A possibly malicious sequence of packets that were sent to a web server has been captured by an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and was saved to a PCAP file. As a network administrator, you need to d

An IPS operates inline on live network traffic to block threats in real time and cannot open or analyze a saved PCAP file.

A vulnerability scanner probes live systems for known weaknesses and misconfigurations; it does not analyze saved packet captures.

A protocol analyzer is specifically designed to open, decode, and inspect PCAP files by dissecting each packet's headers and payload across all network layers. Tools like Wireshark allow a network administrator to reconstruct sessions, inspect raw bytes, and identify anomalous patterns or known attack signatures within the captured traffic. This makes it the direct and appropriate tool for post-capture forensic analysis.

A network sniffer captures live traffic from the wire; it does not analyze pre-existing PCAP files, which is a read/decode operation.