Networking (CNT3504)

Due: 2/8/15

Wireshark Lab: HTTP v6.1

Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand. Chinese proverb

Having gotten our feet wet with the Wireshark packet sniffer in the introductory lab, were
now ready to use Wireshark to investigate protocols in operation. In this lab, well explore
several aspects of the HTTP protocol: the basic GET/response interaction, HTTP message
formats, retrieving large HTML files, retrieving HTML files with embedded objects, and
HTTP authentication and security. Before beginning these labs, you might want to review
Section 2.2 of the text.
1.

The Basic HTTP GET/response interaction

Lets begin our exploration of HTTP by downloading a very simple HTML file -one that is
very short, and contains no embedded objects. Do the following:
1. Start up your web browser.
2. Start up the Wireshark packet sniffer, as described in the introductory lab (but dont
yet begin packet capture). Enter http (just the letters, not the quotation marks)
in the display-filter-specification window, so that only captured HTTP messages will
be displayed later in the packet-listing window. (Were only interested in the HTTP
protocol here, and dont want to see the clutter of all captured packets).
3. Wait a bit more than one minute (well see why shortly), and then begin Wireshark
packet capture.
4. Enter the following to your browser http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/wireshark-labs/HTTPwireshark-file1.html Your browser should display the very simple, one-line HTML
file.
5. Stop Wireshark packet capture.

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References to figures and sections are for the 6 edition of our text, Computer Networks, A
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Top-down Approach, 6 ed., J.F. Kurose and K.W. Ross, Addison-Wesley/Pearson, 2012.

Your Wireshark window should look similar to the window shown in Figure 1. If you are
unable to run Wireshark on a live network connection, you can download a packet trace
that was created when the steps above were followed.

Figure 1: Wireshark Display after http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/wireshark-labs/ HTTPwireshark-file1.html has been retrieved by your browser
The example in Figure 1 shows in the packet-listing window that two HTTP messages were
captured: the GET message (from your browser to the gaia.cs.umass.edu web server) and
the response message from the server to your browser. The packet-contents window
shows details of the selected message (in this case the HTTP OK message, which is
highlighted in the packet-listing window). Recall that since the HTTP message was carried
inside a TCP segment, which was carried inside an IP datagram, which was carried within
an Ethernet frame, Wireshark displays the Frame, Ethernet, IP, and TCP packet information
as well. We want to minimize the amount of non-HTTP data displayed (were interested in
HTTP here, and will be investigating these other protocols is later labs), so make sure the
boxes at the far left of the Frame, Ethernet, IP and TCP information have a plus sign or a
right-pointing triangle (which means there is hidden, undisplayed information), and the
HTTP line has a minus sign or a down-pointing triangle (which means that all information
about the HTTP message is displayed).
2

Download the zip file http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/wireshark-labs/wireshark-traces.zip and extract the

file http-ethereal-trace-1. The traces in this zip file were collected by Wireshark running on one of the
authors computers, while performing the steps indicated in the Wireshark lab. Once you have
downloaded the trace, you can load it into Wireshark and view the trace using the File pull down menu,
choosing Open, and then selecting the http-ethereal-trace-1 trace file. The resulting display should look
similar to Figure 1. (The Wireshark user interface displays just a bit differently on different operating
systems, and in different versions of Wireshark).

(Note: You should ignore any HTTP GET and response for favicon.ico. If you see a reference to this file, it
is your browser automatically asking the server if it (the server) has a small icon file that should be
displayed next to the displayed URL in your browser. Well ignore references to this pesky file in this
lab.).

By looking at the information in the HTTP GET and response messages, answer the
following questions. When answering the following questions, you should print out the
GET and response messages (see the introductory Wireshark lab for an explanation of how
to do this) and indicate where in the message youve found the information that answers
the following questions. When you hand in your assignment, annotate the output so that
its clear where in the output youre getting the information for your answer (e.g., for our
classes, we ask that students markup paper copies with a pen, or annotate electronic
copies with text in a colored font).

1. Is your browser running HTTP version 1.0 or 1.1? What version of HTTP is the
server running?
The browser and server are running HTTP 1.1.
2. What languages (if any) does your browser indicate that it can accept to the
server?
My browser indicates that it accepts en-us, en (English).
3. What is the IP address of your computer? Of the gaia.cs.umass.edu server?
My IP address is 192.168.1.102. The gaia.cs.umass.edu server IP address is
128.119.245.12.
4. What is the status code returned from the server to your browser?
The server returned a status code of 200 OK to my browser.

5. When was the HTML file that you are retrieving last modified at the server?
The file was last modified on Tue, 23 Sep 2003 05:29:00 GMT
6. How many bytes of content are being returned to your browser?
439 bytes of content are being returned to my browser.
7. By inspecting the raw data in the packet content window, do you see any headers
within the data that are not displayed in the packet-listing window? If so, name
one.
I do not see any headers that are not displayed.
In your answer to question 5 above, you might have been surprised to find that the
document you just retrieved was last modified within a minute before you downloaded the
document. Thats because (for this particular file), the gaia.cs.umass.edu server is setting
the files last-modified time to be the current time, and is doing so once per minute. Thus,
if you wait a minute between accesses, the file will appear to have been recently
modified, and hence your browser will download a new copy of the document.

2. The HTTP CONDITIONAL GET/response interaction

Recall from Section 2.2.6 of the text, that most web browsers perform object caching and
thus perform a conditional GET when retrieving an HTTP object. Before performing the
steps below, make sure your browsers cache is empty. (To do this under Firefox, select
Tools->Clear Recent History and check the Cache box, or for Internet Explorer, select
Tools->Internet Options->Delete File; these actions will remove cached files from your
browsers cache.) Now do the following:
Start up your web browser, and make sure your browsers cache is cleared, as
discussed above.
Start up the Wireshark packet sniffer
Enter the following URL into your browser
http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/wireshark-labs/HTTP-wireshark-file2.html
Your browser should display a very simple five-line HTML file.

Quickly enter the same URL into your browser again (or simply select the refresh
button on your browser)
Stop Wireshark packet capture, and enter http in the display-filter-specification
window, so that only captured HTTP messages will be displayed later in the packetlisting window.
(Note: If you are unable to run Wireshark on a live network connection, you can use the
http-ethereal-trace-2 packet trace to answer the questions below; see footnote 1. This
trace file was gathered while performing the steps above on one of the authors
computers.)

Answer the following questions:

8. Inspect the contents of the first HTTP GET request from your browser to the server.
Do you see an IF-MODIFIED-SINCE line in the HTTP GET?
No I do not see an IF-MODIFIED-SINCE line in the HTTP GET.
9. Inspect the contents of the server response. Did the server explicitly return the
contents of the file? How can you tell?
Yes, the server explicitly returned the contents of the file. I can tell by looking at the
Line-based text data bracket (pictured above) and the increased size of the packet
from 555 bytes to 739 bytes.
10. Now inspect the contents of the second HTTP GET request from your browser to the

server. Do you see an IF-MODIFIED-SINCE: line in the HTTP GET? If so, what
information follows the IF-MODIFIED-SINCE: header?
Yes, there is an IF-MODIFIED-SINCE line, and it is followed by an IF-NONE-MATCH
line as well as a CACHE-CONTROL line.
11. What is the HTTP status code and phrase returned from the server in response to
this second HTTP GET? Did the server explicitly return the contents of the file?
Explain.
The second HTTP status code returned was 304 Not Modified compared to the first
200 OK status code, because the page did not change after the page refresh.
There is no content being returned, which is why the second server response has a
smaller size than the first. The content is not returned again because, it is already
in the cache.

3. Retrieving Long Documents

In our examples thus far, the documents retrieved have been simple and short HTML files.
Lets next see what happens when we download a long HTML file. Do the following:
Start up your web browser, and make sure your browsers cache is cleared, as
discussed above.
Start up the Wireshark packet sniffer
Enter the following URL into your browser
http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/wireshark-labs/HTTP-wireshark-file3.html
Your browser should display the rather lengthy US Bill of Rights.
Stop Wireshark packet capture, and enter http in the display-filter-specification
window, so that only captured HTTP messages will be displayed.
(Note: If you are unable to run Wireshark on a live network connection, you can use the
http-ethereal-trace-3 packet trace to answer the questions below; see footnote 1. This
trace file was gathered while performing the steps above on one of the authors
computers.)

In the packet-listing window, you should see your HTTP GET message, followed by a
multiple-packet TCP response to your HTTP GET request. This multiple-packet
response deserves a bit of explanation. Recall from Section 2.2 (see Figure 2.9 in the
text) that the HTTP response message consists of a status line, followed by header
lines, followed by a blank line, followed by the entity body. In the case of our HTTP
GET, the entity body in the response is the entire requested HTML file. In our case here,
the HTML file is rather long, and at 4500 bytes is too large to fit in one TCP packet. The
single HTTP response message is thus broken into several pieces by TCP, with each piece
being contained within a separate TCP segment (see Figure 1.24 in the text). In recent
versions of Wireshark, Wireshark indicates each TCP segment as a separate packet, and
the fact that the single HTTP response was fragmented across multiple TCP packets is
indicated by the TCP segment of a reassembled PDU in the Info column of the Wireshark
display. Earlier versions of Wireshark used the Continuation phrase to indicate that the
entire content of an HTTP message was broken across multiple TCP segments. We stress
here that there is no Continuation message in HTTP!

Answer the following questions:

12. How many HTTP GET request messages did your browser send? Which packet
number in the trace contains the GET message for the Bill or Rights?
My browser sent one HTTP GET request message. Packet number 14 contains the
GET message for the Bill of Rights.
13. Which packet number in the trace contains the status code and phrase associated
with the response to the HTTP GET request?
Packet number 14 contains the status code and phrase associated with the
response to the HTTP GET request.
14. What is the status code and phrase in the response?

The status code and the phrase in the response is 200 OK.
15. How many data-containing TCP segments were needed to carry the single HTTP
response and the text of the Bill of Rights?
Five data-containing TCP segments were needed to carry the single HTTP response
and the text of the Bill of Rights.

4. HTML Documents with Embedded Objects

Now that weve seen how Wireshark displays the captured packet traffic for large HTML
files, we can look at what happens when your browser downloads a file with embedded
objects, i.e., a file that includes other objects (in the example below, image files) that are
stored on another server(s).
Do the following:
Start up your web browser, and make sure your browsers cache is cleared, as
discussed above.
Start up the Wireshark packet sniffer
Enter the following URL into your browser
http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/wireshark-labs/HTTP-wireshark-file4.html
Your browser should display a short HTML file with two images. These two images are
referenced in the base HTML file. That is, the images themselves are not contained in the
HTML; instead the URLs for the images are contained in the downloaded HTML file. As
discussed in the textbook, your browser will have to retrieve these logos from the
indicated web sites. Our publishers logo is retrieved from the www.aw-bc.com web site.
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The image of the cover for our 5 edition (one of our favorite covers) is stored at the
manic.cs.umass.edu server.
Stop Wireshark packet capture, and enter http in the display-filter-specification
window, so that only captured HTTP messages will be displayed.

(Note: If you are unable to run Wireshark on a live network connection, you can use the
http-ethereal-trace-4 packet trace to answer the questions below; see footnote 1. This
trace file was gathered while performing the steps above on one
of the authors computers.)

Answer the following questions:

16. How many HTTP GET request messages did your browser send? To which Internet
addresses were these GET requests sent?
My browser sent three HTTP GET request messages. The requests were sent (in the
following order) to: 128.119.245.12, 165.193.123.218, 134.241.6.82.
17. Can you tell whether your browser downloaded the two images serially, or whether
they were downloaded from the two web sites in parallel? Explain.
The browser downloaded the two images serially because, the first image was
requested and returned before the second image. If they were downloaded in
parallel, both files would have been requested and then returned at the same time.

5 HTTP Authentication
Finally, lets try visiting a web site that is password-protected and examine the sequence
of HTTP message exchanged for such a site. The URL http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/wiresharklabs/protected_pages/HTTP-wireshark-file5.html is password protected. The username is
wireshark-students (without the quotes), and the password is network (again, without
the quotes). So lets access this secure password-protected site. Do the following:

Make sure your browsers cache is cleared, as discussed above, and close down
your browser. Then, start up your browser
Start up the Wireshark packet sniffer
Enter the following URL into your browser
http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/wireshark-labs/protected_pages/HTTP-wiresharkfile5.
html
Type the requested user name and password into the pop up box.
Stop Wireshark packet capture, and enter http in the display-filter-specification
window, so that only captured HTTP messages will be displayed later in the
packet-listing window.
(Note: If you are unable to run Wireshark on a live network connection, you can
use the http-ethereal-trace-5 packet trace to answer the questions below; see
footnote 2. This trace file was gathered while performing the steps above on one
of the authors computers.)
Now lets examine the Wireshark output. You might want to first read up on HTTP
authentication by reviewing the easy-to-read material on HTTP Access Authentication
Framework at http://frontier.userland.com/stories/storyReader$2159

Answer the following questions:

18. What is the servers response (status code and phrase) in response to the initial
HTTP GET message from your browser?
The servers response to the initial HTTP GET message is 401 Authorization
Required.
19. When your browsers sends the HTTP GET message for the second time, what new
field is included in the HTTP GET message?
The new Authorization field is included when my browser sends the HTTP GET
message for the second time.

The username (wireshark-students) and password (network) that you entered are encoded
in the string of characters (d2lyZXNoYXJrLXN0dWRlbnRzOm5ldHdvcms=) following the
Authorization: Basic header in the clients HTTP GET message. While it may
appear that your username and password are encrypted, they are simply encoded in a
format known as Base64 format. The username and password are not encrypted! To see
this, go to http://www.motobit.com/util/base64-decoder-encoder.asp and enter the base64encoded string d2lyZXNoYXJrLXN0dWRlbnRz and decode. Voila! You have translated from
Base64 encoding to ASCII encoding, and thus should see your username! To view the
password, enter the remainder of the string Om5ldHdvcms= and press decode. Since
anyone can download a tool like Wireshark and sniff packets (not just their own) passing
by their network adaptor, and anyone can translate from Base64 to ASCII (you just did it!),
it should be clear to you that simple passwords on WWW sites are not secure unless
additional measures are taken.
Fear not! As we will see in Chapter 8, there are ways to make WWW access more secure.
However, well clearly need something that goes beyond the basic HTTP authentication
framework!