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TCPTRACEROUTE(1)	    General Commands Manual	      TCPTRACEROUTE(1)

NAME
       tcptraceroute - A traceroute implementation using TCP packets

SYNOPSIS
       tcptraceroute [-nNFSAE] [ -i interface ]	[ -f first ttl ]
       [ -l length ] [ -q number of queries ] [	-t tos ]
       [ -m max	ttl ] [	-p source port ] [ -s source address ]
       [ -w wait time ]	host [ destination port	] [ length ]

DESCRIPTION
       tcptraceroute is	a traceroute implementation using TCP packets.

       The  more  traditional  traceroute(8) sends out either UDP or ICMP ECHO
       packets with a TTL of one, and increments the TTL until the destination
       has been	reached.  By printing the gateways that	generate ICMP time ex-
       ceeded messages along the way, it is able to determine the path packets
       are taking to reach the destination.

       The  problem is that with the widespread	use of firewalls on the	modern
       Internet, many of the packets that traceroute(8)	sends out end up being
       filtered, making	it impossible to completely trace the path to the des-
       tination.  However, in many cases, these	firewalls will permit  inbound
       TCP  packets  to	 specific ports	that hosts sitting behind the firewall
       are listening for connections on.  By sending out TCP SYN  packets  in-
       stead  of UDP or	ICMP ECHO packets, tcptraceroute is able to bypass the
       most common firewall filters.

       It is worth noting that tcptraceroute never  completely	establishes  a
       TCP connection with the destination host.  If the host is not listening
       for incoming connections, it will respond with an RST  indicating  that
       the  port  is closed.  If the host instead responds with	a SYN|ACK, the
       port is known to	be open, and an	RST is sent by the  kernel  tcptracer-
       oute  is	 running  on  to  tear	down the connection without completing
       three-way handshake.  This is the  same	half-open  scanning  technique
       that nmap(1) uses when passed the -sS flag.

OPTIONS
       -n     Display  numeric	output,	rather than doing a reverse DNS	lookup
	      for each hop.  By	default, reverse lookups are  never  attempted
	      on RFC1918 address space,	regardless of the -n flag.

       -N     Perform a	reverse	DNS lookup for each hop, including RFC1918 ad-
	      dresses.

       -f     Set the initial TTL used in the first outgoing packet.  The  de-
	      fault is 1.

       -m     Set  the	maximum	 TTL used in outgoing packets.	The default is
	      30.

       -p     Use the specified	local TCP port in outgoing packets.   The  de-
	      fault  is	 to  obtain a free port	from the kernel	using bind(2).
	      Unlike with traditional traceroute(8), this number will not  in-
	      crease with each hop.

       -s     Set  the	source	address	for outgoing packets.  See also	the -i
	      flag.

       -i     Use the specified	interface for outgoing packets.

       -q     Set the number of	probes to be sent to each hop.	The default is
	      3.

       -w     Set  the	timeout,  in  seconds, to wait for a response for each
	      probe.  The default is 3.

       -S     Set the TCP SYN flag in outgoing packets.	 This is the  default,
	      if neither -S or -A is specified.

       -A     Set  the	TCP  ACK flag in outgoing packets.  By doing so, it is
	      possible to trace	through	stateless firewalls which permit  out-
	      going TCP	connections.

       -E     Send ECN SYN packets, as described in RFC2481.

       -t     Set the IP TOS (type of service) to be used in outgoing packets.
	      The default is not to set	any TOS.

       -F     Set the IP "don't	fragment" bit in outgoing packets.

       -l     Set the total packet length to be	used in	outgoing packets.   If
	      the length is greater than the minimum size required to assemble
	      the necessary probe packet headers, this value is	 automatically
	      increased.

       -d     Enable debugging,	which may or may not be	useful.

       --dnat
	      Enable  DNAT  detection,	and display messages when DNAT transi-
	      tions are	observed.  DNAT	detection is based on  the  fact  that
	      some  NAT	 devices,  such	as some	Linux 2.4 kernels, do not cor-
	      rectly rewrite the IP address of the IP packets quoted  in  ICMP
	      time-exceeded  messages  tcptraceroute  solicits,	 revealing the
	      destination IP address an	outbound probe packet  was  NATed  to.
	      NAT  devices  which  correctly  rewrite the IP address quoted by
	      ICMP messages, such as some Linux	2.6 kernels, will not  be  de-
	      tected.	For  some  target  hosts,  it  may be necessary	to use
	      --dnat in	conjunction with --track-port.	See  the  examples.txt
	      file for examples.

       --no-dnat
	      Enable  DNAT detection for the purposes of correctly identifying
	      ICMP time-exceeded messages that match up	 with  outbound	 probe
	      packets,	but  do	not display messages when a DNAT transition is
	      observed.	 This is the default behavior.

       --no-dnat-strict
	      Do not perform any DNAT detection	whatsoever.  No	 attempt  will
	      be made match up ICMP time-exceeded messages with	outbound probe
	      packets, and when	tracerouting through a NAT device  which  does
	      not  rewrite  the	 IP addresses of the IP	packets	quoted in ICMP
	      time-exceeded messages, some hops	along the path may  appear  to
	      be  unresponsive.	  This option should not be needed in the vast
	      majority of cases, but may be utilized if	it is  suspected  that
	      the  DNAT	 detection  code  is misidentifying ICMP time-exceeded
	      messages.

EXAMPLES
       Please see the examples.txt file	included in the	tcptraceroute  distri-
       bution for a few	real world examples.

       To trace	the path to a web server listening for connections on port 80:

	      tcptraceroute webserver

       To  trace  the  path to a mail server listening for connections on port
       25:

	      tcptraceroute mailserver 25

BUGS
       No error	checking is performed on the source address specified  by  the
       -s flag,	and it is therefore possible for tcptraceroute to send out TCP
       SYN packets for which it	has no chance of seeing	a response to.

AUTHOR
       Michael C. Toren	<mct@toren.net>

AVAILABILITY
       For updates, please see:
	      http://michael.toren.net/code/tcptraceroute/

SEE ALSO
       traceroute(8), ping(8), nmap(1)

				 2006 March 28		      TCPTRACEROUTE(1)

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXAMPLES | BUGS | AUTHOR | AVAILABILITY | SEE ALSO

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