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Show HN: A toy version of Wireshark (student project)

Show HN: A toy version of Wireshark (student project)

96 comments

·June 2, 2025

Hi everyone,

I recently published a small open-source project. It’s a minimal network packet analyzer written in Go — designed more like a learning toy than a replacement for Wireshark.

It currently supports parsing basic protocols like TLS, DNS, and HTTP, and includes a tiny fuzzing engine to test payload responses. You can inspect raw packet content directly from the terminal. The output is colored for readability, and the code structure is kept simple and clear.

The entire program is very small — just about 400 lines of Go code. I know it’s not anywhere near Wireshark’s level, and I still use Wireshark myself for real-world analysis. But I built it as a personal experiment in network parsing and to understand protocol behavior more directly.

If you're curious or would like to try it out, the project is here: https://github.com/lixiasky/vanta

I'm happy to hear your thoughts, suggestions, or critiques. It’s just a little network toy, but maybe someone out there finds it useful or fun.

Thanks for reading!

Visit

Cockbrand

This reads a bit like Linus' first annoucement, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#:~:text=Hello... - godspeed to you, and let's see when you will take over :)

lixiasky

Thank you for this — I had read Linus' first post before and never imagined my tiny tool would be compared to something with that kind of legacy.

I'm just an undergrad student in China (not even CS major, unfortunately), and this little project was my way of saying thanks — to the schools that stood up bravely.

Really appreciate your kind words. Let’s see what comes next. :)

dang

I did a s/Vanta/you/ on this comment as part of trying to reduce the offtopic noise about the name. (More at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44161041 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44161144.)

I hope that's ok with you! The alternative would be to move it under https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44161021, but it's a really nice comment so I don't want to do that.

Cockbrand

Much appreciated, thank you! I'll also print and frame my first dang email :) It's a bit of a pity that the original description, which my comment refers to, is now gone.

dang

Not gone, just hidden under the rug :)

hnlosers

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jasonthorsness

Go is great for tools like this. I've built MITM protocol analyzers a few times. Being able to completely customize the handling, analysis, and break in in the debugger can make it more useful than a super-capable but general-purpose tool like Wireshark.

lixiasky

Thanks for sharing your experience! Go really does shine here—I felt that even as a student building Vanta while learning, things came together surprisingly well.

The features you mentioned sound awesome. I might give it a try later on—supporting stream breaks and debug controls sounds really fun

worldsayshi

Cool! I've sometimes gotten the impression that wireshark-lite is an unfulfilled niche so this is nice.

lixiasky

Thanks! I actually didn’t think that far ahead — I just wanted to build something within my ability, something that works and feels meaningful to me.

If it happens to fill a niche, that’s a lucky bonus

dotaenjoyer322

Cool! Will definitely take a look.

Curios what made you choose Go for this project? I am looking into building a toy version of Burp with either Rust/Go but still undecided.

arbll

For me the main reasons to pick Go in those context are cross-compilation, static binaries and more subjectively better productivity. You can very quickly get an MVP running and distribute it knowing it will work everywhere.

rsync

I appreciate the things you wrote at the end of the github page.

I have no idea if you could make any use of such a thing, but, if you email info@rsync.net we would be happy to give a free-forever account to use in any way you see fit.

duskwuff

The user you're replying to isn't the author.

sitkack

Thank you.

danudey

In this specific case, the 'static binaries' and 'cross-compilation' aspect aren't relevant, as vanta is a dynamically linked binary with multiple library dependencies; it has to link against libpcap, which also pulls in some infiniband libraries on my system, plus libdbus which pulls in libsystemd, libgcrypt, libgpg-error, libcap, and libs lz4, lzma, and zstd. In fact, the only library that tcpdump links against that vanta doesn't is libcrypto.

Note that none of this has to do with vanta itself; it's solely because it depends on libpcap, and libpcap depends on all of those other libraries. Still, it does mean that cross-compiling isn't notably easier than just building tcpdump itself.

lixiasky

Great question! I chose Go mainly because it's simple, efficient, and widely used — and honestly, it's the language I'm most comfortable with right now.

I'm still a student, and I don’t have super big ambitions yet — I just wanted to build something I could actually finish and understand

Rust is amazing, but I haven’t started learning it seriously yet. It feels a bit overwhelming at this stage. Maybe one day, when I'm ready to dive deeper!

Good luck with your Burp project too — I’d love to see it if you share it someday!

redawl

Hey, that's what I'm doing! ;) https://github.com/redawl/gitm

I chose go mainly for static binaries (no install steps needed for the end user), and also because I have been really enjoying writing go programs lately, mainly because of the simplicity without too much of a tradeoff for speed.

Hikikomori

Cool! I did something similar when I wanted to learn Go, but did my own parsers instead of using gopacket, I would recommend doing that yourself if you want to learn more low level stuff.

How I parsed IP for example:

  type Addr [4]uint8
  
  func (ip Addr) String() string {
   return fmt.Sprintf("%d.%d.%d.%d", ip[0], ip[1], ip[2], ip[3])
  }
  
  type Hdr struct {
   Version    uint8
   IHL        uint8
   DSCP       uint8
   ECN        uint8
   Length     uint16
   Id         uint16
   Flags      uint8
   Fragoffset uint16
   TTL        uint8
   Protocol   uint8
   Checksum   uint16
   Src        Addr
   Dst        Addr
  }
  
  func (hdr *Hdr) Parse(d []byte) error {
   hdr.Version = uint8(d[0] >> 4)
   hdr.IHL = uint8(d[0] & 0x0f)
   hdr.DSCP = uint8(d[1] >> 6)
   hdr.ECN = uint8(d[1] & 0x03)
   hdr.Length = uint16(binary.BigEndian.Uint16(d[2:4]))
   hdr.Id = uint16(binary.BigEndian.Uint16(d[4:6]))
   hdr.Flags = uint8(d[6] >> 5)
   hdr.Fragoffset = uint16(binary.BigEndian.Uint16(d[6:8])) & 0x1fff
   hdr.TTL = d[8]
   hdr.Protocol = d[9]
   hdr.Checksum = uint16(binary.BigEndian.Uint16(d[10:12]))
   hdr.Src = Addr{d[12], d[13], d[14], d[15]}
   hdr.Dst = Addr{d[16], d[17], d[18], d[19]}
  
   if hdr.IHL > 5 {
    fmt.Println("extra options detected") // TODO: support for extra options
   }
   return nil
  }

lixiasky

Thanks a lot for sharing this — it's super helpful!

Yeah, I’m currently using gopacket mainly to get something working fast, but I’ve been thinking about writing my own parsers from scratch to understand the protocols better.

Your Hdr example is really clean — definitely saving this as reference! I love how direct and readable it is.

I’ll definitely try going lower level when I revisit the packet layer logic. Thanks again for the nudge

0xbadcafebee

Seconding this. Implementing low level protocols from scratch is a great introduction to network programming (do the kids today ever do network programming, or is it all just 15 layers of libraries on top of HTTP?). Good to understand the underpinnings of the systems you work with, and how subtly complex things get down there.

leumassuehtam

Genuine question: is this a wrapper around Google's gopacket?

lixiasky

Thanks for the question!

Yes, Vanta currently relies on gopacket for packet capture and parsing. As a student, my main goal was to build something clear, functional, and real — rather than reinvent everything from scratch.

I'm actively learning the details of network protocols, and I do plan to write some custom parsers later, both for flexibility and personal understanding. But at this stage, I think it’s more important to deliver a meaningful tool than to prove I can reimplement low-level stacks.

In the long run, I may gradually replace parts of gopacket, but right now it's an important and reliable foundation for the project.

(And honestly — finishing something real matters more to me than perfection )

leumassuehtam

Thanks for the answer!

thegoodduck

https://github.com/thegoodduck/netsour

spacecadet

Hey nice project! I have a similar project too, originated from collecting data via Wireshark and wanting to view it as a graph and do a little lite weight anomaly detection. It's also a learning project for me.

https://github.com/derekburgess/jaws

lixiasky

Whoa, that sounds really cool — I like the idea.

thenthenthen

Screenshots please!

null

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colesantiago

This looks nice, perhaps name your project babyshark?

poisonborz

Have to say it would be worth making this project just for the sake of this pun alone.

Kuraj

At the risk of sounding boring, but be careful not to sacrifice searchability for this

Andugal

Yes especially since Vanta is an already well known company.

ghc

Oh no, I'm pretty sure Vanta is basically unknown compared to babyshark :)

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=...

qmr

Name it dootdoodoodootdoodo

mrbluecoat

or Fanta

0xEF

That one's taken, I think.

mrbluecoat

yes, that's the joke ;)

Bad_CRC

na na na na na

null

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qwertytyyuu

…

op00to

> This project is not just code — it's a response. Amid political pressure, some universities like Harvard, MIT, and CMU stood up for international students.

> I’m just an ordinary undergraduate with no resources or background. This is my way of responding — not by petition, but through code. Vanta may be small, but it’s real, and it’s mine.

This comes off as super ChatGPT-y to me. "X is not y — it's Z! Preamble, passionate statement. Sycophantic encouraging statement — list, of, a, few, things, but also this. Summarize statement, but this other thing, and saying the same thing again but in a slightly different way."

I've given up on ChatGPT because of this style of writing.

lixiasky

Totally fair! I really appreciate the honesty. English isn't my native language, and most of the expressions I know come from TED talks, open source READMEs, and honestly... the kind of news clips our teachers play in class

So yeah, that probably shaped the way I wrote this. You’re right though — reading it again, it does sound kinda overly polished.

I’ll try to keep future writing more personal and grounded. Still learning — and thanks for reading it at all. That already means a lot!

singiamtel

It's the em dash that does it for me

kstrauser

AIs learned that from humans because it's a normal, common bit of punctuation they see frequently.

AIs also use the word "the" frequently.

amingilani

Friendly reminder that em and en dashes were part of English well before ChatGPT was launched. Anecdotally, I’ve been using them forever and English isn’t even my native language.

yen223

Also, a lot of programs autocorrect dashes to em-dashes.

qmr

I use em dashes, but always as two hyphens.

I think this notion that em dash always means chatgpt is an overview correction.

hhh

I have loved the em dash forever and i’m being punished for it now.

null

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appendixv2

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