Wireshark-4.6.4

#### Beyond Linux® From Scratch (systemd Edition) - Version r13.0-475

### Chapter 16. Networking Utilities

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# Wireshark-4.6.4

## Introduction to Wireshark

The Wireshark package contains a network protocol analyzer, also known as a “sniffer.” This is useful for analyzing data captured “off the wire” from a live network connection, or data read from a capture file.

Wireshark provides both a graphical and a TTY-mode front-end for examining captured network packets from over 500 protocols, as well as the capability to read capture files from many other popular network analyzers.

### Note

Development versions of BLFS may not build or run some packages properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated since the most recent stable versions of the books.

### Package Information

- Download (HTTP): https://www.wireshark.org/download/src/all-versions/wireshark-4.6.4.tar.xz

- Download MD5 sum: e4d1868c5d930371f60aef3c1c65c439

- Download size: 48 MB

- Estimated disk space required: 814 MB (182 MB installed)

- Estimated build time: 2.5 SBU (with parallelism=4)

### Additional Downloads

- Additional Documentation: https://www.wireshark.org/download/docs/ (contains links to several different docs in a variety of formats)

### Wireshark dependencies

#### Required

CMake-4.3.2, c-ares-1.34.6, GLib-2.88.0, libgcrypt-1.12.2, Qt-6.11.0, and Speex-1.2.1

#### Recommended

libpcap-1.10.6 (required to capture data)

#### Optional

asciidoctor-2.0.26, Brotli-1.2.0, Cups-2.4.19, Doxygen-1.17.0, git-2.53.0, GnuTLS-3.8.13, libnl-3.12.0, libxslt-1.1.45, libxml2-2.15.3, Lua-5.4.8, MIT Kerberos V5-1.22.2, nghttp2-1.69.0, SBC-2.2, Vulkan-Headers-1.4.341.0, BCG729, libilbc, libsmi, libssh, MaxMindDB, Minizip, nghttp3, Snappy, and Spandsp

## Kernel Configuration

The kernel must have the Packet protocol enabled for Wireshark to capture live packets from the network:

    [*] Networking support --->                                                [NET]
      Networking options --->
        <*/M> Packet socket                                                 [PACKET]

If built as a module, the name is `af_packet.ko`.

## Installation of Wireshark

Wireshark is a very large and complex application. These instructions provide additional security measures to ensure that only trusted users are allowed to view network traffic. First, set up a system group for wireshark. As the `root` user:

    groupadd -g 62 wireshark

Continue to install Wireshark by running the following commands:

    mkdir build &&
    cd    build &&

    cmake -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr \
          -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release  \
          -D CMAKE_INSTALL_DOCDIR=/usr/share/doc/wireshark-4.6.4 \
          -G Ninja \
          .. &&
    ninja

This package does not come with a test suite.

Now, as the `root` user:

    ninja install &&

    install -v -m755 -d /usr/share/doc/wireshark-4.6.4 &&
    install -v -m644    ../README.linux ../doc/README.* ../doc/randpkt.txt \
                        /usr/share/doc/wireshark-4.6.4 &&

    pushd /usr/share/doc/wireshark-4.6.4 &&
       for FILENAME in ../../wireshark/*.html; do
          ln -s -v -f $FILENAME .
       done &&
    popd
    unset FILENAME

If you downloaded any of the documentation files from the page listed in the 'Additional Downloads', install them by issuing the following commands as the `root` user:

    install -v -m644 <Downloaded_Files> \
                     /usr/share/doc/wireshark-4.6.4

Now, set ownership and permissions of sensitive applications to only allow authorized users. As the `root` user:

    chown -v root:wireshark /usr/bin/tshark &&
    chmod -v 6550 /usr/bin/tshark

Finally, add any users to the wireshark group (as `root` user):

    usermod -a -G wireshark <username>

If you are installing wireshark for the first time, it will be necessary to logout of your session and login again. This will put wireshark in your groups, because otherwise Wireshark will not function properly.

## Configuring Wireshark

### Config Files

`/etc/wireshark.conf` and `~/.config/wireshark/*` (unless there is already `~/.wireshark/*` in the system)

### Configuration Information

Though the default configuration parameters are very sane, reference the configuration section of the Wireshark User's Guide for configuration information. Most of Wireshark 's configuration can be accomplished using the menu options of the wireshark graphical interfaces.

### Note

If you want to look at packets, make sure you don't filter them out with iptables-1.8.12. If you want to exclude certain classes of packets, it is more efficient to do it with iptables than it is with Wireshark.

## Contents

Installed Programs: capinfos, captype, dumpcap, editcap, idl2wrs, mergecap, randpkt, rawshark, reordercap, sharkd, text2pcap, tshark, and wireshark
Installed Libraries: libwireshark.so, libwiretap.so, libwsutil.so, and numerous modules under /usr/lib/wireshark/plugins
Installed Directories: /usr/{lib,share}/wireshark and /usr/share/doc/wireshark-4.6.4

### Short Descriptions

capinfos | reads a saved capture file and returns any or all of several statistics about that file. It is able to detect and read any capture supported by the Wireshark package
captype | prints the file types of capture files
editcap | edits and/or translates the format of capture files. It knows how to read libpcap capture files, including those of tcpdump, Wireshark and other tools that write captures in that format
idl2wrs | is a program that takes a user specified CORBA IDL file and generates “C” source code for a Wireshark “plugin.” It relies on two Python programs wireshark_be.py and wireshark_gen.py, which are not installed by default. They have to be copied manually from the `tools` directory to the `$PYTHONPATH/site-packages/` directory
mergecap | combines multiple saved capture files into a single output file
randpkt | creates random-packet capture files
rawshark | dumps and analyzes raw libpcap data
reordercap | reorders timestamps of input file frames into an output file
sharkd | is a daemon that listens on UNIX sockets
text2pcap | reads in an ASCII hex dump and writes the data described into a libpcap-style capture file
tshark | is a TTY-mode network protocol analyzer. It lets you capture packet data from a live network or read packets from a previously saved capture file
wireshark | is the Qt GUI network protocol analyzer. It lets you interactively browse packet data from a live network or from a previously saved capture file
`libwireshark.so` | contains functions used by the Wireshark programs to perform filtering and packet capturing
`libwiretap.so` | is a library being developed as a future replacement for `libpcap`, the current standard Unix library for packet capturing. For more information, see the `README` file in the source `wiretap` directory

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