Manipulating network data streams with Netsed
Switcheroo
© Lead Image © KONSTANTYNOV, 123RF.com
Netsed is a small communication tool that lets users modify the content of TCP and UDP data packets on the local network.
The Netsed command-line tool lets you directly manipulate unencrypted data streams, allowing data integrity tests and black-box protocol auditing. It needs very little in terms of resources and is available for installation in all the major distributions. If your distribution only offers a legacy version, rather than the current v1.2, you can download the source code [1] and build the software manually with:
make && sudo make install
Netsed naturally only works on computers that route packages (i.e., routers, e.g., under OpenWrt) or on servers that provide this service. Like a proxy, the software sniffs the data stream from a defined connection and then manipulates it in-line according to rules you define.
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