Show HN: A toy version of Wireshark (student project)

[lixiasky]

Hi everyone,

I recently published a small open-source project. It’s a minimal network packet analyzer written in Go — designed more like a learning toy than a replacement for Wireshark.

It currently supports parsing basic protocols like TLS, DNS, and HTTP, and includes a tiny fuzzing engine to test payload responses. You can inspect raw packet content directly from the terminal. The output is colored for readability, and the code structure is kept simple and clear.

The entire program is very small — just about 400 lines of Go code. I know it’s not anywhere near Wireshark’s level, and I still use Wireshark myself for real-world analysis. But I built it as a personal experiment in network parsing and to understand protocol behavior more directly.

If you're curious or would like to try it out, the project is here: https://github.com/lixiasky/vanta

I'm happy to hear your thoughts, suggestions, or critiques. It’s just a little network toy, but maybe someone out there finds it useful or fun.

Thanks for reading!

[Cockbrand]

This reads a bit like Linus' first annoucement, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Linux#:~:text=Hello... - godspeed to you, and let's see when you will take over :)

[lixiasky]

Thank you for this — I had read Linus' first post before and never imagined my tiny tool would be compared to something with that kind of legacy.

I'm just an undergrad student in China (not even CS major, unfortunately), and this little project was my way of saying thanks — to the schools that stood up bravely.

Really appreciate your kind words. Let’s see what comes next. :)

[dang]

I did a s/Vanta/you/ on this comment as part of trying to reduce the offtopic noise about the name. (More at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44161041 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44161144.)

I hope that's ok with you! The alternative would be to move it under https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44161021, but it's a really nice comment so I don't want to do that.

[Hikikomori]

Cool! I did something similar when I wanted to learn Go, but did my own parsers instead of using gopacket, I would recommend doing that yourself if you want to learn more low level stuff.

How I parsed IP for example:

  type Addr [4]uint8
  
  func (ip Addr) String() string {
   return fmt.Sprintf("%d.%d.%d.%d", ip[0], ip[1], ip[2], ip[3])
  }
  
  type Hdr struct {
   Version    uint8
   IHL        uint8
   DSCP       uint8
   ECN        uint8
   Length     uint16
   Id         uint16
   Flags      uint8
   Fragoffset uint16
   TTL        uint8
   Protocol   uint8
   Checksum   uint16
   Src        Addr
   Dst        Addr
  }
  
  func (hdr *Hdr) Parse(d []byte) error {
   hdr.Version = uint8(d[0] >> 4)
   hdr.IHL = uint8(d[0] & 0x0f)
   hdr.DSCP = uint8(d[1] >> 6)
   hdr.ECN = uint8(d[1] & 0x03)
   hdr.Length = uint16(binary.BigEndian.Uint16(d[2:4]))
   hdr.Id = uint16(binary.BigEndian.Uint16(d[4:6]))
   hdr.Flags = uint8(d[6] >> 5)
   hdr.Fragoffset = uint16(binary.BigEndian.Uint16(d[6:8])) & 0x1fff
   hdr.TTL = d[8]
   hdr.Protocol = d[9]
   hdr.Checksum = uint16(binary.BigEndian.Uint16(d[10:12]))
   hdr.Src = Addr{d[12], d[13], d[14], d[15]}
   hdr.Dst = Addr{d[16], d[17], d[18], d[19]}
  
   if hdr.IHL > 5 {
    fmt.Println("extra options detected") // TODO: support for extra options
   }
   return nil
  }

[lixiasky]

Thanks a lot for sharing this — it's super helpful!

Yeah, I’m currently using gopacket mainly to get something working fast, but I’ve been thinking about writing my own parsers from scratch to understand the protocols better.

Your Hdr example is really clean — definitely saving this as reference! I love how direct and readable it is.

I’ll definitely try going lower level when I revisit the packet layer logic. Thanks again for the nudge

[0xbadcafebee]

Seconding this. Implementing low level protocols from scratch is a great introduction to network programming (do the kids today ever do network programming, or is it all just 15 layers of libraries on top of HTTP?). Good to understand the underpinnings of the systems you work with, and how subtly complex things get down there.

[jasonthorsness]

Go is great for tools like this. I've built MITM protocol analyzers a few times. Being able to completely customize the handling, analysis, and break in in the debugger can make it more useful than a super-capable but general-purpose tool like Wireshark.

[lixiasky]

Thanks for sharing your experience! Go really does shine here—I felt that even as a student building Vanta while learning, things came together surprisingly well.

The features you mentioned sound awesome. I might give it a try later on—supporting stream breaks and debug controls sounds really fun

[worldsayshi]

Cool! I've sometimes gotten the impression that wireshark-lite is an unfulfilled niche so this is nice.

[lixiasky]

Thanks! I actually didn’t think that far ahead — I just wanted to build something within my ability, something that works and feels meaningful to me.

If it happens to fill a niche, that’s a lucky bonus

[dotaenjoyer322]

Cool! Will definitely take a look.

Curios what made you choose Go for this project? I am looking into building a toy version of Burp with either Rust/Go but still undecided.

[spacecadet]

Hey nice project! I have a similar project too, originated from collecting data via Wireshark and wanting to view it as a graph and do a little lite weight anomaly detection. It's also a learning project for me.

https://github.com/derekburgess/jaws

[lixiasky]

Whoa, that sounds really cool — I like the idea.

[leumassuehtam]

Genuine question: is this a wrapper around Google's gopacket?

[lixiasky]

Thanks for the question!

Yes, Vanta currently relies on gopacket for packet capture and parsing. As a student, my main goal was to build something clear, functional, and real — rather than reinvent everything from scratch.

I'm actively learning the details of network protocols, and I do plan to write some custom parsers later, both for flexibility and personal understanding. But at this stage, I think it’s more important to deliver a meaningful tool than to prove I can reimplement low-level stacks.

In the long run, I may gradually replace parts of gopacket, but right now it's an important and reliable foundation for the project.

(And honestly — finishing something real matters more to me than perfection )

[thegoodduck]

https://github.com/thegoodduck/netsour

[thenthenthen]

Screenshots please!

[colesantiago]

This looks nice, perhaps name your project babyshark?

[poisonborz]

Have to say it would be worth making this project just for the sake of this pun alone.

[Kuraj]

At the risk of sounding boring, but be careful not to sacrifice searchability for this

[Andugal]

Yes especially since Vanta is an already well known company.

[qmr]

Name it dootdoodoodootdoodo

[mrbluecoat]

or Fanta

[Bad_CRC]

na na na na na

[qwertytyyuu]

…

[op00to]

> This project is not just code — it's a response. Amid political pressure, some universities like Harvard, MIT, and CMU stood up for international students.

> I’m just an ordinary undergraduate with no resources or background. This is my way of responding — not by petition, but through code. Vanta may be small, but it’s real, and it’s mine.

This comes off as super ChatGPT-y to me. "X is not y — it's Z! Preamble, passionate statement. Sycophantic encouraging statement — list, of, a, few, things, but also this. Summarize statement, but this other thing, and saying the same thing again but in a slightly different way."

I've given up on ChatGPT because of this style of writing.

[lixiasky]

Totally fair! I really appreciate the honesty. English isn't my native language, and most of the expressions I know come from TED talks, open source READMEs, and honestly... the kind of news clips our teachers play in class

So yeah, that probably shaped the way I wrote this. You’re right though — reading it again, it does sound kinda overly polished.

I’ll try to keep future writing more personal and grounded. Still learning — and thanks for reading it at all. That already means a lot!

[singiamtel]

It's the em dash that does it for me

[moffkalast]

A small Wireshark? A... baby shark?

[rezmason]

A toy Wireshark. A Blåhaj!

[qmr]

Doot doo doo doot doo do

[dang]

[stub for offtopicness]

[chillpenguin]

Why are all of the comments about the name? The author literally said this is a toy project for educational purposes... There are thousands of projects on github. This isn't even the only other project named "vanta" on github (I just checked and there is an animation library for javascript called vanta). So, seriously, who cares?

If OP was an actual company, that would be different. But this is quite literally a toy project.

Anyway, congrats OP! Your project looks really cool.

[andygcook]

Congratulations on the launch! FYI there is a pretty well-known YC startup named Vanta that helps companies manage various security compliance certifications.

Obviously, there are often different services that share the same name, but given that Vanta isn't an actual word in the English language, I would think this might be confusing for people.

As a data point of one, I just assumed Vanta (the company) was doing a Show HN today and was confused at first glance.

[idorube]

just please don't say "Founder/CEO of Vanta here" :-D

[mushufasa]

Note there's a popular cybersecurity company called "Vanta" to which they own the trademark, so the name probably should be changed to avoid confusion.

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

usage: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lixiasky/vanta/main/usage

[BobbyTables2]

Now you’ll just have to figure out how to implement all of the vulnerabilities historically present in wireshark parsers! /s