[pcap-ng-format] Proposal for storing decryption secrets in a pcapng block

[Michael Richardson]

Guy Harris <guy at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
    > The second and third option require either the producer, or some
    > post-processor, to write a new version of the file putting the secrets
    > before the packets that require them.  The producer isn't necessarily
    > responsible for doing so; one might have tcpdump, or dumpcap (or some
    > program using dumpcap, such as TShark or Wireshark) write out a capture
    > with no secrets, and then have another program (a utility, or Wireshark
    > after having read in the file and then given the secret in question)
    > write out a new file with the secrets early enough in the file ("before
    > all the packet blocks" is probably the simplest implementation).

I'm in favour of this option, and providing a signal early in the file that
the indicates if that process has occured yet.

    > A producer that *does* happen to have the secret available before
    > seeing any packets that require the secret *could* write it directly.

Agreed.

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