Analyzing HTTP Packets With Python Scapy

An introduction to the Scapy library for analyzing PCAP files faster and creating advanced filters.

Francesco Pastore
7 min readJul 1, 2024

Network analysis is a fundamental activity at all levels of IT, from system administration to cyber security, and PCAP files are widely used for this type of task.

Conventional tools such as Wireshark or tcpdump can be complex and inefficient when dealing with large numbers of packets or multiple filters.

In this article, we will explore how the Python Scapy library can speed up the processing of PCAP files and enable the creation of automated scripts for traffic analysis.

Foto di Markus Spiske da Pexels

Scapy is a powerful interactive packet manipulation library written in Python. Scapy is able to forge or decode packets of a wide number of protocols, send them on the wire, capture them, match requests and replies, and much more.
- Official website

Installing Scapy

To use the last version of Scapy you will need at least Python 3.7+.

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Francesco Pastore

An engineering student in Milan and a web developer for an IT company. Write about programming and cybersecurity topics.