring private use rcodes here) -- the rcode field starts at bit offset 28 (in C-indexing), for 4 bits in length check = tvbr:bitfield(28,4) if check > 22 or (check > 10 and check < 16) then dprint("heur_dissect_dns: invalid rcode:",check) return false end dprint2("heur_dissect_dns checking questions/answers") -- now let's verify the number of questions/answers are reasonable check = tvbr:range(4,2):uint() -- num questions if check > 100 then return false end check = tvbr:range(6,2):uint() -- num answers if check > 100 then return false end check = tvbr:range(8,2):uint() -- num authority if check > 100 then return false end check = tvbr:range(10,2):uint() -- num additional if check > 100 then return false end dprint2("heur_dissect_dns: everything looks good calling the real dissector") -- don't do this line in your script - I'm just doing it so our test-suite can -- verify this script root:add("Heuristic dissector used"):set_generated() -- ok, looks like it's ours, so go dissect it -- note: calling the dissector directly like this is new in 1.11.3 -- also note that calling a Dissector object, as this does, means we don't -- get back the return value of the dissector function we created previously -- so it might be better to just call the function directly instead of doing -- this, but this script is used for testing and this tests the call() function dns.dissector(tvbuf,pktinfo,root) -- since this is over a transport protocol, such as UDP, we can set the -- conversation to make it sticky for our dissector, so that all future -- packets to/from the same address:port pair will just call our dissector -- function directly instead of this heuristic function -- this is a new attribute of pinfo in 1.11.3 pktinfo.conversation = dns return true end -- now register that heuristic dissector into the udp heuristic list dns:register_heuristic("udp",heur_dissect_dns) -- We're done! -- our protocol (Proto) gets automatically registered after this script finishes loading ---------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------- -- DNS query names are not just null-terminated strings; they're actually a sequence of -- 'labels', with a length octet before each one. So "foobar.com" is actually the -- string "\06foobar\03com\00". We could create a ProtoField for label_length and label_name -- or whatever, but since this is an example script I'll show how to do it in raw code. -- This function is given the TvbRange object from the dissector() function, and needs to -- parse it. -- On success, it returns three things: the number of labels, the name string, and how -- many bytes it covered of the buffer (which is always 2 more than the name length in this case). -- On failure, it returns nil and the error message. getQueryName = function (tvbr) local label_count = 0 local name = "" local len_remaining = tvbr:len() if len_remaining < 2 then -- it's too short return nil, "invalid name" end local barray = tvbr:bytes() -- gets a ByteArray of the TvbRange local pos = 0 -- unlike Lua, ByteArray uses 0-based indexing -- get the first octet/label-length local label_len = barray:get_index(pos) if label_len == 0 then return nil, "invalid initial label length of 0" end while label_len > 0 do if label_len >= len_remaining then return nil, "invalid label length of "..label_len end pos = pos + 1 -- move past label length octet -- append the label and a dot to name string -- note: this uses the new method of ByteArray:raw(), added in 1.11.3 name = name .. barray:raw(pos, label_len) .. "." len_remaining = len_remaining - (label_len + 1) -- subtract label and its length octet label_count = label_count + 1 pos = pos + label_len -- move past label label_len = barray:get_index(pos) end -- we appended an extra dot, so get rid of it name = name:sub(1, -2) return label_count, name, name:len() + 2 end