HBase‑Based Packet Capture and Retrieval System for Large‑Scale Network Traffic
The article presents a method that leverages HBase to capture, store, index, and quickly retrieve massive network packets, using PF_RING and libpcap for high‑performance capture and providing APIs for time‑, IP‑, protocol‑, and port‑based packet backtracking.
In complex network environments, technicians often need to analyze protocol data to troubleshoot issues such as misconfigurations or malware infections. Capturing and storing raw packets enables detailed post‑mortem analysis, but traditional TCPDUMP‑based approaches struggle with terabyte‑scale traffic, fragmented files, and storage constraints.
To address these challenges, a packet back‑trace system built on HBase was developed. HBase, a distributed column‑oriented database, stores raw packets and supports rapid retrieval by timestamp, IP, port, and protocol. The capture process uses PF_RING together with libpcap to improve performance and reduce packet loss.
The system workflow includes:
High‑speed packet acquisition via PF_RING and libpcap.
Parsing packets and creating indexes (IP, protocol, ports, IP‑ID, fragment info) for HBase storage.
Generating packet descriptor headers containing size and type metadata.
Storing indexed descriptors and raw packet data in HBase.
HBase’s row‑key design is crucial for fast lookups; a row key is composed of hexadecimal fields: srcip-dstip-protocol-srcport-dstport-ipid-fragmentoffset . For example, 0a020a5a-0a20038d-6-e07e-50-3b01-0 represents source IP 10.2.10.90, destination IP 10.32.3.141, TCP protocol, source port 57470, destination port 80, and IP‑ID 15105.
Retrieval (back‑trace) operates by constructing row‑key ranges:
All packets from source IP 10.2.10.90: 0a020a5a-0-0-0-0-0-0 to 0a020a5a-ffffffff-fffff-fffff-fffff-fffff-ffffff .
Packets from source IP 10.2.10.90 to destination IP 10.32.3.141: 0a020a5a-0a20038d-0-0-0-0-0 to 0a020a5a-0a20038d-fffff-fffff-fffff-fffff-fffff .
Specific packet lookup by full row key: 0a020a5a-0a20038d-6-e07e-50-3b01-0 .
After locating the desired packets, the system reconstructs the original pcap files using stored length and type information, then bundles them for user download.
The complete source code is open‑sourced at https://github.com/zhuzhibo0/hbasepacket .
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