Monitoring Network Activity with Admin Rights

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Monitoring HTTP Requests and TCP Connections with Admin Rights

Assuming you’re working on a Linux/Unix-like system (e.g., Ubuntu, CentOS) with root/admin privileges, you can monitor network activity ethically for troubleshooting, security auditing, or pentesting. Important: Only do this on systems you own or have explicit permission for—unauthorized monitoring is illegal. I’ll focus on command-line tools, which are lightweight and don’t require GUI.

1. Monitor All TCP Connections

Use built-in tools like ss (modern replacement for netstat) or tcpdump for real-time capture. These show active connections, ports, and processes.

List all current TCP connections (static view):
```
sudo ss -tunap
```
- -t: TCP only.
- -u: UDP if needed (but you asked for TCP).
- -n: Numeric ports (no DNS resolution).
- -a: All states (established, listening, etc.).
- -p: Show owning processes. Output example:
```
tcp   ESTAB  0      0      192.168.1.10:80     10.0.0.5:54321    users:(("nginx",pid=1234,fd=5))
```
  For listening sockets only: sudo ss -tlnp.
Real-time monitoring with watch:
```
watch -n 1 'sudo ss -tunap'
```
Refreshes every second.
Capture live TCP traffic (packet-level): Install tcpdump if not present: sudo apt update && sudo apt install tcpdump (Debian/Ubuntu) or sudo yum install tcpdump (RHEL/CentOS).
```
sudo tcpdump -i any tcp -n -v
```
- -i any: All interfaces.
- -n: No name resolution.
- -v: Verbose. Add port 80 or port 443 to filter HTTP/HTTPS: sudo tcpdump -i any tcp port 80 or tcp port 443 -n -v -A (-A for ASCII payload, to see HTTP headers).
Save to file for later analysis: sudo tcpdump -i any tcp -w capture.pcap.

2. Monitor HTTP Request Logs

HTTP logs depend on your web server (Apache, Nginx, etc.). If no web server is running, use network capture (above) to inspect HTTP traffic. For server-specific logs:

Apache (httpd): Logs are typically in /var/log/apache2/access.log (Ubuntu) or /var/log/httpd/access_log (CentOS).
```
sudo tail -f /var/log/apache2/access.log
```
- Shows requests in real-time: IP, timestamp, method (GET/POST), URL, status code. Example line: 192.168.1.100 - - [08/Oct/2025:10:00:00 +0000] "GET /index.html HTTP/1.1" 200 1234.
For all logs: sudo grep "GET\|POST" /var/log/apache2/access.log | less.
Nginx: Logs in /var/log/nginx/access.log.
```
sudo tail -f /var/log/nginx/access.log
```
Similar format to Apache.
If no web server (general HTTP sniffing): Use tcpdump as above with -A to dump HTTP payloads, or install ngrep for regex matching:
```
sudo apt install ngrep  # Install if needed
sudo ngrep -d any 'GET|POST|HTTP' -O http_capture.pcap
```
This filters and logs HTTP methods.
Advanced: Set up a transparent proxy for full logging. Install Squid proxy: sudo apt install squid. Configure /etc/squid/squid.conf to log all HTTP (add access_log /var/log/squid/access.log squid). Redirect traffic via iptables: sudo iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3128. Then tail the Squid log: sudo tail -f /var/log/squid/access.log.

Tips for “Hacking” (Ethical Pentesting)

Combine tools: Pipe tcpdump to grep for specific patterns, e.g., sudo tcpdump -i any tcp port 80 -A | grep "User-Agent".
Visualize with Wireshark: For GUI analysis, install Wireshark (sudo apt install wireshark), run as root, and open your .pcap file.
Security hardening: After monitoring, clear logs if sensitive: sudo truncate -s 0 /var/log/access.log.
Cross-platform note: On Windows (with admin), use netstat -anob for TCP and Event Viewer for logs. On macOS, netstat -an and tcpdump.

This setup gives you comprehensive visibility without external tools. Test in a VM first.

Linux ss Command Man Page
Tcpdump Tutorial
Apache Access Log Format

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