ipsectrace is a software tool designed by Wayne Schroeder to help profile ipsec

IPsec

Internet Protocol Security is a protocol suite for securing Internet Protocol communications by authenticating and encrypting each IP packet of a communication session...

 connections in a packet capture

Packet capture

Packet capture is the act of capturing data packets crossing a computer network. Deep packet capture is the act of capturing, at full network speed, complete network packets crossing a network with a high traffic rate...

 (PCP) file. The program uses a command line interface to point at a PCP capture and informs the user about what is going on. It is somewhat inspired by tcptrace

Tcptrace

tcptrace is a tool written by Shawn Ostermann at Ohio University, for analysis of TCP dump files. It can take as input the files produced by several popular packet-capture programs, including tcpdump/WinDump/Wireshark, snoop, , and Agilent NetMetrix....

, which uses the same input of PCP files. Ipsectrace is only available for the Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

 operating system

Operating system

An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...

. It is coded in C++

C++

C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

 and is licensed under the GPL, effectively allowing anyone to modify and redistribute it.

Although its main purpose is to monitor ipsec traffic, ipsectrace can be used to crack extra layers of security brought about by VPN implementations of security such as ipsec and SSH

Secure Shell

Secure Shell is a network protocol for secure data communication, remote shell services or command execution and other secure network services between two networked computers that it connects via a secure channel over an insecure network: a server and a client...

 , whereas programs such as Anger, Deceit, and Ettercap

Ettercap

An ettercap is one of a race of bestial spider-men aberrations in the Dungeons & Dragons game.-Publication history:The name is derived from the Danish word for spider, edderkop, and is related to attercop, an archaic word for poisonous spider, used in J.R.R...

 can be used to infiltrate PPTP security.