How Do I Use Raw Socket in Python?

Question

I am writing an application to test a network driver for handling corrupted data. And I thought of sending this data using raw socket, so it will not be corrected by the sending machine's TCP-IP stack.

I am writing this application solely on Linux. I have code examples of using raw sockets in system-calls, but I would really like to keep my test as dynamic as possible, and write most if not all of it in Python.

I have googled the web a bit for explanations and examples of the usage of raw sockets in python, but haven't found anything really enlightening. Just a a very old code example that demonstrates the idea, but in no means work.

From what I gathered, Raw Socket usage in Python is nearly identical in semantics to UNIX's raw socket, but without the structs that define the packets structure.

I was wondering if it would even be better not to write the raw socket part of the test in Python, but in C with system-calls, and call it from the main Python code?

Answer 1

You do it like this:

First you disable your network card's automatic checksumming:

sudo ethtool -K eth1 tx off

And then send your dodgy frame from python 2 (You'll have to convert to Python 3 yourself):

#!/usr/bin/env python
from socket import socket, AF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW
s = socket(AF_PACKET, SOCK_RAW)
s.bind(("eth1", 0))

# We're putting together an ethernet frame here, 
# but you could have anything you want instead
# Have a look at the 'struct' module for more 
# flexible packing/unpacking of binary data
# and 'binascii' for 32 bit CRC
src_addr = "\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06"
dst_addr = "\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06"
payload = ("["*30)+"PAYLOAD"+("]"*30)
checksum = "\x1a\x2b\x3c\x4d"
ethertype = "\x08\x01"

s.send(dst_addr+src_addr+ethertype+payload+checksum)

Done.