EthrnetPacket.PayloadPacket.ParentPacket is always null. Is that right?

[badmadbug]

Hello?

When I try to parse udp packet like this:

Packet packet = Packet.ParsePacket( LinkLayers.Ethernet, raw_capture.Data ) ;
Debug.Assert( packet is EthernetPacket ) ; // OK.
Debug.Assert( packet.PayloadPacket is IPv4Packet ) ; // OK
Debug.Assert( packet.PayloadPacket.ParentPacket != null ) ; // Nop. it is always null.

In my thought, packet.PayloadPacket should be IPv4Packet, and packet.PayloadPacket.ParentPacket must be packet itself. Isn't it?
But, in my code, packet.PayloadPacket is IPv4Packet, but packet.PayloadPacket.ParentPacket is always null.

It is null even I try with ARP packet.

What should I do or check?

My PacketDotNet is downloaded from nuget.org and its version is v1.1.1.

[lovejotd]

Is there a strong reason you want to do this? Just not sure the rationale here. I tested it as well, and see the same behavior that you see.

[PhyxionNL]

Parent packet isn't passed down here:
https://github.com/chmorgan/packetnet/blob/2775ea7f8fef4edee445ef7087eaa04a3612c920/PacketDotNet/EthernetPacket.cs#L215
This can be improved I think, but I don't have time to look into this right now. Although the use case is probably limited, I suggest always passing down EthernetPacket or just the contained packet if you only need that.

[badmadbug]

Is there a strong reason you want to do this? Just not sure the rationale here. I tested it as well, and see the same behavior that you see.

For example, when I work with UdpPacket, I will create List<UdpPacket>. I don't want create List<Packet>, because Packet.Extract() must be used whenever I need to access UdpPacket.

In this situation, UdpPacket.ParentPacket and/or UdpPacket.ParentPacket.ParentPacket is null. So I cannot get IpPacket or EthernetPacket from UdpPacket to find source ip or mac address.