Packet Pigeon

Inspiration

We became inspired to do a project about packet sniffing and security alerts for network security because of our interest in cybersecurity and the time we have recently spent on TryHackMe. Our desire to learn more about protecting sensitive information and networks led us to research how security professionals go about doing these tasks. As college students studying computer science, we recognized the growing need for comprehensive security measures in today's digital landscape. By working on this project, we hope to gain practical experience with cutting-edge technology and advanced algorithms. We hope to gain more knowledge in this field so we are able to contribute to the development of more effective and efficient network security solutions in the future.

What it does

Our network security solution, Packet Pigeon, employs advanced packet sniffing and analysis techniques to detect potentially malicious activity within your network. Once detected, the system provides real-time alerts to the network owner, containing relevant data on packets, traffic, and suspected IP addresses. To ensure the timely delivery of these alerts, we have integrated SMS functionality through Twilio into our system.

How we built it

We used Wireshark as a base for packet sniffing and observing network traffic. Using Kali Linux, SlowIris, and hping3, we could simulate DoS attacks on our private network and capture the data. We parsed through this data with Python within Visual Studio Code to detect suspicious traffic. Within the parsing, we implemented Twilio to send messages and warnings with the data collected to the user's phone with SMS messaging.

Challenges we ran into

During the implementation of our alerting system, we considered incorporating a texting-based interface to allow users to send commands such as network shutdown. However, due to time constraints and limited understanding, we were unable to fully develop this feature. As this was a complex project, we encountered a learning curve, which consumed much of our time as we worked to familiarize ourselves with the required resources and technologies.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are most of all proud of what we learned along the way. Given we are a team of two, it was hard for us to get a lot of the work down. However, we worked hard and learned quite a lot about internet traffic, packet data, Twilio, and more.

What we learned

Through this experience, we gained valuable knowledge and skills in packet parsing and SMS integration. We learned how to efficiently parse and analyze packets to identify potential security threats and how to seamlessly integrate Twilio's API to send real-time alerts to users' mobile devices. Additionally, we gained experience working with complex technologies and programming languages and developed a deeper understanding of network security and its importance in today's digital landscape.

What's next for Packet Pigeon

What we wish to accomplish next is taking on more types of cybersecurity threats and implementing them further with SMS-based notifications like Twilio. We would also like to automate the process further past what we were able to accomplish in the time constraint. (More pigeons!)