Provided by: p0f_3.09b-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       p0f - identify remote systems passively

SYNOPSIS

       p0f  p0f  [ -f file ] [ -i device ] [ -r file ] [ -o file ] [ -s socket ] [ -u user ] [ -S
       limit ] [ -t c,h ] [ -m c,h ] [ -pdL ] [ 'filter rule' ]

DESCRIPTION

       p0f uses a fingerprinting technique based on analyzing the structure of a TCP/IP packet to
       determine  the  operating  system and other configuration properties of a remote host. The
       process is completely passive and does not generate any suspicious  network  traffic.  The
       other host has to either:

       - connect to your network - either spontaneously or in an induced manner, for example when
       trying to establish a ftp data stream, returning a bounced mail, performing  auth  lookup,
       using IRC DCC, external html mail image reference and so on,

       -  or be contacted by some entity on your network using some standard means (such as a web
       browsing); it can either accept or refuse the connection.

       The method can see thru packet firewalls and does not have the restrictions of  an  active
       fingerprinting. The main uses of passive OS fingerprinting are attacker profiling (IDS and
       honeypots), visitor profiling  (content  optimization),  customer/user  profiling  (policy
       enforcement), pen-testing, etc.

OPTIONS

       -f file
              read  fingerprints  from  file;  by  default, p0f reads signatures from ./p0f.fp or
              /etc/p0f/p0f.fp (the latter on Unix systems only). You can use this to load  custom
              fingerprint data.  Specifying multiple -f values will NOT combine several signature
              files together.

       -i device
              listen on this device; p0f defaults to whatever device libpcap considers to be  the
              best  (and  which  often isn't). On some newer systems you might be able to specify
              'any' to listen on all devices, but don't rely  on  this.  Specifying  multiple  -i
              values will NOT cause p0f to listen on several interfaces at once.

       -r file
              read  packets  from  tcpdump  snapshot;  this is an alternate mode of operation, in
              which p0f reads packet from pcap data capture file,  instead  of  a  live  network.
              Useful for forensics (this will parse tcpdump -w output, for example).

              You  can  use  Ethereal's text2pcap to convert human-readable packet traces to pcap
              files, if needed.

       -o file
              write to this logfile. This option is required for -d and implies -t.

       -s socket
              listen on a specified  local  stream  socket  (a  filesystem  object,  for  example
              /var/run/p0f-sock)  for  queries.  One  can later send a packet to this socket with
              p0f_query structure from p0f-query.h, and wait for p0f_response. This is  a  method
              of  integrating p0f with active services (web server or web scripts, etc). P0f will
              still continue to  report  signatures  the  usual  way  -  but  you  can  use  -qKU
              combination to suppress this. Also see -c notes.

              A sample query tool (p0f-client) is provided in the tools/ subdirectory.

              NOTE:  The  socket  will  be created with permissions corresponding to your current
              umask. If you want to restrict access to this interface, use caution.

       -u user
              this option forces p0f to chroot  to  this  user's  home  directory  after  reading
              configuration  data  and  binding  to  sockets,  then to switch to his UID, GID and
              supplementary groups.

              This is a security feature for the paranoid - when running p0f in daemon mode,  you
              might  want  to  create  a  new unprivileged user with an empty home directory, and
              limit the exposure when p0f is compromised. That said,  should  such  a  compromise
              occur,  the  attacker will still have a socket he can use for sniffing some network
              traffic (better than rm -rf /).

       -p     switch card to promiscuous mode; by default, p0f listens only to packets  addressed
              or  routed  thru  the  machine it runs on. This setting might decrease performance,
              depending on your network design and load. On switched networks, this  usually  has
              little or no effect.

              Note  that  promiscuous mode on IP-enabled interfaces can be detected remotely, and
              is sometimes not welcome by network administrators.

       -d     go into daemon mode (detach  from  current  terminal  and  fork  into  background).
              Requires -o or -s.

       -L     lists  all  available interfaces, then quits. Particularly useful on Windows, where
              the system-generated interface names are impossible to memorize.

       -S limit
              Limit number of parallel API connections (default: 20)

       -t c,h Set connection / host cache age limits (default: 30s,120m)

       -m c,h Limit the number of active connections / hosts (default: 1000,10000)

FILTERS

       The last part, 'filter rule', is a bpf-style filter expression for incoming packets. It is
       very  useful  for  excluding or including certain networks, hosts, or specific packets, in
       the logfile. See man tcpdump for more information, few examples:

       ´src port ftp-data´

       ´not dst net 10.0.0.0 mask 255.0.0.0´

       ´dst port 80 and ( src host 195.117.3.59 or src host 217.8.32.51 )´

BUGS

       You need to consult the documentation for an up-to-date list of issues.

FILES

       /etc/p0f/p0f.fp
              default fingerprint database file

AUTHOR

       p0f was written by Michal Zalewski <lcamtuf@coredump.cx>.  This man  page  was  originally
       written  by  William  Stearns  <wstearns@pobox.com>,  then  adopted  for  p0f v2 by Michal
       Zalewski, and p0f v3 by Pierre Chifflier.

                                                                                           P0F(1)