pcapplusplus
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Description:
C++ network sniffing, packet parsing and crafting framework
Type: Formula  |  Tracked Since: Dec 28, 2025
Links: Homepage  |  @PcapPlusPlus  |  formulae.brew.sh
Category: Networking
Tags: networking c++ packet-crafting pcap security
Install: brew install pcapplusplus
About:
Pcapplusplus is a high-performance C++ library for network traffic capture and manipulation. It provides a lightweight, feature-rich wrapper around libpcap, WinPcap, and Npcap, enabling efficient packet sniffing, parsing, and crafting. The framework supports both live traffic analysis and offline processing of PCAP files.
Key Features:
  • High-performance packet processing with zero-copy operations
  • Support for major protocols (Ethernet, IPv4/IPv6, TCP, UDP, HTTP, etc.)
  • Cross-platform compatibility (Linux, macOS, Windows)
  • Unified API for both live capture and file parsing
Use Cases:
  • Network monitoring and security analysis tools
  • Building custom packet sniffers and analyzers
  • Network traffic generation and testing
  • Protocol reverse engineering and research
Alternatives:
  • libpcap – Lower-level C library; Pcapplusplus provides easier C++ abstraction
  • tshark – Command-line tool; Pcapplusplus is a programmable library
  • Scapy – Python-based; Pcapplusplus offers C++ performance for native apps
Version History
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