Pickle Network Debugger (PKN)

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Please note that PRs and Issues on GitHub will be rejected, and they should be made at https://git.meowcat.site/meowcat/PickleNetworkDebugger

A real-time network traffic visualization tool written in Kotlin using JavaFX and Pcap4J.

Features

• Live Packet Capture: Captures IPv4 traffic on your local network interface.
• Network Discovery: Automatically scans the local network to find active devices, even if they aren't currently sending traffic.
• Interactive Visualization:
  • Grid Layout: Devices are arranged in a clean, responsive grid.
  • Flow Arrows: Directional arrows show packet movement between devices.
  • Line Weight: The thickness of arrows represents the volume of traffic (weight).
  • Traffic Labels: Arrows are labeled with the destination hostname/IP for easy identification.
• Device Identification:
  • Resolves hostnames using mDNS (avahi-resolve-address, avahi-browse) and standard DNS lookups.
  • Displays friendly names (e.g., steamdeck) instead of raw IP addresses when possible.
• Controls:
  • Search/Filter: Filter visible devices by name or IP address.
  • Toggle Arrows: Show or hide traffic flow arrows to reduce clutter.
  • Panning & Zooming: Navigate the network map using the mouse (drag to pan, scroll to zoom) or arrow keys.
• LAN Only: Intelligently filters out external traffic and virtual interfaces (Docker, VPNs, etc.) to focus on your physical local network.
• Ability to see Internet traffic:
  • PKN can also see traffic to the internet.

Prerequisites

• Java 25 (or compatible version as specified in pom.xml).
• libpcap: Required for packet capture (e.g., sudo apt install libpcap-dev on Linux).
• Network Capabilities: On Linux, the Java executable needs permission to capture raw packets. You can use the provided script:

  chmod +x set_capabilities.sh
  sudo ./set_capabilities.sh

• Avahi (Optional): For improved device name resolution on Linux.

How to Run

1. Compile the project:

   ./mvnw compile

2. Run the application:

   ./mvnw exec:java -Dexec.mainClass="site.meowcat.pkn.LauncherKt"

Navigation

• Mouse:
  • Left Click & Drag: Pan the view.
  • Scroll Wheel: Zoom in and out.
• Keyboard:
  • Arrow Keys: Pan the view.

Releases

Releases can be found on the GitHub Releases page.