Reverse Engineering

Assignment Task

In this task you are required to reverse engineer a network protocol, and derive its structure, and details of any underlying algorithms.

You will be given details of captured network traffic (for example a PCAP) to analyse. The file will contain network traffic between several hosts, and makes use of different protocols.

You are required to examine the capture using appropriate software and write a report on its contents.

The report should describe the information flow, and provide sufficient detail to be able to reconstruct the findings. (For example, details of any filters used to find specific information, or software tools / functions used)

The specifics of the marking scheme will depend on the network capture. (for example marks for identifying a specific element of the work).

Learning Outcome 1: Demonstrate understanding of link between compiled software and the source code it is generated from
Learning Outcome 2: Analyse communication, processing and network data to derive the underlying protocol
Learning Outcome 3: Make use of tools to examine the memory state of a running process with the aim of deriving the underlying algorithm
Learning Outcome 4: Examine and evaluate the differences in tools used for reverse engineering, patching and binary mangling

Task Description

You will be given a PCAP file of captured network traffic to analyse. The file will contain network traffic between several hosts, and makes use of different protocols.

You are required to examine the capture using appropriate software and write a report on its contents.

The report should describe the information flow, and provide sufficient detail to be able to reconstruct the findings. (For example, details of any filters used to find specific information, or software tools / functions used)