Using Scapy to perform layer 2 discovery

Scapy is a powerful interactive tool that can be used to capture, analyze, manipulate, and even create protocol-compliant network traffic, which can then be injected into the network. Scapy is also a library that can be used in Python, thereby offering the capability to create highly effective scripts to perform network traffic handling and manipulation. This specific recipe will demonstrate how to use Scapy to perform ARP discovery and how to create a script using Python and Scapy to streamline the layer 2 discovery process.

Getting ready

To use Scapy to perform ARP discovery, you will need to have at least one system on the Local Area Network (LAN) that will respond to ARP requests. In the examples provided, a combination of Linux and Windows systems are used. For more information on setting up systems in a local lab environment, please refer to the Installing Metasploitable2 and Installing Windows Server recipes in Chapter 1, Getting Started. Additionally...