Live, system-wide USB transfer sniffer in eBPF
Get picks like this daily. Today's launch numbers, the top launches, AI and tech news, and a daily opportunity pick, straight to your inbox.
Want to reach these readers? Sponsor an issue.
HN · launched May 31, 2026 · 9 upvotes (top 45%) · 2 views
Niche: hardware monitoring and diagnostic tools · 129 launches, 15 in the last 7 days ▲ +50% · Explore this niche →
Category and tags
- Horizontal
- Dev tools
- Developer
- Not AI
- Hobby / open-source project
Visit website ↗ Source listing ↗
More like this: all 129 launches in hardware monitoring and diagnostic tools →
Could you build this?
No Writing an eBPF-based sniffer that taps Linux USB subsystems (usbmon/URB tracking) requires deep Linux kernel internals, low-level C programming, and eBPF verifier navigation that cannot be vibe-coded.
What it would actually take: The project requires writing Linux eBPF C programs attached to kernel tracepoints or kprobes within the USB core (such as usb_submit_urb and usb_giveback_urb). It requires a user-space driver in Go/Rust/C using libbpf to pull parsed URB buffers from BPF ring buffers, reassemble USB request blocks across various USB transfer types (Control, Bulk, Interrupt, Isochronous), and stream them to a terminal or Wireshark-compatible pcap pipe. This demands extensive expertise in Linux kernel subsystem internals, USB protocol standards, and eBPF memory safety constraints.
Discussion
No comments on this launch.
Competitors
Other products that read as similar to this one : 2138 launches clear the similarity bar, closest 8 shown.
Attention rank: #976 of 2139 (itself plus its competitors, highest first, normalized so YC and Product Hunt are compared fairly).
Launched 212 days after the earliest competitor.
- bluetooth-sender · github · 2026-11-10 · 102 upvotes · similarity 0.66
- Pdsink · hn · 2025-11-15 · 6 upvotes · similarity 0.65
- usbscan · github · 2026-11-07 · 20 upvotes · similarity 0.60
- usbloom · github · 2026-09-20 · 14 upvotes · similarity 0.60
- U-Claw · hn · 2026-03-09 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.58
- sleeve · github · 2026-11-08 · 16 upvotes · similarity 0.57
- Spliff · hn · 2026-01-17 · 5 upvotes · similarity 0.56
- snapdrop · github · 2026-09-14 · 17 upvotes · similarity 0.56
The niche, labels, vibe code rating and competitor comparison on this page are analysis by Nicheloom. If you use them, please credit nicheloom.com. How you may use our data.