What is this unusual text being used with loadstring() in Lua? - lua

I have some Lua code which appears to be an attempt to secure the code by obscurity. My understanding of the loadstring() function is a text string is composed of Lua source code text and then converted to executable Lua code by the loadstring() method.
With the following Lua source, I tried to read the contents of the variable code by invoking print on the variable code; while I did see some valid source text in the converted string, a majority of the characters were not displayed (I assume ones with character codes below 40 and above 176). Note that there are some particularly high values in there for ASCII, e.g. 231 is obviously in the extended set, being the trademark sign. Additionally, there are several null characters in there. All this makes me doubt if it is indeed ASCII.
Could someone please tell me if the string is valid Lua source, and how to be able to get Lua to return the string as printable characters so that I can see what this code does?
When I run my version with print in the Lua console on Windows I get many empty boxes, presumably the console can only print pure ASCII?
Note that the code is executed using Lua version 5.0.2
code='\27\76\117\97\80\1\4\4\4\6\8\9\9\8\182\9\147\104\231\245\125\65\12\0\0\0\64\108\117\97\101\109\103\46\108\117\97\0\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\5\23\0\0\0\8\0\0\0\16\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\18\0\0\0\18\0\0\0\19\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\21\0\0\0\35\0\0\0\35\0\0\0\26\0\0\0\49\0\0\0\49\0\0\0\37\0\0\0\59\0\0\0\59\0\0\0\54\0\0\0\61\0\0\0\66\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\104\52\120\0\1\0\0\0\22\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\77\111\100\117\108\101\0\12\0\0\0\22\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\12\0\0\0\4\13\0\0\0\122\122\97\78\111\100\101\78\97\109\101\115\0\4\6\0\0\0\90\90\65\48\49\0\4\6\0\0\0\90\90\65\48\50\0\4\14\0\0\0\122\122\97\84\101\120\116\90\101\105\108\101\110\0\4\12\0\0\0\122\122\97\80\111\115\105\116\105\111\110\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\240\63\4\8\0\0\0\122\122\97\84\101\120\116\0\4\1\0\0\0\0\4\20\0\0\0\122\122\97\67\117\114\114\101\110\116\84\101\120\116\86\97\108\117\101\0\4\9\0\0\0\122\122\97\83\101\116\117\112\0\4\10\0\0\0\122\122\97\83\101\108\101\99\116\0\4\9\0\0\0\122\122\97\82\101\115\101\116\0\4\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\0\1\0\7\14\0\0\0\3\0\0\0\3\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\8\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\115\116\114\116\98\108\0\0\0\0\0\13\0\0\0\16\0\0\0\40\102\111\114\32\103\101\110\101\114\97\116\111\114\41\0\5\0\0\0\11\0\0\0\12\0\0\0\40\102\111\114\32\115\116\97\116\101\41\0\5\0\0\0\11\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\118\0\5\0\0\0\11\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\4\7\0\0\0\98\117\102\102\101\114\0\4\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\14\0\0\0\65\0\0\1\7\0\0\1\0\0\0\1\3\128\1\2\222\0\128\1\5\0\0\4\198\0\0\5\83\1\2\4\7\0\0\4\29\0\0\1\84\254\127\0\5\0\0\1\27\0\1\1\27\128\0\0\0\0\0\0\26\0\0\0\1\1\0\4\18\0\0\0\27\0\0\0\28\0\0\0\28\0\0\0\29\0\0\0\29\0\0\0\30\0\0\0\32\0\0\0\32\0\0\0\32\0\0\0\32\0\0\0\32\0\0\0\33\0\0\0\33\0\0\0\33\0\0\0\33\0\0\0\33\0\0\0\27\0\0\0\35\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\8\0\0\0\122\122\97\70\105\108\101\0\0\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\6\0\0\0\122\101\105\108\101\0\3\0\0\0\16\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\77\111\100\117\108\101\0\5\0\0\0\4\5\0\0\0\114\101\97\100\0\0\4\14\0\0\0\122\122\97\84\101\120\116\90\101\105\108\101\110\0\4\12\0\0\0\122\122\97\80\111\115\105\116\105\111\110\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\240\63\0\0\0\0\18\0\0\0\148\3\128\0\139\62\0\1\153\0\1\1\85\128\125\0\20\0\128\0\148\2\128\0\4\0\0\2\6\63\1\2\4\0\0\3\70\191\1\3\73\128\1\2\4\0\0\2\4\0\0\3\70\191\1\3\140\191\1\3\201\128\126\2\212\251\127\0\27\128\0\0\0\0\0\0\37\0\0\0\1\2\0\7\21\0\0\0\39\0\0\0\39\0\0\0\39\0\0\0\39\0\0\0\39\0\0\0\40\0\0\0\40\0\0\0\40\0\0\0\40\0\0\0\43\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\49\0\0\0\3\0\0\0\6\0\0\0\118\97\108\117\101\0\0\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\9\0\0\0\110\111\100\101\78\97\109\101\0\0\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\122\122\97\83\101\108\101\99\116\101\100\80\111\115\105\116\105\111\110\0\10\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\77\111\100\117\108\101\0\7\0\0\0\4\8\0\0\0\122\122\97\84\101\120\116\0\4\14\0\0\0\122\122\97\84\101\120\116\90\101\105\108\101\110\0\4\20\0\0\0\122\122\97\67\117\114\114\101\110\116\84\101\120\116\86\97\108\117\101\0\4\5\0\0\0\67\97\108\108\0\4\5\0\0\0\90\90\65\48\0\4\14\0\0\0\58\65\99\116\105\118\97\116\101\78\111\100\101\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\240\63\0\0\0\0\21\0\0\0\4\0\0\2\4\0\0\3\198\190\1\3\6\128\1\3\201\0\125\2\4\0\0\2\4\0\0\3\134\190\1\3\201\0\126\2\0\0\0\2\197\0\0\3\1\1\0\4\0\128\0\5\65\1\0\6\147\1\2\4\1\1\0\5\0\0\1\6\147\129\2\5\129\1\0\6\89\0\2\3\27\128\0\0\0\0\0\0\54\0\0\0\1\0\0\4\19\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\59\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\77\111\100\117\108\101\0\7\0\0\0\4\5\0\0\0\67\97\108\108\0\4\13\0\0\0\122\122\97\78\111\100\101\78\97\109\101\115\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\240\63\4\14\0\0\0\58\65\99\116\105\118\97\116\101\78\111\100\101\0\4\4\0\0\0\97\108\108\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\64\0\0\0\0\19\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\4\0\0\1\198\190\0\1\6\191\0\1\193\0\0\2\147\128\0\1\1\1\0\2\65\1\0\3\89\0\2\0\5\0\0\0\4\0\0\1\198\190\0\1\6\192\0\1\193\0\0\2\147\128\0\1\1\1\0\2\65\1\0\3\89\0\2\0\27\128\0\0\23\0\0\0\34\0\0\0\202\0\0\1\10\0\1\2\65\0\0\3\129\0\0\4\95\0\0\2\137\0\125\1\10\0\0\2\137\128\126\1\201\63\127\1\73\64\128\1\73\64\129\1\98\0\0\2\0\128\0\0\137\128\129\1\162\0\0\2\0\128\0\0\137\0\130\1\226\0\0\2\0\128\0\0\137\128\130\1\27\0\1\1\27\128\0\0';
return loadstring(code)();

This string is valid chunk of Lua code precompiled into bytecode. Header say it's for Lua 5.0. It's not a text, it doesn't need decoding, so can be run directly with loadstring()

To provide a few more details than Vlad's answer for anyone who may come across this posting.
The Lua loadstring() function accepts a string of characters that are either Lua source text or Lua bytecode. It appears that the function determines type of the text by looking at the first character of the string to see if it is an escape character (0x1b or decimal 27) or not.
The loadstring() function returns an anonymous function so in the code sample:
code='\27\76\117\97\80\1\4\4\4\6\8\9\9\8\182\9\147\104\231\245\125\65\12\0\0\0\64\108\117\97\101\109\103\46\108\117\97\0\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\5\23\0\0\0\8\0\0\0\16\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\18\0\0\0\18\0\0\0\19\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\21\0\0\0\35\0\0\0\35\0\0\0\26\0\0\0\49\0\0\0\49\0\0\0\37\0\0\0\59\0\0\0\59\0\0\0\54\0\0\0\61\0\0\0\66\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\104\52\120\0\1\0\0\0\22\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\77\111\100\117\108\101\0\12\0\0\0\22\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\12\0\0\0\4\13\0\0\0\122\122\97\78\111\100\101\78\97\109\101\115\0\4\6\0\0\0\90\90\65\48\49\0\4\6\0\0\0\90\90\65\48\50\0\4\14\0\0\0\122\122\97\84\101\120\116\90\101\105\108\101\110\0\4\12\0\0\0\122\122\97\80\111\115\105\116\105\111\110\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\240\63\4\8\0\0\0\122\122\97\84\101\120\116\0\4\1\0\0\0\0\4\20\0\0\0\122\122\97\67\117\114\114\101\110\116\84\101\120\116\86\97\108\117\101\0\4\9\0\0\0\122\122\97\83\101\116\117\112\0\4\10\0\0\0\122\122\97\83\101\108\101\99\116\0\4\9\0\0\0\122\122\97\82\101\115\101\116\0\4\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\0\1\0\7\14\0\0\0\3\0\0\0\3\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\8\0\0\0\4\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\115\116\114\116\98\108\0\0\0\0\0\13\0\0\0\16\0\0\0\40\102\111\114\32\103\101\110\101\114\97\116\111\114\41\0\5\0\0\0\11\0\0\0\12\0\0\0\40\102\111\114\32\115\116\97\116\101\41\0\5\0\0\0\11\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\118\0\5\0\0\0\11\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\4\7\0\0\0\98\117\102\102\101\114\0\4\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\14\0\0\0\65\0\0\1\7\0\0\1\0\0\0\1\3\128\1\2\222\0\128\1\5\0\0\4\198\0\0\5\83\1\2\4\7\0\0\4\29\0\0\1\84\254\127\0\5\0\0\1\27\0\1\1\27\128\0\0\0\0\0\0\26\0\0\0\1\1\0\4\18\0\0\0\27\0\0\0\28\0\0\0\28\0\0\0\29\0\0\0\29\0\0\0\30\0\0\0\32\0\0\0\32\0\0\0\32\0\0\0\32\0\0\0\32\0\0\0\33\0\0\0\33\0\0\0\33\0\0\0\33\0\0\0\33\0\0\0\27\0\0\0\35\0\0\0\2\0\0\0\8\0\0\0\122\122\97\70\105\108\101\0\0\0\0\0\17\0\0\0\6\0\0\0\122\101\105\108\101\0\3\0\0\0\16\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\77\111\100\117\108\101\0\5\0\0\0\4\5\0\0\0\114\101\97\100\0\0\4\14\0\0\0\122\122\97\84\101\120\116\90\101\105\108\101\110\0\4\12\0\0\0\122\122\97\80\111\115\105\116\105\111\110\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\240\63\0\0\0\0\18\0\0\0\148\3\128\0\139\62\0\1\153\0\1\1\85\128\125\0\20\0\128\0\148\2\128\0\4\0\0\2\6\63\1\2\4\0\0\3\70\191\1\3\73\128\1\2\4\0\0\2\4\0\0\3\70\191\1\3\140\191\1\3\201\128\126\2\212\251\127\0\27\128\0\0\0\0\0\0\37\0\0\0\1\2\0\7\21\0\0\0\39\0\0\0\39\0\0\0\39\0\0\0\39\0\0\0\39\0\0\0\40\0\0\0\40\0\0\0\40\0\0\0\40\0\0\0\43\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\46\0\0\0\49\0\0\0\3\0\0\0\6\0\0\0\118\97\108\117\101\0\0\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\9\0\0\0\110\111\100\101\78\97\109\101\0\0\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\122\122\97\83\101\108\101\99\116\101\100\80\111\115\105\116\105\111\110\0\10\0\0\0\20\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\77\111\100\117\108\101\0\7\0\0\0\4\8\0\0\0\122\122\97\84\101\120\116\0\4\14\0\0\0\122\122\97\84\101\120\116\90\101\105\108\101\110\0\4\20\0\0\0\122\122\97\67\117\114\114\101\110\116\84\101\120\116\86\97\108\117\101\0\4\5\0\0\0\67\97\108\108\0\4\5\0\0\0\90\90\65\48\0\4\14\0\0\0\58\65\99\116\105\118\97\116\101\78\111\100\101\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\240\63\0\0\0\0\21\0\0\0\4\0\0\2\4\0\0\3\198\190\1\3\6\128\1\3\201\0\125\2\4\0\0\2\4\0\0\3\134\190\1\3\201\0\126\2\0\0\0\2\197\0\0\3\1\1\0\4\0\128\0\5\65\1\0\6\147\1\2\4\1\1\0\5\0\0\1\6\147\129\2\5\129\1\0\6\89\0\2\3\27\128\0\0\0\0\0\0\54\0\0\0\1\0\0\4\19\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\56\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\57\0\0\0\59\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\1\0\0\0\7\0\0\0\77\111\100\117\108\101\0\7\0\0\0\4\5\0\0\0\67\97\108\108\0\4\13\0\0\0\122\122\97\78\111\100\101\78\97\109\101\115\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\240\63\4\14\0\0\0\58\65\99\116\105\118\97\116\101\78\111\100\101\0\4\4\0\0\0\97\108\108\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\64\0\0\0\0\19\0\0\0\5\0\0\0\4\0\0\1\198\190\0\1\6\191\0\1\193\0\0\2\147\128\0\1\1\1\0\2\65\1\0\3\89\0\2\0\5\0\0\0\4\0\0\1\198\190\0\1\6\192\0\1\193\0\0\2\147\128\0\1\1\1\0\2\65\1\0\3\89\0\2\0\27\128\0\0\23\0\0\0\34\0\0\0\202\0\0\1\10\0\1\2\65\0\0\3\129\0\0\4\95\0\0\2\137\0\125\1\10\0\0\2\137\128\126\1\201\63\127\1\73\64\128\1\73\64\129\1\98\0\0\2\0\128\0\0\137\128\129\1\162\0\0\2\0\128\0\0\137\0\130\1\226\0\0\2\0\128\0\0\137\128\130\1\27\0\1\1\27\128\0\0';
return loadstring(code)();
you have a text string that contains Lua bytecode, as indicated by the leading escape character of \27, and then a call to loadstring() to create a function which is then executed.
The first few characters of the text string contain the precompiled Lua header (see Lua 5.2 Bytecode and Virtual Machine). The length of this header varies depending on the version of Lua. However the first few characters seem to be fairly standard. code='\27\76\117\97\80 ... contains the escape character (0x1b or decimal 27), the capital letter L (decimal 76), the lower case letter u (decimal 117), the lower case letter a (decimal 97), and the Lua version (decimal 80 is 0x50 indicating version 5.0).
The following example is from Lua 5.2 Bytecode and Virtual Machine.
What exactly is in the bytecode? Here is the hexdump of hello.luac
(made by hd on my system).
00000000 1b 4c 75 61 52 00 01 04 04 04 08 00 19 93 0d 0a |.LuaR...........|
00000010 1a 0a 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 04 07 00 00 |................|
00000020 00 01 00 00 00 46 40 40 00 80 00 00 00 c1 80 00 |.....F##........|
00000030 00 96 c0 00 01 5d 40 00 01 1f 00 80 00 03 00 00 |.....]#.........|
00000040 00 04 06 00 00 00 48 65 6c 6c 6f 00 04 06 00 00 |......Hello.....|
The format is not officially documented, and needs to be
reverse-engineered. The necessary material is in the Lua source code,
of course, in several places, mainly ldump.c and lundump.c. I have
also cross-checked with NFI and LAT, but any remaining errors are
mine.
The code starts with an 18-byte file header, which is the same for all
official Lua 5.2 bytecode compiled on a machine like yours, whether by
luac or load or loadfile. Lua 5.1 only had a 12-byte header, similar
to the first 12 bytes of this one.
Byte numbers are in origin-1 decimal (mostly showing the arithmetic)
and origin-0 hex.
1 x00: 1b 4c 75 61 LUA_SIGNATURE from lua.h.
5 x04: 52 00
Binary-coded decimal 52 for the Lua version, 00 to say the bytecode is
compatible with the "official" PUC-Rio implementation.
5+2 x06: 01 04
04 04 08 00 Six system parameters. On x386 machines they mean:
little-endian, 4-byte integers, 4-byte VM instructions, 4-byte size_t
numbers, 8-byte Lua numbers, floating-point. These parameters must all
match up between the bytecode file and the Lua interpreter, otherwise
the bytecode is invalid.
7+6 x0c: 19 93 0d 0a 1a 0a
Present in all
bytecode produced by Lua 5.2 from PUC-Rio. Described in lundump.h as
"data to catch conversion errors". Might be constructed from
binary-coded decimal 1993 (the year it all started), Windows line
terminator, MS-DOS text file terminator, Unix line terminator.
After these 18 bytes come the functions defined in the file. Each function
starts with an 11-byte function header.
13+6 x12: 00 00 00 00 Line number in source code where chunk starts.
0 for the main chunk.
19+4 x16: 00 00 00 00 Line number in source
code where chunk stops. 0 for the main chunk.
23+4 x1a: 00 01 04
Number of parameters, vararg flag, number of registers used by this
function (not more than 255, obviously). Local variables are stored in
registers; there may not be more than 200 of them (see lparser.c).

Related

Do all character sets have ASCII in common?

The reason I ask is that there's a "standard" for affix files that says to read the first line of a file, and it will tell you how the file is encoded:
The first line specifies the character set used for both the
wordlist and the affix file (should be all uppercase).
For example:
SET ISO8859-1
That strikes me as being both unreasonable and unreliable, unless all character sets have the 7-bit ASCII range in common, which would allow you to "taste" up to the first newline byte(s): 0xA or 0xD.
But I have no idea if the ASCII range is common to all character sets or not.
No. EBCDIC is non-ASCII based, and is still used in IBM mainframe-based software environments with extreme backwards-compatibility requirements.
More popular are UTF-16 and UTF-32, which although ASCII-based, are backwards-incompatible due to all the extra 00 bytes.
Still, there are only a few ways to encode the Basic Latin alphabet. (What distinguishes most of the hundreds of character encodings that exist are their handling of accented and non-Latin letters.) So, the program that reads these files only needs to handle a few possible ways of encoding the word SET:
53 45 54 for ASCII-based encodings (Windows-1252, UTF-8, etc.)
E2 C5 E3 for EBCDIC-based encodings (if these are considered worth supporting at all)
00 53 00 45 00 54 for UTF-16BE
53 00 45 00 54 00 for UTF-16LE
00 00 00 53 00 00 00 45 00 00 00 54 for UTF-32BE
53 00 00 00 45 00 00 00 54 00 00 00 for UTF-32LE
The decoder could simply look for them all.

How to add filter to field in Wireshark

I'm trying to add a filter to a field in Wireshak.
My dissector name is: "basic".
it has 3 fields - field1, field2, field3.
each field can have a value of string.
I want that on Wireshark i'll be able to filter by a particular field, for example: basic.field1. (just the same as you look for tcp.len)
How can i do this?
You must declare the fields, assign them to your protocol and add them to the tree when appropriate. There are currently 2 different types of strings supported by Lua, those of type ftypes.STRING, which is used for strings of a known, fixed length, and type ftypes.STRINGZ, which is a NULL (zero)-terminated string, so how you declare the fields will depend upon which of the 2 types they are.
Unfortunately, despite the documentation listing ftypes.UINT_STRING as a supported type, it isn't as can be seen in the source code for wslua_proto_field.c. This type of string is applicable when a length field precedes the string to indicate the length of the string in bytes. In any case, it isn't currently available for Lua-based dissectors.
So, as an example, let's suppose your protocol uses UDP/33333 as its transport and port number, and its 3 fields consist of each of the 3 types of strings described above, namely:
field1: a fixed-length string of 12 bytes.
field2: a NULL-terminated string of arbitrary length.
field3: a counted string preceded by a 2 byte length field in big-endian (network) byte order.
Given these assumptions, the following will dissect the packets:
-- Protocol
local p_basic = Proto("basic", "Basic Protocol")
-- Fields
local f_basic_field1 = ProtoField.string("basic.field1", "Field1")
local f_basic_field2 = ProtoField.stringz("basic.field2", "Field2")
local f_basic_field3 = ProtoField.string("basic.field3", "Field3")
p_basic.fields = { f_basic_field1, f_basic_field2, f_basic_field3 }
-- Dissection
function p_basic.dissector(buf, pinfo, tree)
local basic_tree = tree:add(p_basic, buf(0,-1))
pinfo.cols.protocol:set("BASIC")
basic_tree:add(f_basic_field1, buf(0, 12))
local strz = buf(12):stringz()
local field2_len = string.len(strz) + 1
basic_tree:add(f_basic_field2, buf(12, field2_len))
local field3_len = buf:range(12 + field2_len, 2):uint()
basic_tree:add(f_basic_field3, buf(12 + field2_len + 2, field3_len))
end
-- Registration
local udp_table = DissectorTable.get("udp.port")
udp_table:add(33333, p_basic)
If you want to test this, first save the above lua code to a file such as basic.lua in your personal plugins directory (Found via Help -> About Wireshark -> Folders -> Personal Plugins). You can then use the following hex bytes to test it:
0000 00 0e b6 00 00 02 00 0e b6 00 00 01 08 00 45 00
0010 00 37 00 00 40 00 40 11 b5 ea c0 00 02 65 c0 00
0020 02 66 82 35 82 35 00 23 22 32 48 65 6c 6c 6f 20
0030 77 6f 72 6c 64 21 48 69 20 74 68 65 72 65 00 00
0040 04 42 79 65 21
Save these bytes into a text file, e.g., basic.txt. Start Wireshark and import the file via File -> Import from Hex Dump... -> Filename:basic.txt -> OK. You should see the 3 fields dissected as part of the "Basic Protocol".
For further help with Lua dissectors, you might want to refer to one or more of the following:
Wireshark Lua (wiki page)
Wireshark Lua Examples (wiki page)
Wireshark Lua Dissectors (wiki page)
Wireshark Contributed scripts, macros, colouring rules and plugins (wiki page)
Chapter 10. Lua Support in Wireshark (Wireshark Developer's Guide)
https://www.wireshark.org/docs/wsdg_html_chunked/wsluarm_modules.html (Wireshark Developer's Guide)
Wireshark Lua API Reference Manual Addendum (wiki page)
Lua Directory
Sharkfest '15 presentation and accompanying YouTube video, by Graham Bloice

how do we encode each byte as two hexadecimal characters in ruby?

I have a hexadecimal number as
hexMidAppId = '0001000000000002'
In node.js, we have a library new Buffer(hexMidAppId, 'hex') which gives me the output as
<Buffer 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 02>
now the same output i want to get it in ruby but i couldn't find any equivalent method in ruby for the Buffer method. Can anyone help me this?
In ruby you can use the String#unpack and Array#pack for these - and many other - transformations.
To change the hex string into the actual bytes, you can put it inside an Array and use Array#pack like so:
['0001000000000002'].pack 'H*'
# => this will give: "\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02"
What you get is a string with the actual bytes. You can convert this into a byte array using:
data = ['0001000000000002'].pack 'H*'
# => this will give: "\x00\x01\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02"
data.bytes # => [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2]
P.S.
The Buffer class in Javascript is used since pure Javascript isn't binary friendly.
Pure JavaScript is Unicode friendly but not nice to binary data. When dealing with TCP streams or the file system, it's necessary to handle octet streams. Node has several strategies for manipulating, creating, and consuming octet streams.
Raw data is stored in instances of the Buffer class. A Buffer is similar to an array of integers but corresponds to a raw memory allocation outside the V8 heap. A Buffer cannot be resized.
In Ruby, it's possible to use either the String class or an Array to store binary data, so you will not find a designated "Buffer" class.
In Example:
"\x00\x01\x02" # => A string with 3 bytes, using Hex notation (00, 01, 02)
"\x00\x01\x02".bytes # => [1,2,3] An array with 3 bytes.
[1,2,3].pack('C*') # => "\x00\x01\x02" Back to the string
you can also use pack for integers (16bit), longs (32bit) doubles (64bit) and other data types:
[1024, 2].pack('i*') # => "\x00\x04\x00\x00\x02\x00\x00\x00"
You actually have String and you want to output it with spaces between each two sequential characters. So, you can do scan & join
hexMidAppId.scan(/.{2}/).join(' ')
I have a logic in node.js which i am trying in ruby but couldnt find a relevant method(Buffer()) in ruby.Below is my code in the node.js which uses a crypto library method createHmac
I testsed with ID =2 and APPID=1
function generatesomevalue(ID, APPID) {
// add zero padding for at the beginning of the number pick lowest 6 bytes
var hexMemberId = ('0000000000000000' + ID.toString(16)).substr(-12);
console.log(hexMemberId); //000000000002
// put APPID into two highest bytes of member id
var hexAppId = APPID.toString(16);
console.log(hexAppId);//1
var hexMidAppId = ('0000' + hexAppId + hexMemberId).substr(-16);//<Buffer 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 02>
console.log(hexMidAppId);//0001000000000002
var midBuffer = new Buffer(hexMidAppId, 'hex');
console.log(midBuffer);//<Buffer 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 02>
var key = 'PLACEHOLDER';
var hmacBuffer = createHMACDigest(key, midBuffer);
console.log(hmacBuffer); //01c690ac02eb572fde4a096a076aaa8501ea3671bf
var outputBuffer = Buffer.concat([midBuffer, new Buffer(hmacBuffer, 'hex')]);
console.log(outputBuffer); //<Buffer 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 02 01 c6 90 ac 02 eb 57 2f de 4a 09 6a 07 6a aa 85 01 ea 36 71 bf>
console.log(outputBuffer.toString('base64')); //AAEAAAAAAAIBxpCsAutXL95KCWoHaqqFAeo2cb8=
return outputBuffer.toString('base64');
}
function createHMACDigest(key, paddedMemberId) {
return '01' + Crypto.createHmac('sha1', key).update(paddedMemberId).digest('hex');
}

Ruby 1.9.3 Why does "\x03".force_encoding("UTF-8") get \u0003 ,but "\x03".force_encoding("UTF-16") gets "\x03"

Ruby 1.9.3
irb(main):036:0* "\x03".force_encoding("UTF-16")
=> "\x03"
irb(main):040:0* "\x03".force_encoding("UTF-8")
=> "\u0003"
Why is "\x03".force_encoding("UTF-8") is \u0003 and "\x03".force_encoding("UTF-16") ends up with "\x03" , I thought it should be the other way round?
Because "\x03" is not a valid code point in UTF-16, but a valid one in UTF-8 (ASCII 03, ETX, end of text). You have to use at least two bytes to represent a unicode code point in UTF-16.
That's why "\x03" can be treated as unicode \u0003 in UTF-8 but not in UTF-16.
To represent "\u0003" in UTF-16, you have to use two byte, either 00 03 or 03 00, depending on the byte order. That's why we need to specify byte order in UTF-16. For the big-endian version, the byte sequence should be
FE FF 00 03
For the little-endian, the byte sequence should be
FF FE 03 00
The byte order mark should appear at the beginning of a string, or at the beginning of a file.
Starting from Ruby 1.9, String is just a byte sequence with a specific encoding as a tag. force_encoding is a method to change the encoding tag, it won't affect the byte sequence. You can verify that by inspecting "\x03".force_encoding("UTF-8").bytes.
If you see "\u0003", that doesn't mean you got a String which is represented in two bytes 00 03, but some byte(s) that represents the Unicode code point 0003 under the specific encoding as carried in that String. It may be:
03 //tagged as UTF-8
FE FF 00 03 //tagged as UTF-16
FF FE 03 00 //tagged as UTF-16
03 //tagged as GBK
03 //tagged as ASCII
00 00 FE FF 00 00 00 03 // tagged as UTF-32
FF FE 00 00 03 00 00 00 // tagged as UTF-32

4 byte checksum, sum32 algorithm for Epson printers

I'm programming a low level communication with an Epson tm-t88iv thermal printer on a Linux device, which receives only hexadecimal packages. I have read the manual trying to understand how the checksum is built but i can't manage to recreate it.
the manual says that the checksum are 4 bytes representing the 2 bytes sum of all the data in the package sent.
I have currently four working examples I found by listening to a port on a windows computer with a different program. the last 4 hexadecimals are the checksum (03 marks the end of the data and is included in the checksum calculation, according to the manual).
02 AC 00 01 1C 00 00 03 30 30 43 45
02 AC 00 00 1C 80 80 1C 00 00 1C 00 00 1C 03 30 32 32 31
02 AD 07 01 1C 00 00 1C 31 30 03 30 31 35 33
02 AD 00 00 1C 80 80 1C 00 00 1C 00 00 1C 03 30 32 32 32
I have read somewhere that there is a sum32 algorithm but i can't find any example of it or how to program it.
Wow, this is a bad algorithm! If someone else finds himself trying to understand Epson's terrible low-level communication manual, this is how the check-sum is done:
The checksum base is 30 30 30 30
Sum in hexadecimals all of the data package (for example, 02+89+00+00+1C+80+80+1C+00+01+1C+09+0C+1C+03 = 214)
Then separate the result digit by digit, if its a letter add 1 to the value (for example B2 would be 2|1|4).
sum it to the checksum base number by number starting from right to left (this would be a checksum of 30 32 31 34).
Note: It works perfectly, but for some reason the examples I posted above don't seem to match so much. They are all the printers response, but slightly after it got a hardware problem and had to be reformatted by technical support, so maybe it got fixed.
I hope it helps somebody somewhere.

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