Show HN: Stratoshark, a sibling application to Wireshark
30 comments
·January 22, 2025zokier
Does sysdig (and stratoshark by extension) still require custom out-of-tree kernel module to function?
clbrmbr
Wireshark is to tcpdump as stratoshark is to strace.
Did I get the analogy right?
geraldcombs
Pretty much. It's part of the same ecosystem as Sysdig OSS[1], which works much like strace. It uses the same underlying libraries as sysdig and Falco, and you can move capture files between them.
It'd be interesting to see if we can integrate more fully with strace as well, but that might require updating strace itself.
freedomben
Long, long time user of Wireshark and I instantly recognize your name. Thank you for all the great work over the years :-)
Looks really awesome! I didn't see Linux installation instructions so clicked on the link to the source code, but it links to the Wireshark source[1]. Is Stratoshark part of the same repo as Wireshark? Is Linux supported by Stratoshark?
geraldcombs
Thanks! It's part of the same code base (and therefore open source), and Linux is definitely supported. It adds libscap and libsinsp as dependencies, and you can find basic build instructions at https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/blob/master/doc/str....
tarasglek
It is not clear what the architecture for system-call capture is. Is it ptrace, ebpf or some custom thing or some combo? What is the overhead of running this?
The tool looks really cool, hopefully it moves ui state of art beyond windows xperf
geraldcombs
It uses Falco libs[1] underneath, which supports capture using eBPF or a kmod. I work with the Falco libs team and they go to great lengths to minimize overhead.
pimlottc
The first section on the homepage doesn’t give me a good sense of what the application does. The references to Wireshark suggest it has something to do with network traffic but that doesn’t seem to be the case. It also talks about cloud but nothing seems to be cloud-specific?
geraldcombs
Thanks for the feedback! I'll see if we can make the top of the site more descriptive.
Update: Changed the first sentence to "Stratoshark lets you explore and analyze applications at the system call level using a mature, proven interface based on Wireshark.
sesm
So, DTrace with Wireshark UI?
geraldcombs
We don't share any code with DTrace, but it's not a bad analogy. As with my other reply about strace, it'd be interesting to see if we can more closely integrate Stratoshark, strace, and DTrace in the same way that Wireshark integrates with tcpdump.
gertrunde
The blog article is a bit more descriptive : https://sysdig.com/blog/stratoshark-extending-wiresharks-leg...
tl;dr version: system calls, but in the wireshark ui. (I've probably oversimplified that!)
vasco
Thanks for your work! Been using Wireshark for many years after it was used for a network course in university.
Why do you focus on "what happens in your cloud" when we talk about system calls? It'd seem it's useful for any machine, is it just bad marketing copy or am I missing something?
geraldcombs
You're welcome! It was initially developed as part of my day job at Sysdig, a cloud security company. The initial feature set and use cases focus on getting .scaps (system call and log captures) from cloud environments, but you're entirely correct -- this has much more general applications including troubleshooting and education just like Wireshark does on the networking side.
mdaniel
clickable link: https://stratoshark.org
I found its man page in the repo which I found insightful https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/blob/ssv0.9.0/doc/m...
and don't overlook this neato thing: https://gitlab.com/wireshark/wireshark/-/blob/ssv0.9.0/doc/m...
observationist
The OP URL has been flagged as grayware by Palo Alto and is thus inaccessible to a large number of people, possibly indicating typosquatting, or being miscategorized?
https://wiki.wireshark.org/Stratoshark is a good link for those who can't reach the stratoshark URL directly. The OP link may get recategorized and become accessible in the meantime.
geraldcombs
Well, crap. The domain and site are still fairly new, so maybe that's the issue? Is there anyone here from Palo Alto that can take a look?
observationist
Going through their URL filtering site and requesting a recategorization is the best option for now, unless someone from the company sees it.
imcritic
Can this program do more than just observe and trace what happens?
Can one use it to set up some rule to suppress some of the syscalls sent to a specific process? Or alter them by some logic on the go?
geraldcombs
It's currently only passive, but that'd be an interesting feature. In order for that to happen we'd have to add that functionality to https://github.com/falcosecurity/libs/ along with the necessary plumbing in the UI.
brutopia
How does it trace syscalls on macos? Do you need to disable SIP?
geraldcombs
Right now the UI runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux but you can only capture system calls on Linux via Falco libs[1]. Expanding local capture to include macOS and Windows is definitely something we'd love to do!
null
n1g3ld0uglas2
Being able to use Wireshark in Kubernetes is super exciting. I can't wait to get started!
napolux
having used wireshark since i was a kid... this looks really promising
Chihuahua0633
Do you have any wildly good Wireshark resources to reference -- I know I'm barely scratching the surface.
12bits
https://www.youtube.com/@ChrisGreer if you are into video format.
westurner
Re: custom fields in pcap traces and retis https://github.com/retis-org/retis
Hi all, I'm excited to announce Stratoshark, a sibling application to Wireshark that lets you capture and analyze process activity (system calls) and log messages in the same way that Wireshark lets you capture and analyze network packets. If you would like to try it out you can download installers for Windows and macOS and source code for all platforms at https://stratoshark.org.
AMA: I'm the goofball whose name is at the top of the "About" box in both applications, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you might have.