OpenPacket.org Initial Announcement

I would like to announce that I am working on a project called OpenPacket.org. The mission of OpenPacket.org is to provide quality network traffic traces to researchers, analysts, and other members of the digital security community. One of the most difficult problems facing researchers, analysts, and others is understanding traffic carried by networks. At present there is no central repository of traces from which a student of network traffic could draw samples. OpenPacket.org will provide one possible solution to this problem.

Analysts looking for network traffic of a particular type will visit OpenPacket.org, query the OpenPacket.org Database for matching traces, and download those packets in their original format (e.g., Libpcap, etc.). The analyst will be able to process and analyze that traffic using tools of their choice, like Tcpdump, Snort, Ethereal, and so on.

Analysts who collect their own traffic will be able to submit it to the OpenPacket.org database, assuming it is suitable for public review and meets guidelines to be announced later.

I am currently working with some friends and colleagues on this project. We hope to have OpenPacket.org up and running before the end of the year. At present the OpenPacket.org domain name is "parked," and soon it will simply forward to this blog entry. As we enter Alpha and then Beta status, more will be available through that domain name.