Wireshark is one of those programs that many network managers would love to be able to use, but
they are often prevented from getting what they would like from Wireshark because of the lack of
documentation.
This document is part of an effort by the Wireshark team to improve the usability of Wireshark.
We hope that you find it useful and look forward to your comments.
Who should read this document?
The intended audience of this book is anyone using Wireshark.
This book will explain all the basics and also some of the advanced features that Wireshark
provides. As Wireshark has become a very complex program since the early days, not every feature
of Wireshark may be explained in this book.
This book is not intended to explain network sniffing in general and it will not provide details
about specific network protocols. A lot of useful information regarding these topics can be found at
the Wireshark Wiki at https://wiki.wireshark.org/.
By reading this book, you will learn how to install Wireshark, how to use the basic elements of the
graphical user interface (such as the menu) and what’s behind some of the advanced features that
are not always obvious at first sight. It will hopefully guide you around some common problems
that frequently appear for new (and sometimes even advanced) users of Wireshark.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the whole Wireshark team for their assistance. In particular, the
authors would like to thank:
• Gerald Combs, for initiating the Wireshark project and funding to do this documentation.
• Guy Harris, for many helpful hints and a great deal of patience in reviewing this document.
• Gilbert Ramirez, for general encouragement and helpful hints along the way.
The authors would also like to thank the following people for their helpful feedback on this
document:
• Pat Eyler, for his suggestions on improving the example on generating a backtrace.
• Martin Regner, for his various suggestions and corrections.
1
• Graeme Hewson, for a lot of grammatical corrections.
The authors would like to acknowledge those man page and README authors for the Wireshark
project from who sections of this document borrow heavily:
• Scott Renfro from whose mergecap man page mergecap: Merging multiple capture files into one
is derived.
• Ashok Narayanan from whose text2pcap man page text2pcap: Converting ASCII hexdumps to
network captures is derived.
About this document
This book was originally developed by Richard Sharpe with funds provided from the Wireshark
Fund. It was updated by Ed Warnicke and more recently redesigned and updated by Ulf Lamping.
It was originally written in DocBook/XML and converted to AsciiDoc by Gerald Combs.
Where to get the latest copy of this document?
The latest copy of this documentation can always be found at https://www.wireshark.org/docs/.
Providing feedback about this document
Should you have any feedback about this document, please send it to the authors through
wireshark-dev[AT]wireshark.org.
Typographic Conventions
The following table shows the typographic conventions that are used in this guide.
Table 1. Typographic Conventions
StyleDescriptionExample
ItalicFile names, folder names, and extensions C:\Development\wireshark.
Monospace
Bold
Monospace
Commands, flags, and environment
variables
Commands that should be run by the
user
CMake’s -G option.
Run cmake -G Ninja ...
[Button]Dialog and window buttonsPress [Launch] to go to the Moon.
Key
MenuMenu item
2
Keyboard shortcutPress Ctrl+Down to move to the next
packet.
Select Go › Next Packet to move to the
next packet.
Admonitions
Important and notable items are marked as follows:
This is a warning
WARNING
NOTE
This is a tip
TIP
Tips are helpful for your everyday work using Wireshark.
You should pay attention to a warning, otherwise data loss might occur.
This is a note
A note will point you to common mistakes and things that might not be obvious.
Shell Prompt and Source Code Examples
Bourne shell, normal user
$ # This is a comment
$ git config --global log.abbrevcommit true
Bourne shell, root user
# # This is a comment
# ninja install
Command Prompt (cmd.exe)
>rem This is a comment
>cd C:\Development
PowerShell
PS$># This is a comment
PS$>choco list -l
3
C Source Code
#include "config.h"
/* This method dissects foos */
static int
dissect_foo_message(tvbuff_t *tvb, packet_info *pinfo _U_, proto_tree *tree _U_, void
*data _U_)
{
Ê /* TODO: implement your dissecting code */
Ê return tvb_captured_length(tvb);
}
4
Introduction
What is Wireshark?
Wireshark is a network packet analyzer. A network packet analyzer will try to capture network
packets and tries to display that packet data as detailed as possible.
You could think of a network packet analyzer as a measuring device used to examine what’s going
on inside a network cable, just like a voltmeter is used by an electrician to examine what’s going on
inside an electric cable (but at a higher level, of course).
In the past, such tools were either very expensive, proprietary, or both. However, with the advent
of Wireshark, all that has changed.
Wireshark is perhaps one of the best open source packet analyzers available today.
Some intended purposes
Here are some examples people use Wireshark for:
• Network administrators use it to troubleshoot network problems
• Network security engineers use it to examine security problems
• QA engineers use it to verify network applications
• Developers use it to debug protocol implementations
• People use it to learn network protocol internals
Beside these examples Wireshark can be helpful in many other situations too.
Features
The following are some of the many features Wireshark provides:
• Available for UNIX and Windows.
• Capture live packet data from a network interface.
• Open files containing packet data captured with tcpdump/WinDump, Wireshark, and a number
of other packet capture programs.
• Import packets from text files containing hex dumps of packet data.
• Display packets with very detailed protocol information.
• Save packet data captured.
• Export some or all packets in a number of capture file formats.
• Filter packets on many criteria.
5
• Search for packets on many criteria.
• Colorize packet display based on filters.
• Create various statistics.
• …and a lot more!
However, to really appreciate its power you have to start using it.
Wireshark captures packets and lets you examine their contents. shows Wireshark having captured
some packets and waiting for you to examine them.
Figure 1. Wireshark captures packets and lets you examine their contents.
Live capture from many different network media
Wireshark can capture traffic from many different network media types - and despite its name including wireless LAN as well. Which media types are supported, depends on many things like the
operating system you are using. An overview of the supported media types can be found at
Wireshark can open packets captured from a large number of other capture programs. For a list of
input formats see Input File Formats.
6
Export files for many other capture programs
Wireshark can save packets captured in a large number of formats of other capture programs. For
a list of output formats see Output File Formats.
Many protocol dissectors
There are protocol dissectors (or decoders, as they are known in other products) for a great many
protocols: see Protocols and Protocol Fields.
Open Source Software
Wireshark is an open source software project, and is released under the GNU General Public
License (GPL). You can freely use Wireshark on any number of computers you like, without
worrying about license keys or fees or such. In addition, all source code is freely available under
the GPL. Because of that, it is very easy for people to add new protocols to Wireshark, either as
plugins, or built into the source, and they often do!
What Wireshark is not
Here are some things Wireshark does not provide:
• Wireshark isn’t an intrusion detection system. It will not warn you when someone does strange
things on your network that he/she isn’t allowed to do. However, if strange things happen,
Wireshark might help you figure out what is really going on.
• Wireshark will not manipulate things on the network, it will only “measure” things from it.
Wireshark doesn’t send packets on the network or do other active things (except for name
resolutions, but even that can be disabled).
System Requirements
The amount of resources Wireshark needs depends on your environment and on the size of the
capture file you are analyzing. The values below should be fine for small to medium-sized capture
files no more than a few hundred MB. Larger capture files will require more memory and disk
space.
Busy networks mean large captures
Working with a busy network can easily produce huge capture files. Capturing on a
NOTE
gigabit or even 100 megabit network can produce hundreds of megabytes of
capture data in a short time. A fast processor, lots of memory and disk space is
always a good idea.
If Wireshark runs out of memory it will crash. See https://wiki.wireshark.org/KnownBugs/
OutOfMemory for details and workarounds.
7
Although Wireshark captures packets using a separate process the main interface is singlethreaded and won’t benefit much from multi-core systems.
Microsoft Windows
• The current version of Wireshark should support any version of Windows that is still within its
extended support lifetime. At the time of writing this includes Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, Server
2016, Server 2012 R2, Server 2012, Server 2008 R2, and Server 2008.
• Any modern 64-bit AMD64/x86-64 or 32-bit x86 processor.
• 400 MB available RAM. Larger capture files require more RAM.
• 300 MB available disk space. Capture files require additional disk space.
• 1024 × 768 (1280 × 1024 or higher recommended) resolution with at least 16-bit color. 8-bit color
should work but user experience will be degraded. Power users will find multiple monitors
useful.
• A supported network card for capturing
◦ Ethernet. Any card supported by Windows should work. See the wiki pages on Ethernet
capture and offloading for issues that may affect your environment.
◦ 802.11. See the Wireshark wiki page. Capturing raw 802.11 information may be difficult
without special equipment.
◦ Other media. See https://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureSetup/NetworkMedia.
Older versions of Windows which are outside Microsoft’s extended lifecycle support window are no
longer supported. It is often difficult or impossible to support these systems due to circumstances
beyond our control, such as third party libraries on which we depend or due to necessary features
that are only present in newer versions of Windows (such as hardened security or memory
management).
Wireshark 1.12 was the last release branch to support Windows Server 2003. Wireshark 1.10 was
the last branch to officially support Windows XP. See the Wireshark release lifecycle page for more
details.
UNIX / Linux
Wireshark runs on most UNIX and UNIX-like platforms including macOS and Linux. The system
requirements should be comparable to the Windows values listed above.
Binary packages are available for most Unices and Linux distributions including the following
platforms:
• Apple macOS
• Debian GNU/Linux
• FreeBSD
8
• Gentoo Linux
• HP-UX
• Mandriva Linux
• NetBSD
• OpenPKG
• Red Hat Enterprise/Fedora Linux
• Sun Solaris/i386
• Sun Solaris/SPARC
• Canonical Ubuntu
If a binary package is not available for your platform you can download the source and try to build
it. Please report your experiences to wireshark-dev[AT]wireshark.org.
Where to get Wireshark
You can get the latest copy of the program from the Wireshark website at
https://www.wireshark.org/download.html. The download page should automatically highlight the
appropriate download for your platform and direct you to the nearest mirror. Official Windows
and macOS installers are signed by the Wireshark Foundation.
A new Wireshark version typically becomes available each month or two.
If you want to be notified about new Wireshark releases you should subscribe to the wiresharkannounce mailing list. You will find more details in Mailing Lists.
A brief history of Wireshark
In late 1997 Gerald Combs needed a tool for tracking down network problems and wanted to learn
more about networking so he started writing Ethereal (the original name of the Wireshark project)
as a way to solve both problems.
Ethereal was initially released after several pauses in development in July 1998 as version 0.2.0.
Within days patches, bug reports, and words of encouragement started arriving and Ethereal was
on its way to success.
Not long after that Gilbert Ramirez saw its potential and contributed a low-level dissector to it.
In October, 1998 Guy Harris was looking for something better than tcpview so he started applying
patches and contributing dissectors to Ethereal.
In late 1998 Richard Sharpe, who was giving TCP/IP courses, saw its potential on such courses and
started looking at it to see if it supported the protocols he needed. While it didn’t at that point new
protocols could be easily added. So he started contributing dissectors and contributing patches.
9
The list of people who have contributed to the project has become very long since then, and almost
all of them started with a protocol that they needed that Wireshark or did not already handle. So
they copied an existing dissector and contributed the code back to the team.
In 2006 the project moved house and re-emerged under a new name: Wireshark.
In 2008, after ten years of development, Wireshark finally arrived at version 1.0. This release was
the first deemed complete, with the minimum features implemented. Its release coincided with the
first Wireshark Developer and User Conference, called Sharkfest.
In 2015 Wireshark 2.0 was released, which featured a new user interface.
Development and maintenance of Wireshark
Wireshark was initially developed by Gerald Combs. Ongoing development and maintenance of
Wireshark is handled by the Wireshark team, a loose group of individuals who fix bugs and
provide new functionality.
There have also been a large number of people who have contributed protocol dissectors to
Wireshark, and it is expected that this will continue. You can find a list of the people who have
contributed code to Wireshark by checking the about dialog box of Wireshark, or at the authors
page on the Wireshark web site.
Wireshark is an open source software project, and is released under the GNU General Public
License (GPL) version 2. All source code is freely available under the GPL. You are welcome to
modify Wireshark to suit your own needs, and it would be appreciated if you contribute your
improvements back to the Wireshark team.
You gain three benefits by contributing your improvements back to the community:
1. Other people who find your contributions useful will appreciate them, and you will know that
you have helped people in the same way that the developers of Wireshark have helped people.
2. The developers of Wireshark might improve your changes even more, as there’s always room
for improvement. Or they may implement some advanced things on top of your code, which can
be useful for yourself too.
3. The maintainers and developers of Wireshark will maintain your code as well, fixing it when
API changes or other changes are made, and generally keeping it in tune with what is
happening with Wireshark. So if Wireshark is updated (which is done often), you can get a new
Wireshark version from the website and your changes will already be included without any
effort for you.
The Wireshark source code and binary kits for some platforms are all available on the download
page of the Wireshark website: https://www.wireshark.org/download.html.
10
Reporting problems and getting help
If you have problems or need help with Wireshark there are several places that may be of interest
to you (well, besides this guide of course).
Website
You will find lots of useful information on the Wireshark homepage at https://www.wireshark.org/.
Wiki
The Wireshark Wiki at https://wiki.wireshark.org/ provides a wide range of information related to
Wireshark and packet capture in general. You will find a lot of information not part of this user’s
guide. For example, there is an explanation how to capture on a switched network, an ongoing
effort to build a protocol reference and a lot more.
And best of all, if you would like to contribute your knowledge on a specific topic (maybe a network
protocol you know well) you can edit the wiki pages by simply using your web browser.
Q&A Site
The Wireshark Q&A site at https://ask.wireshark.org/ offers a resource where questions and
answers come together. You have the option to search what questions were asked before and what
answers were given by people who knew about the issue. Answers are graded, so you can pick out
the best ones easily. If your question hasn’t been discussed before you can post one yourself.
FAQ
The Frequently Asked Questions lists often asked questions and their corresponding answers.
Read the FAQ
NOTE
You will find the FAQ inside Wireshark by clicking the menu item Help/Contents and selecting the
FAQ page in the dialog shown.
Before sending any mail to the mailing lists below, be sure to read the FAQ. It will
often answer any questions you might have. This will save yourself and others a lot
of time. Keep in mind that a lot of people are subscribed to the mailing lists.
An online version is available at the Wireshark website at https://www.wireshark.org/faq.html. You
might prefer this online version, as it’s typically more up to date and the HTML format is easier to
use.
Mailing Lists
There are several mailing lists of specific Wireshark topics available:
11
wireshark-announce
This mailing list will inform you about new program releases, which usually appear about every
4-8 weeks.
wireshark-users
This list is for users of Wireshark. People post questions about building and using Wireshark,
others (hopefully) provide answers.
wireshark-dev
This list is for Wireshark developers. If you want to start developing a protocol dissector, join
this list.
You can subscribe to each of these lists from the Wireshark web site: https://www.wireshark.org/
lists/. From there, you can choose which mailing list you want to subscribe to by clicking on the
Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Options button under the title of the relevant list. The links to the archives
are included on that page as well.
The lists are archived
TIP
You can search in the list archives to see if someone asked the same question some
time before and maybe already got an answer. That way you don’t have to wait until
someone answers your question.
Reporting Problems
NOTE
When reporting problems with Wireshark please supply the following information:
1. The version number of Wireshark and the dependent libraries linked with it, such as Qt or GLib.
You can obtain this from Wireshark’s about box or the command wireshark -v.
2. Information about the platform you run Wireshark on.
3. A detailed description of your problem.
4. If you get an error/warning message, copy the text of that message (and also a few lines before
and after it, if there are some) so others may find the place where things go wrong. Please don’t
give something like: “I get a warning while doing x” as this won’t give a good idea where to look.
Before reporting any problems, please make sure you have installed the latest
version of Wireshark.
12
NOTE
Don’t send large files
Do not send large files (> 1 MB) to the mailing lists. Just place a note that further
data is available on request. Large files will only annoy a lot of people on the list
who are not interested in your specific problem. If required you will be asked for
further data by the persons who really can help you.
Don’t send confidential information!
WARNING
If you send capture files to the mailing lists be sure they don’t contain any
sensitive or confidential information like passwords or personally identifiable
information (PII).
Reporting Crashes on UNIX/Linux platforms
When reporting crashes with Wireshark it is helpful if you supply the traceback information along
with the information mentioned in “Reporting Problems”.
You can obtain this traceback information with the following commands on UNIX or Linux (note
the backticks):
If you do not have gdb available, you will have to check out your operating system’s debugger.
Mail backtrace.txt to wireshark-dev[AT]wireshark.org.
Reporting Crashes on Windows platforms
The Windows distributions don’t contain the symbol files (.pdb) because they are very large. You
can download them separately at https://www.wireshark.org/download/win32/all-versions/ and
As with all things there must be a beginning and so it is with Wireshark. To use Wireshark you
must first install it. If you are running Windows or macOS you can download an official release at
https://www.wireshark.org/download.html, install it, and skip the rest of this chapter.
If you are running another operating system such as Linux or FreeBSD you might want to install
from source. Several Linux distributions offer Wireshark packages but they commonly ship out-ofdate versions. No other versions of UNIX ship Wireshark so far. For that reason, you will need to
know where to get the latest version of Wireshark and how to install it.
This chapter shows you how to obtain source and binary packages and how to build Wireshark
from source should you choose to do so.
The following are the general steps you would use:
1. Download the relevant package for your needs, e.g. source or binary distribution.
2. Compile the source into a binary if needed. This may involve building and/or installing other
necessary packages.
3. Install the binaries into their final destinations.
Obtaining the source and binary distributions
You can obtain both source and binary distributions from the Wireshark web site:
https://www.wireshark.org/download.html. Select the download link and then select the desired
binary or source package.
Download all required files
If you are building Wireshark from source you will In general, unless you have
NOTE
Once you have downloaded the relevant files, you can go on to the next step.
already downloaded Wireshark before, you will most likely need to download
several source packages if you are building Wireshark from source. This is covered
in more detail below.
Installing Wireshark under Windows
Windows installer names contain the platform and version. For example, Wireshark-win64-
2.9.0.exe installs Wireshark 2.9.0 for 64-bit Windows. The Wireshark installer includes WinPcap
which is required for packet capture.
14
Simply download the Wireshark installer from https://www.wireshark.org/download.html and
execute it. Official packages are signed by the Wireshark Foundation. You can choose to install
several optional components and select the location of the installed package. The default settings
are recommended for most users.
Installation Components
On the Choose Components page of the installer you can select from the following:
• Wireshark - The network protocol analyzer that we all know and mostly love.
• TShark - A command-line network protocol analyzer. If you haven’t tried it you should.
• Plugins & Extensions - Extras for the Wireshark and TShark dissection engines
◦ Dissector Plugins - Plugins with some extended dissections.
◦ Tree Statistics Plugins - Extended statistics.
◦ Mate - Meta Analysis and Tracing Engine - User configurable extension(s) of the display
filter engine, see MATE for details.
◦ SNMP MIBs - SNMP MIBs for a more detailed SNMP dissection.
• Tools - Additional command line tools to work with capture files
◦ Editcap - Reads a capture file and writes some or all of the packets into another capture file.
◦ Text2Pcap - Reads in an ASCII hex dump and writes the data into a pcap capture file.
◦ Reordercap - Reorders a capture file by timestamp.
◦ Mergecap - Combines multiple saved capture files into a single output file.
◦ Capinfos - Provides information on capture files.
◦ Rawshark - Raw packet filter.
• User’s Guide - Local installation of the User’s Guide. The Help buttons on most dialogs will
require an internet connection to show help pages if the User’s Guide is not installed locally.
Additional Tasks
• Start Menu Shortcuts - Add some start menu shortcuts.
• Desktop Icon - Add a Wireshark icon to the desktop.
• Quick Launch Icon - add a Wireshark icon to the Explorer quick launch toolbar.
• Associate file extensions to Wireshark - Associate standard network trace files to Wireshark.
Install Location
By default Wireshark installs into %ProgramFiles%\Wireshark on 32-bit Windows and
%ProgramFiles64%\Wireshark on 64-bit Windows. This expands to C:\Program Files\Wireshark on
most systems.
15
Installing WinPcap
The Wireshark installer contains the latest WinPcap installer.
If you don’t have WinPcap installed you won’t be able to capture live network traffic but you will
still be able to open saved capture files. By default the latest version of WinPcap will be installed. If
you don’t wish to do this or if you wish to reinstall WinPcap you can check the Install WinPcap box
as needed.
For more information about WinPcap see https://www.winpcap.org/ and https://wiki.wireshark.org/
WinPcap.
Windows installer command line options
For special cases, there are some command line parameters available:
• /S runs the installer or uninstaller silently with default values. The silent installer will not
install WinPCap.
• /desktopicon installation of the desktop icon, =yes - force installation, =no - don’t install,
otherwise use default settings. This option can be useful for a silent installer.
• /quicklaunchicon installation of the quick launch icon, =yes - force installation, =no - don’t install,
otherwise use default settings.
• /D sets the default installation directory ($INSTDIR), overriding InstallDir and InstallDirRegKey.
It must be the last parameter used in the command line and must not contain any quotes even if
the path contains spaces.
• /NCRC disables the CRC check. We recommend against using this flag.
Running the installer without any parameters shows the normal interactive installer.
Manual WinPcap Installation
As mentioned above, the Wireshark installer takes care of installing WinPcap. The following is only
necessary if you want to use a different version than the one included in the Wireshark installer,
e.g. because a new WinPcap version was released.
Additional WinPcap versions (including newer alpha or beta releases) can be downloaded from the
main WinPcap site at https://www.winpcap.org/. The Installer for Windows supports modern
Windows operating systems.
16
Update Wireshark
By default the offical Windows package will check for new versions and notify you when they are
available. If you have the Check for updates preference disabled or if you run Wireshark in an
isolated environment you should subcribe to the wireshark-announce mailing list. See Mailing Lists
for details on subscribing to this list.
New versions of Wireshark are usually released every four to six weeks. Updating Wireshark is
done the same way as installing it. Simply download and start the installer exe. A reboot is usually
not required and all your personal settings remain unchanged.
Update WinPcap
New versions of WinPcap are less frequently available. You will find WinPcap update instructions
the WinPcap web site at https://www.winpcap.org/. You may have to reboot your machine after
installing a new WinPcap version.
Uninstall Wireshark
You can uninstall Wireshark using the Programs and Features control panel. Select the “Wireshark”
entry to start the uninstallation procedure.
The Wireshark uninstaller provides several options for removal. The default is to remove the core
components but keep your personal settings and WinPcap. WinPcap is left installed by default in
case other programs need it.
Uninstall WinPcap
You can uninstall WinPcap independently of Wireshark using the WinPcap entry in the Programs
and Features control panel. Remember that if you uninstall WinPcap you won’t be able to capture
anything with Wireshark.
Installing Wireshark under macOS
The official macOS packages are distributed as disk images (.dmg) containing the application
installer. To install Wireshark simply open the disk image and run the enclosed installer.
The installer package includes Wireshark, its related command line utilities, and a launch daemon
that adjusts capture permissions at system startup. See the included Read me first file for more
details.
Building Wireshark from source under UNIX
Building Wireshark requires the proper build environment including a compiler and many
supporting libraries. See the Developer’s Guide at https://www.wireshark.org/docs/ for more
17
information.
Use the following general steps to build Wireshark from source under UNIX or Linux:
1. Unpack the source from its compressed tar file. If you are using Linux or your version of UNIX
uses GNU tar you can use the following command:
$ tar xaf wireshark-2.9.0.tar.xz
In other cases you will have to use the following commands:
$ xz -d wireshark-2.9.0.tar.xz
$ tar xf wireshark-2.9.0.tar
2. Create a directory to build Wireshark in and change to it.
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
3. Configure your source so it will build correctly for your version of UNIX. You can do this with
the following command:
$ cmake ../wireshark-2.9.0
If this step fails you will have to look into the logs and rectify the problems, then rerun cmake.
Troubleshooting hints are provided in Troubleshooting during the build and install on Unix.
4. Build the sources.
$ make
Once you have build Wireshark with make above, you should be able to run it by entering
run/wireshark.
5. Install the software in its final destination.
$ make install
Once you have installed Wireshark with make install above, you should be able to run it by
entering wireshark.
18
Installing the binaries under UNIX
In general installing the binary under your version of UNIX will be specific to the installation
methods used with your version of UNIX. For example, under AIX, you would use smit to install the
Wireshark binary package, while under Tru64 UNIX (formerly Digital UNIX) you would use setld.
Installing from RPMs under Red Hat and alike
Building RPMs from Wireshark’s source code results in several packages (most distributions follow
the same system):
• The wireshark package contains the core Wireshark libraries and command-line tools.
• The wireshark or wireshark-qt package contains the Qt-based GUI.
Many distributions use yum or a similar package management tool to make installation of software
(including its dependencies) easier. If your distribution uses yum, use the following command to
install Wireshark together with the Qt GUI:
yum install wireshark wireshark-qt
If you’ve built your own RPMs from the Wireshark sources you can install them by running, for
example:
dpkg doesn’t take care of all dependencies, but reports what’s missing.
19
Capturing requires privileges
NOTE
By installing Wireshark packages non-root users won’t gain rights automatically to
capture packets. To allow non-root users to capture packets follow the procedure
described in /usr/share/doc/wireshark-common/README.Debian
Installing from portage under Gentoo Linux
Use the following command to install Wireshark under Gentoo Linux with all of the extra features:
Use the following command to install Wireshark under FreeBSD:
$ pkg_add -r wireshark
pkg_add should take care of all of the dependency issues for you.
Troubleshooting during the build and install on Unix
A number of errors can occur during the build and installation process. Some hints on solving these
are provided here.
If the cmake stage fails you will need to find out why. You can check the file CMakeOutput.log and
CMakeError.log in the build directory to find out what failed. The last few lines of this file should
help in determining the problem.
The standard problems are that you do not have a required development package on your system
or that the development package isn’t new enough. Note that installing a library package isn’t
enough. You need to install its development package as well. cmake will also fail if you do not have
libpcap (at least the required include files) on your system.
If you cannot determine what the problems are, send an email to the wireshark-dev mailing list
explaining your problem. Include the output from cmake and anything else you think is relevant
such as a trace of the make stage.
Building from source under Windows
We strongly recommended that you use the binary installer for Windows unless you want to start
developing Wireshark on the Windows platform.
20
For further information how to build Wireshark for Windows from the sources see the Developer’s
Guide at https://www.wireshark.org/docs/.
You may also want to have a look at the Development Wiki (https://wiki.wireshark.org/
Development) for the latest available development documentation.
21
User Interface
Introduction
By now you have installed Wireshark and are most likely keen to get started capturing your first
packets. In the next chapters we will explore:
• How the Wireshark user interface works
• How to capture packets in Wireshark
• How to view packets in Wireshark
• How to filter packets in Wireshark
• … and many other things!
Start Wireshark
You can start Wireshark from your shell or window manager.
Power user tip
TIP
In the following chapters a lot of screenshots from Wireshark will be shown. As Wireshark runs on
many different platforms with many different window managers, different styles applied and there
are different versions of the underlying GUI toolkit used, your screen might look different from the
provided screenshots. But as there are no real differences in functionality these screenshots should
still be well understandable.
When starting Wireshark it’s possible to specify optional settings using the command
line. See Start Wireshark from the command line for details.
The Main window
Let’s look at Wireshark’s user interface. The Main window shows Wireshark as you would usually
see it after some packets are captured or loaded (how to do this will be described later).
22
Figure 2. The Main window
Wireshark’s main window consists of parts that are commonly known from many other GUI
programs.
1. The menu (see The Menu) is used to start actions.
2. The main toolbar (see The “Main” Toolbar) provides quick access to frequently used items from
the menu.
3. The filter toolbar (see The “Filter” Toolbar) provides a way to directly manipulate the currently
used display filter (see Filtering packets while viewing).
4. The packet list pane (see The “Packet List” Pane) displays a summary of each packet captured. By
clicking on packets in this pane you control what is displayed in the other two panes.
5. The packet details pane (see The “Packet Details” Pane) displays the packet selected in the packet
list pane in more detail.
6. The packet bytes pane (see The “Packet Bytes” Pane) displays the data from the packet selected in
the packet list pane, and highlights the field selected in the packet details pane.
7. The statusbar (see The Statusbar) shows some detailed information about the current program
state and the captured data.
TIP
The layout of the main window can be customized by changing preference settings.
See Preferences for details!
23
Main Window Navigation
Packet list and detail navigation can be done entirely from the keyboard. Keyboard Navigation
shows a list of keystrokes that will let you quickly move around a capture file. See Go menu items
for additional navigation keystrokes.
Table 2. Keyboard Navigation
AcceleratorDescription
Tab or Shift+TabMove between screen elements, e.g. from the toolbars to the packet list to
the packet detail.
↓
↑
Ctrl+↓ or F8Move to the next packet, even if the packet list isn’t focused.
Ctrl+↑ or F7Move to the previous packet, even if the packet list isn’t focused.
Ctrl+.Move to the next packet of the conversation (TCP, UDP or IP).
Ctrl+,Move to the previous packet of the conversation (TCP, UDP or IP).
Alt+→ or Option+→
(macOS)
Alt+← or Option+←
(macOS)
←
→
Shift+→In the packet detail, opens the selected tree item and all of its subtrees.
Ctrl+→In the packet detail, opens all tree items.
Ctrl+←In the packet detail, closes all tree items.
Move to the next packet or detail item.
Move to the previous packet or detail item.
Move to the next packet in the selection history.
Move to the previous packet in the selection history.
In the packet detail, closes the selected tree item. If it’s already closed,
jumps to the parent node.
In the packet detail, opens the selected tree item.
Backspace
Return or EnterIn the packet detail, toggles the selected tree item.
Help › About Wireshark › Keyboard Shortcuts will show a list of all shortcuts in the main
window. Additionally, typing anywhere in the main window will start filling in a display filter.
In the packet detail, jumps to the parent node.
The Menu
Wireshark’s main menu is located either at the top of the main window (Windows, Linux) or at the
top of your main screen (macOS). An example is shown in The Menu.
Some menu items will be disabled (greyed out) if the corresponding feature isn’t
NOTE
24
available. For example, you cannot save a capture file if you haven’t captured or
loaded any packets.
Figure 3. The Menu
The main menu contains the following items:
File
This menu contains items to open and merge capture files, save, print, or export capture files in
whole or in part, and to quit the Wireshark application. See The “File” menu.
Edit
This menu contains items to find a packet, time reference or mark one or more packets, handle
configuration profiles, and set your preferences; (cut, copy, and paste are not presently
implemented). See The “Edit” Menu.
View
This menu controls the display of the captured data, including colorization of packets, zooming
the font, showing a packet in a separate window, expanding and collapsing trees in packet
details, …. See The “View” Menu.
Go
This menu contains items to go to a specific packet. See The “Go” Menu.
Capture
This menu allows you to start and stop captures and to edit capture filters. See The “Capture”
menu.
Analyze
This menu contains items to manipulate display filters, enable or disable the dissection of
protocols, configure user specified decodes and follow a TCP stream. See The “Analyze” Menu.
Statistics
This menu contains items to display various statistic windows, including a summary of the
packets that have been captured, display protocol hierarchy statistics and much more. See The
“Statistics” Menu.
Telephony
This menu contains items to display various telephony related statistic windows, including a
media analysis, flow diagrams, display protocol hierarchy statistics and much more. See The
“Telephony” Menu.
Wireless
The items in this menu show Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11 wireless statistics.
Tools
This menu contains various tools available in Wireshark, such as creating Firewall ACL Rules.
25
See The “Tools” Menu.
Help
This menu contains items to help the user, e.g. access to some basic help, manual pages of the
various command line tools, online access to some of the webpages, and the usual about dialog.
See The “Help” Menu.
Each of these menu items is described in more detail in the sections that follow.
Shortcuts make life easier
TIP
Most common menu items have keyboard shortcuts. For example, you can press the
Control (or Strg in German) and the K keys together to open the “Capture Options”
dialog.
The “File” menu
The Wireshark file menu contains the fields shown in File menu items.
Figure 4. The “File” Menu
Table 3. File menu items
26
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Open…Ctrl+OThis shows the file open dialog box that allows
you to load a capture file for viewing. It is
discussed in more detail in The “Open Capture
File” dialog box.
Open RecentThis lets you open recently opened capture files.
Clicking on one of the submenu items will open
the corresponding capture file directly.
Merge…This menu item lets you merge a capture file
into the currently loaded one. It is discussed in
more detail in Merging capture files.
Import from Hex Dump…This menu item brings up the import file dialog
box that allows you to import a text file
containing a hex dump into a new temporary
capture. It is discussed in more detail in Import
hex dump.
CloseCtrl+WThis menu item closes the current capture. If
you haven’t saved the capture, you will be asked
to do so first (this can be disabled by a
preference setting).
SaveCtrl+SThis menu item saves the current capture. If you
have not set a default capture file name
(perhaps with the -w <capfile> option),
Wireshark pops up the Save Capture File As
dialog box (which is discussed further in The
“Save Capture File As” dialog box).
If you have already saved the current capture,
this menu item will be greyed out.
You cannot save a live capture while the capture
is in progress. You must stop the capture in
order to save.
Save As…Shift+Ctrl+SThis menu item allows you to save the current
capture file to whatever file you would like. It
pops up the Save Capture File As dialog box
(which is discussed further in The “Save Capture
File As” dialog box).
File Set › List Files
This menu item allows you to show a list of files
in a file set. It pops up the Wireshark List File Set
dialog box (which is discussed further in File
Sets).
27
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
File Set › Next File
File Set › Previous File
Export Specified Packets…This menu item allows you to export all (or
Export Packet
Dissections…
Export ObjectsThese menu items allow you to export captured
Ctrl+HThese menu items allow you to export the
If the currently loaded file is part of a file set,
jump to the next file in the set. If it isn’t part of a
file set or just the last file in that set, this item is
greyed out.
If the currently loaded file is part of a file set,
jump to the previous file in the set. If it isn’t part
of a file set or just the first file in that set, this
item is greyed out.
some) of the packets in the capture file to file. It
pops up the Wireshark Export dialog box (which
is discussed further in Exporting data).
currently selected bytes in the packet bytes pane
to a text file file in a number of formats
including plain, CSV, and XML. It is discussed
further in The “Export selected packet bytes”
dialog box.
DICOM, HTTP, IMF, SMB, or TFTP objects into
local files. It pops up a corresponding object list
(which is discussed further in The “Export
Objects” dialog box)
Print…Ctrl+PThis menu item allows you to print all (or some)
of the packets in the capture file. It pops up the
Wireshark Print dialog box (which is discussed
further in Printing packets).
QuitCtrl+QThis menu item allows you to quit from
Wireshark. Wireshark will ask to save your
capture file if you haven’t previously saved it
(this can be disabled by a preference setting).
The “Edit” Menu
The Wireshark Edit menu contains the fields shown in Edit menu items.
28
Figure 5. The “Edit” Menu
Table 4. Edit menu items
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
CopyThese menu items will copy the packet list,
packet detail, or properties of the currently
selected packet to the clipboard.
Find Packet…Ctrl+FThis menu item brings up a toolbar that allows
you to find a packet by many criteria. There is
further information on finding packets in
Finding packets.
Find NextCtrl+NThis menu item tries to find the next packet
matching the settings from “Find Packet…”.
Find PreviousCtrl+BThis menu item tries to find the previous packet
matching the settings from “Find Packet…”.
Mark/Unmark PacketCtrl+MThis menu item marks the currently selected
packet. See Marking packets for details.
Mark All Displayed Packets Shift+Ctrl+MThis menu item marks all displayed packets.
Unmark All Displayed
Ctrl+Alt+MThis menu item unmarks all displayed packets.
Packets
Next MarkShift+Alt+NFind the next marked packet.
Previous MarkShift+Alt+BFind the previous marked packet.
29
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Ignore/Unignore PacketCtrl+DThis menu item marks the currently selected
packet as ignored. See Ignoring packets for
details.
Ignore All DisplayedShift+Ctrl+DThis menu item marks all displayed packets as
ignored.
Unignore All DisplayedCtrl+Alt+DThis menu item unmarks all ignored packets.
Set/Unset Time ReferenceCtrl+TThis menu item set a time reference on the
currently selected packet. See Packet time
referencing for more information about the time
referenced packets.
Unset All Time ReferencesCtrl+Alt+TThis menu item removes all time references on
the packets.
Next Time ReferenceCtrl+Alt+NThis menu item tries to find the next time
referenced packet.
Previous Time ReferenceCtrl+Alt+BThis menu item tries to find the previous time
referenced packet.
Time ShiftCtrl+Shift+TThis will show the Time Shift dialog, which
allows you to adjust the timestamps of some or
all packets.
Packet Comment…This will let you add a comment to a single
packet. Note that the ability to save packet
comments depends on your file format. E.g.
pcapng supports comments, pcap does not.
Capture Comment…This will let you add a capture comment. Note
that the ability to save capture comments
depends on your file format. E.g. pcapng
supports comments, pcap does not.
Configuration Profiles…Shift+Ctrl+AThis menu item brings up a dialog box for
handling configuration profiles. More detail is
provided in Configuration Profiles.
Preferences…Shift+Ctrl+P or
Cmd+, (macOS)
This menu item brings up a dialog box that
allows you to set preferences for many
parameters that control Wireshark. You can also
save your preferences so Wireshark will use
them the next time you start it. More detail is
provided in Preferences.
The “View” Menu
The Wireshark View menu contains the fields shown in View menu items.
30
Figure 6. The “View” Menu
Table 5. View menu items
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Main ToolbarThis menu item hides or shows the main toolbar,
see The “Main” Toolbar.
Filter ToolbarThis menu item hides or shows the filter toolbar,
see The “Filter” Toolbar.
Wireless ToolbarThis menu item hides or shows the wireless
toolbar. May not be present on some platforms.
StatusbarThis menu item hides or shows the statusbar,
see The Statusbar.
Packet ListThis menu item hides or shows the packet list
pane, see The “Packet List” Pane.
Packet DetailsThis menu item hides or shows the packet
details pane, see The “Packet Details” Pane.
Packet BytesThis menu item hides or shows the packet bytes
pane, see The “Packet Bytes” Pane.
31
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Time Display Format ›
Date and Time of Day:
1970-01-01 01:02:03.123456
Time Display Format ›
Time of Day:
01:02:03.123456
Time Display Format ›
Seconds Since Epoch (197001-01): 1234567890.123456
Time Display Format ›
Seconds Since Beginning of
Capture: 123.123456
Selecting this tells Wireshark to display the time
stamps in date and time of day format, see Time
display formats and time references.
The fields “Time of Day”, “Date and Time of
Day”, “Seconds Since Beginning of Capture”,
“Seconds Since Previous Captured Packet” and
“Seconds Since Previous Displayed Packet” are
mutually exclusive.
Selecting this tells Wireshark to display time
stamps in time of day format, see Time display
formats and time references.
Selecting this tells Wireshark to display time
stamps in seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00, see
Time display formats and time references.
Selecting this tells Wireshark to display time
stamps in seconds since beginning of capture
format, see Time display formats and time
references.
Time Display Format ›
Seconds Since Previous
Captured Packet: 1.123456
Time Display Format ›
Seconds Since Previous
Displayed Packet: 1.123456
Time Display Format ›
Automatic (File Format
Precision)
Time Display Format ›
Seconds: 0
Time Display Format › …
seconds: 0….
Selecting this tells Wireshark to display time
stamps in seconds since previous captured
packet format, see Time display formats and
time references.
Selecting this tells Wireshark to display time
stamps in seconds since previous displayed
packet format, see Time display formats and
time references.
Selecting this tells Wireshark to display time
stamps with the precision given by the capture
file format used, see Time display formats and
time references.
The fields “Automatic”, “Seconds” and “…
seconds” are mutually exclusive.
Selecting this tells Wireshark to display time
stamps with a precision of one second, see Time
display formats and time references.
Selecting this tells Wireshark to display time
stamps with a precision of one second,
decisecond, centisecond, millisecond,
microsecond or nanosecond, see Time display
formats and time references.
32
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Time Display Format ›
Display Seconds with
Selecting this tells Wireshark to display time
stamps in seconds, with hours and minutes.
hours and minutes
Name Resolution › Resolve
Name
Name Resolution › Enable
for MAC Layer
This item allows you to trigger a name resolve of
the current packet only, see Name Resolution.
This item allows you to control whether or not
Wireshark translates MAC addresses into names,
see Name Resolution.
Name Resolution › Enable
for Network Layer
This item allows you to control whether or not
Wireshark translates network addresses into
names, see Name Resolution.
Name Resolution › Enable
for Transport Layer
This item allows you to control whether or not
Wireshark translates transport addresses into
names, see Name Resolution.
Colorize Packet ListThis item allows you to control whether or not
Wireshark should colorize the packet list.
Enabling colorization will slow down the display
of new packets while capturing / loading capture
files.
Auto Scroll in Live CaptureThis item allows you to specify that Wireshark
should scroll the packet list pane as new packets
come in, so you are always looking at the last
packet. If you do not specify this, Wireshark
simply adds new packets onto the end of the list,
but does not scroll the packet list pane.
Zoom InCtrl++Zoom into the packet data (increase the font
size).
Zoom OutCtrl+-Zoom out of the packet data (decrease the font
size).
Normal SizeCtrl+=Set zoom level back to 100% (set font size back to
normal).
Resize All ColumnsShift+Ctrl+RResize all column widths so the content will fit
into it.
Resizing may take a significant amount of time,
especially if a large capture file is loaded.
Displayed ColumnsThis menu items folds out with a list of all
configured columns. These columns can now be
shown or hidden in the packet list.
Expand SubtreesShift+→This menu item expands the currently selected
subtree in the packet details tree.
33
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Collapse SubtreesShift+←This menu item collapses the currently selected
subtree in the packet details tree.
Expand AllCtrl+→Wireshark keeps a list of all the protocol
subtrees that are expanded, and uses it to
ensure that the correct subtrees are expanded
when you display a packet. This menu item
expands all subtrees in all packets in the
capture.
Collapse AllCtrl+←This menu item collapses the tree view of all
packets in the capture list.
Colorize ConversationThis menu item brings up a submenu that allows
you to color packets in the packet list pane based
on the addresses of the currently selected
packet. This makes it easy to distinguish packets
belonging to different conversations. Packet
colorization.
Colorize Conversation ›
Color 1-10
Colorize Conversation ›
Reset coloring
Colorize Conversation ›
New Coloring Rule…
Coloring Rules…This menu item brings up a dialog box that
Show Packet in New
Window
ReloadCtrl+RThis menu item allows you to reload the current
These menu items enable one of the ten
temporary color filters based on the currently
selected conversation.
This menu item clears all temporary coloring
rules.
This menu item opens a dialog window in which
a new permanent coloring rule can be created
based on the currently selected conversation.
allows you to color packets in the packet list
pane according to filter expressions you choose.
It can be very useful for spotting certain types of
packets, see Packet colorization.
This menu item brings up the selected packet in
a separate window. The separate window shows
only the tree view and byte view panes.
capture file.
The “Go” Menu
The Wireshark Go menu contains the fields shown in Go menu items.
34
Figure 7. The “Go” Menu
Table 6. Go menu items
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
BackAlt+←Jump to the recently visited packet in the packet
history, much like the page history in a web
browser.
ForwardAlt+→Jump to the next visited packet in the packet
history, much like the page history in a web
browser.
Go to Packet…Ctrl+GBring up a window frame that allows you to
specify a packet number, and then goes to that
packet. See Go to a specific packet for details.
Go to Corresponding
Packet
Go to the corresponding packet of the currently
selected protocol field. If the selected field
doesn’t correspond to a packet, this item is
greyed out.
Previous PacketCtrl+↑Move to the previous packet in the list. This can
be used to move to the previous packet even if
the packet list doesn’t have keyboard focus.
Next PacketCtrl+↓Move to the next packet in the list. This can be
used to move to the previous packet even if the
packet list doesn’t have keyboard focus.
35
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
First PacketCtrl+HomeJump to the first packet of the capture file.
Last PacketCtrl+EndJump to the last packet of the capture file.
Previous Packet In
Conversation
Next Packet In
Conversation
Ctrl+,Move to the previous packet in the current
conversation. This can be used to move to the
previous packet even if the packet list doesn’t
have keyboard focus.
Ctrl+.Move to the next packet in the current
conversation. This can be used to move to the
previous packet even if the packet list doesn’t
have keyboard focus.
The “Capture” menu
The Wireshark Capture menu contains the fields shown in Capture menu items.
Figure 8. The “Capture” Menu
Table 7. Capture menu items
36
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Interfaces…Ctrl+IThis menu item brings up a dialog box that
shows what’s going on at the network interfaces
Wireshark knows of, see The “Capture
Interfaces” dialog box) .
Options…Ctrl+KThis menu item brings up the Capture Options
dialog box (discussed further in The “Capture
Options” dialog box) and allows you to start
capturing packets.
StartCtrl+EImmediately start capturing packets with the
same settings than the last time.
StopCtrl+EThis menu item stops the currently running
capture, see Stop the running capture) .
RestartCtrl+RThis menu item stops the currently running
capture and starts again with the same options,
this is just for convenience.
Capture Filters…This menu item brings up a dialog box that
allows you to create and edit capture filters. You
can name filters, and you can save them for
future use. More detail on this subject is
provided in Defining and saving filters
The “Analyze” Menu
The Wireshark Analyze menu contains the fields shown in Analyze menu items.
37
Figure 9. The “Analyze” Menu
Table 8. Analyze menu items
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Display Filters…This menu item brings up a dialog box that
allows you to create and edit display filters. You
can name filters, and you can save them for
future use. More detail on this subject is
provided in Defining and saving filters
Display Filter Macros…This menu item brings up a dialog box that
allows you to create and edit display filter
macros. You can name filter macros, and you
can save them for future use. More detail on this
subject is provided in Defining and saving filter
macros
Apply as ColumnThis menu item adds the selected protocol item
in the packet details pane as a column to the
packet list.
Apply as Filter › …
38
These menu items will change the current
display filter and apply the changed filter
immediately. Depending on the chosen menu
item, the current display filter string will be
replaced or appended to by the selected protocol
field in the packet details pane.
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Prepare a Filter › …
Enabled Protocols…Shift+Ctrl+EThis menu item allows the user to enable/disable
Decode As…This menu item allows the user to force
User Specified Decodes…This menu item allows the user to force
Follow › TCP Stream
These menu items will change the current
display filter but won’t apply the changed filter.
Depending on the chosen menu item, the
current display filter string will be replaced or
appended to by the selected protocol field in the
packet details pane.
protocol dissectors, see The “Enabled Protocols”
dialog box
Wireshark to decode certain packets as a
particular protocol, see User Specified Decodes
Wireshark to decode certain packets as a
particular protocol, see Show User Specified
Decodes
This menu item brings up a separate window
and displays all the TCP segments captured that
are on the same TCP connection as a selected
packet, see Following Protocol Streams
Follow › UDP Stream
Follow › SSL Stream
Follow › HTTP Stream
Expert InfoOpen a dialog showing some expert information
Conversation Filter › …
Same functionality as “Follow TCP Stream” but
for UDP streams.
Same functionality as “Follow TCP Stream” but
for SSL streams. See the wiki page on SSL for
instructions on providing SSL keys.
Same functionality as “Follow TCP Stream” but
for HTTP streams.
about the captured packets. The amount of
information will depend on the protocol and
varies from very detailed to non-existent. XXX add a new section about this and link from here
In this menu you will find conversation filter for
various protocols.
The “Statistics” Menu
The Wireshark Statistics menu contains the fields shown in Statistics menu items.
39
Figure 10. The “Statistics” Menu
All menu items will bring up a new window showing specific statistical information.
Table 9. Statistics menu items
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Capture File PropertiesShow information about the capture file, see The
“Capture File Properties” Window.
Resolved AddressesSee Resolved Addresses
Protocol HierarchyDisplay a hierarchical tree of protocol statistics,
see The “Protocol Hierarchy” Window.
ConversationsDisplay a list of conversations (traffic between
two endpoints), see The “Conversations”
Window.
EndpointsDisplay a list of endpoints (traffic to/from an
address), see The “Endpoints” Window.
Packet LengthsSee Packet Lengths
IO GraphsDisplay user specified graphs (e.g. the number of
packets in the course of time), see The “I/O
Graph” Window.
Service Response TimeDisplay the time between a request and the
corresponding response, see Service Response
Time.
40
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
DHCP (BOOTP)See DHCP (BOOTP) Statistics
ONC-RPC ProgramsSee ONC-RPC Programs
29WestSee 29West
ANCPSee ANCP
BACnetSee BACnet
CollectdSee Collectd
DNSSee DNS
Flow GraphSee Flow Graph
HART-IPSee HART-IP
HPFEEDSSee HPFEEDS
HTTPHTTP request/response statistics, see HTTP
Statistics
HTTP2See HTTP2
SametimeSee Sametime
TCP Stream GraphsSee TCP Stream Graphs
UDP Multicast StreamsSee UDP Multicast Graphs
F5See F5
IPv4 StatisticsSee IPv4 Statistics
IPv6 StatisticsSee IPv6 Statistics
The “Telephony” Menu
The Wireshark Telephony menu contains the fields shown in Telephony menu items.
41
Figure 11. The “Telephony” Menu
All menu items will bring up a new window showing specific telephony related statistical
information.
Table 10. Telephony menu items
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
VoIP Calls…See VoIP Calls
menu:[ANSI]See ANSI
menu:[GSM]See GSM
menu:[IAX2 Stream
See IAX2 Stream Analysis
Analysis]
menu:[ISUP Messages]See ISUP Messages
menu:[LTE]See LTE
menu:[MTP3]See MTP3
menu:[Osmux]See Osmux
menu:[RTP]See RTP Analysis
menu:[RTSP]See RTSP
menu:[SCTP]See SCTP
menu:[SMPP Operations]See SMPP Operations
menu:[UCP Messages]See UCP Messages
42
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
menu:[H.225]See H.225
menu:[SIP Flows]See SIP Flows
menu:[SIP Statistics]See SIP Statistics
menu:[WAP-WSP Packet
Counter]
See WAP-WSP Packet Counter
The “Tools” Menu
The Wireshark Tools menu contains the fields shown in Tools menu items.
Figure 12. The “Tools” Menu
Table 11. Tools menu items
43
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Firewall ACL RulesThis allows you to create command-line ACL
rules for many different firewall products,
including Cisco IOS, Linux Netfilter (iptables),
OpenBSD pf and Windows Firewall (via netsh).
Rules for MAC addresses, IPv4 addresses, TCP
and UDP ports, and IPv4+port combinations are
supported.
It is assumed that the rules will be applied to an
outside interface.
LuaThese options allow you to work with the Lua
interpreter optionally build into Wireshark. See
the “Lua Support in Wireshark” in the
Wireshark Developer’s Guide.
The “Internals” Menu
The Wireshark Internals menu contains the fields shown in Internals menu items.
Figure 13. The “Internals” Menu
Table 12. Internals menu items
44
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
Dissector tablesThis menu item brings up a dialog box showing
the tables with subdissector relationships.
Supported Protocols
(slow!)
This menu item brings up a dialog box showing
the supported protocols and protocol fields.
The “Help” Menu
The Wireshark Help menu contains the fields shown in Help menu items.
Figure 14. The “Help” Menu
Table 13. Help menu items
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
ContentsF1This menu item brings up a basic help system.
Manual Pages › …
WebsiteThis menu item starts a Web browser showing
FAQsThis menu item starts a Web browser showing
This menu item starts a Web browser showing
one of the locally installed html manual pages.
the webpage from: https://www.wireshark.org/.
various FAQs.
45
Menu ItemAcceleratorDescription
DownloadsThis menu item starts a Web browser showing
the downloads from: https://www.wireshark.org/
download.html.
WikiThis menu item starts a Web browser showing
the front page from: https://wiki.wireshark.org/.
Sample CapturesThis menu item starts a Web browser showing
the sample captures from:
https://wiki.wireshark.org/SampleCaptures.
About WiresharkThis menu item brings up an information
window that provides various detailed
information items on Wireshark, such as how
it’s built, the plugins loaded, the used folders, …
Opening a Web browser might be unsupported in your version of Wireshark. If this
is the case the corresponding menu items will be hidden.
NOTE
If calling a Web browser fails on your machine, nothing happens, or the browser
starts but no page is shown, have a look at the web browser setting in the
preferences dialog.
The “Main” Toolbar
The main toolbar provides quick access to frequently used items from the menu. This toolbar
cannot be customized by the user, but it can be hidden using the View menu, if the space on the
screen is needed to show even more packet data.
As in the menu, only the items useful in the current program state will be available. The others will
be greyed out (e.g. you cannot save a capture file if you haven’t loaded one).
Figure 15. The “Main” toolbar
Table 14. Main toolbar items
Toolbar
Icon
Toolbar ItemMenu ItemDescription
46
[ Interfaces… ]
[ Options… ]
Capture ›
Interfaces…
Capture › Options…
This item brings up the Capture Interfaces
List dialog box (discussed further in Start
Capturing).
This item brings up the Capture Options
dialog box (discussed further in Start
Capturing) and allows you to start
capturing packets.
Toolbar
Icon
Toolbar ItemMenu ItemDescription
[ Start ]
[ Stop ]
[ Restart ]
[ Open… ]
[ Save As… ]
Capture › Start
Capture › Stop
Capture › Restart
File › Open…
File › Save As…
This item starts capturing packets with the
options from the last time.
This item stops the currently running live
capture process Start Capturing).
This item stops the currently running live
capture process and restarts it again, for
convenience.
This item brings up the file open dialog box
that allows you to load a capture file for
viewing. It is discussed in more detail in
The “Open Capture File” dialog box.
This item allows you to save the current
capture file to whatever file you would
like. It pops up the Save Capture File As
dialog box (which is discussed further in
The “Save Capture File As” dialog box).
If you currently have a temporary capture
file, the Save icon will be shown instead.
[ Close ]
[ Reload ]
[ Print… ]
[ Find Packet… ]
[ Go Back ]
[ Go Forward ]
File › Close
View › Reload
File › Print…
Edit › Find Packet…
Go › Go Back
Go › Go Forward
This item closes the current capture. If you
have not saved the capture, you will be
asked to save it first.
This item allows you to reload the current
capture file.
This item allows you to print all (or some
of) the packets in the capture file. It pops
up the Wireshark Print dialog box (which
is discussed further in Printing packets).
This item brings up a dialog box that
allows you to find a packet. There is
further information on finding packets in
Finding packets.
This item jumps back in the packet history.
Hold down the Alt key (Option on macOS)
to go back in the selection history.
This item jumps forward in the packet
history. Hold down the Alt key (Option on
macOS) to go forward in the selection
history.
[ Go to Packet… ]
Go › Go to Packet…
This item brings up a dialog box that
allows you to specify a packet number to
go to that packet.
47
Toolbar
Icon
Toolbar ItemMenu ItemDescription
[ Go To First
Packet ]
[ Go To Last
Packet ]
[ Colorize ]
[ Auto Scroll in Live
Capture ]
[ Zoom In ]
[ Zoom Out ]
[ Normal Size ]
[ Resize Columns ]
[ Capture Filters… ]
Go › First Packet
Go › Last Packet
View › Colorize
View › Auto Scroll
in Live Capture
View › Zoom In
View › Zoom Out
View › Normal Size
View › Resize
Columns
Capture › Capture
Filters…
This item jumps to the first packet of the
capture file.
This item jumps to the last packet of the
capture file.
Colorize the packet list (or not).
Auto scroll packet list while doing a live
capture (or not).
Zoom into the packet data (increase the
font size).
Zoom out of the packet data (decrease the
font size).
Set zoom level back to 100%.
Resize columns, so the content fits into
them.
This item brings up a dialog box that
allows you to create and edit capture
filters. You can name filters, and you can
save them for future use. More detail on
this subject is provided in Defining and
saving filters.
[ Display Filters… ]
[ Coloring Rules… ]
[ Preferences… ]
Analyze › Display
Filters…
View › Coloring
Rules…
Edit › Preferences
This item brings up a dialog box that
allows you to create and edit display
filters. You can name filters, and you can
save them for future use. More detail on
this subject is provided in Defining and
saving filters.
This item brings up a dialog box that
allows you to color packets in the packet
list pane according to filter expressions
you choose. It can be very useful for
spotting certain types of packets. More
detail on this subject is provided in Packet
colorization.
This item brings up a dialog box that
allows you to set preferences for many
parameters that control Wireshark. You
can also save your preferences so
Wireshark will use them the next time you
start it. More detail is provided in
Preferences
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[ Help ]
Help › Contents
This item brings up help dialog box.
The “Filter” Toolbar
The filter toolbar lets you quickly edit and apply display filters. More information on display filters
is available in Filtering packets while viewing.
Figure 16. The “Filter” toolbar
Table 15. Filter toolbar items
Toolbar
Icon
Toolbar ItemDescription
[ Filter: ]Brings up the filter construction dialog, described in
The “Capture Filters” and “Display Filters” dialog boxes.
Filter inputThe area to enter or edit a display filter string, see
Building display filter expressions. A syntax check of
your filter string is done while you are typing. The
background will turn red if you enter an incomplete or
invalid string, and will become green when you enter a
valid string. You can click on the pull down arrow to
select a previously-entered filter string from a list. The
entries in the pull down list will remain available even
after a program restart.
After you’ve changed something in this field, don’t
forget to press the Apply button (or the Enter/Return
key), to apply this filter string to the display.
This field is also where the current filter in effect is
displayed.
[Expression…]The middle button labeled “Add Expression…” opens a
dialog box that lets you edit a display filter from a list of
protocol fields, described in The “Filter Expression”
dialog box
[ Clear ]Reset the current display filter and clears the edit area.
[ Apply ]Apply the current value in the edit area as the new
display filter.
Applying a display filter on large capture files might
take quite a long time.
The “Packet List” Pane
The packet list pane displays all the packets in the current capture file.
49
Figure 17. The “Packet List” pane
Each line in the packet list corresponds to one packet in the capture file. If you select a line in this
pane, more details will be displayed in the “Packet Details” and “Packet Bytes” panes.
While dissecting a packet, Wireshark will place information from the protocol dissectors into the
columns. As higher level protocols might overwrite information from lower levels, you will
typically see the information from the highest possible level only.
For example, let’s look at a packet containing TCP inside IP inside an Ethernet packet. The Ethernet
dissector will write its data (such as the Ethernet addresses), the IP dissector will overwrite this by
its own (such as the IP addresses), the TCP dissector will overwrite the IP information, and so on.
There are a lot of different columns available. Which columns are displayed can be selected by
preference settings, see Preferences.
The default columns will show:
• [ No. ] The number of the packet in the capture file. This number won’t change, even if a display
filter is used.
• [ Time ] The timestamp of the packet. The presentation format of this timestamp can be
changed, see Time display formats and time references.
• [ Source ] The address where this packet is coming from.
• [ Destination ] The address where this packet is going to.
• [ Protocol ] The protocol name in a short (perhaps abbreviated) version.
• [ Length ] The length of each packet.
• [ Info ] Additional information about the packet content.
The first column shows how each packet is related to the selected packet. For example, in the image
above the first packet is selected, which is a DNS request. Wireshark shows a rightward arrow for
the request itself, followed by a leftward arrow for the response in packet 2. Why is there a dashed
line? There are more DNS packets further down that use the same port numbers. Wireshark treats
them as belonging to the same conversation and draws a line connecting them.
Related packet symbols
First packet in a conversation.
50
Part of the selected conversation.
Not part of the selected conversation.
Last packet in a conversation.
Request.
Response.
The selected packet acknowledges this packet.
The selected packet is a duplicate acknowledgement of this packet.
The selected packet is related to this packet in some other way, e.g. as part of reassembly.
The packet list has an Intelligent Scrollbar which shows a miniature map of nearby packets. Each
raster line of the scrollbar corresponds to a single packet, so the number of packets shown in the
map depends on your physical display and the height of the packet list. A tall packet list on a highresolution (“Retina”) display will show you quite a few packets. In the image above the scrollbar
shows the status of more than 500 packets along with the 15 shown in the packet list itself.
Right clicking will show a context menu, described in Pop-up menu of the “Packet List” pane.
The “Packet Details” Pane
The packet details pane shows the current packet (selected in the “Packet List” pane) in a more
detailed form.
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Figure 18. The “Packet Details” pane
This pane shows the protocols and protocol fields of the packet selected in the “Packet List” pane.
The protocols and fields of the packet shown in a tree which can be expanded and collapsed.
There is a context menu (right mouse click) available. See details in Pop-up menu of the “Packet
Details” pane.
Some protocol fields have special meanings.
• Generated fields. Wireshark itself will generate additional protocol information which isn’t
present in the captured data. This information is enclosed in square brackets (“[” and “]”).
Generated information includes response times, TCP analysis, IP geolocation information, and
checksum validation.
• Links. If Wireshark detects a relationship to another packet in the capture file it will generate a
link to that packet. Links are underlined and displayed in blue. If you double-clicked on a link
Wireshark will jump to the corresponding packet.
The “Packet Bytes” Pane
The packet bytes pane shows the data of the current packet (selected in the “Packet List” pane) in a
hexdump style.
Figure 19. The “Packet Bytes” pane
The “Packet Bytes” pane shows a canonical hex dump of the packet data. Each line contains the data
offset, sixteen hexadecimal bytes, and sixteen ASCII bytes. Non-printalbe bytes are replaced with a
period (“.”).
Depending on the packet data, sometimes more than one page is available, e.g. when Wireshark has
52
reassembled some packets into a single chunk of data. (See Packet Reassembly for details). In this
case you can see each data source by clicking its corresponding tab at the bottom of the pane.
Figure 20. The “Packet Bytes” pane with tabs
Additional pages typically contain data reassembled from multiple packets or decrypted data.
The context menu (right mouse click) of the tab labels will show a list of all available pages. This
can be helpful if the size in the pane is too small for all the tab labels.
The Statusbar
The statusbar displays informational messages.
In general, the left side will show context related information, the middle part will show
information about the current capture file, and the right side will show the selected configuration
profile. Drag the handles between the text areas to change the size.
Figure 21. The initial Statusbar
This statusbar is shown while no capture file is loaded, e.g. when Wireshark is started.
Figure 22. The Statusbar with a loaded capture file
• The colorized bullet on the left shows the highest expert info level found in the currently
loaded capture file. Hovering the mouse over this icon will show a textual description of the
expert info level, and clicking the icon will bring up the Expert Infos dialog box. For a detailed
description of expert info, see Expert Information.
• The left side shows information about the capture file, its name, its size and the elapsed time
while it was being captured. Hovering over a file name will show its full path and size.
• The middle part shows the current number of packets in the capture file. The following values
are displayed:
◦ Packets: The number of captured packets.
◦ Displayed: The number of packets currently being displayed.
◦ Marked: The number of marked packets (only displayed if packets are marked).
◦ Dropped: The number of dropped packets (only displayed if Wireshark was unable to
53
capture all packets).
◦ Ignored: The number of ignored packets (only displayed if packets are ignored).
◦ Load time: The time it took to load the capture (wall clock time).
• The right side shows the selected configuration profile. Clicking in this part of the statusbar
will bring up a menu with all available configuration profiles, and selecting from this list will
change the configuration profile.
Figure 23. The Statusbar with a configuration profile menu
For a detailed description of configuration profiles, see Configuration Profiles.
Figure 24. The Statusbar with a selected protocol field
This is displayed if you have selected a protocol field from the “Packet Details” pane.
TIP
Figure 25. The Statusbar with a display filter message
The value between the parentheses (in this example “ipv6.src”) can be used as a
display filter, representing the selected protocol field.
This is displayed if you are trying to use a display filter which may have unexpected results. For a
detailed description, see A Common Mistake.
54
Capturing Live Network Data
Introduction
Capturing live network data is one of the major features of Wireshark.
The Wireshark capture engine provides the following features:
• Capture from different kinds of network hardware such as Ethernet or 802.11.
• Stop the capture on different triggers such as the amount of captured data, elapsed time, or the
number of packets.
• Simultaneously show decoded packets while Wireshark is capturing.
• Filter packets, reducing the amount of data to be captured. See Filtering while capturing.
• Save packets in multiple files while doing a long term capture, optionally rotating through a
fixed number of files (a “ringbuffer”). See Capture files and file modes.
• Simultaneously capture from multiple network interfaces.
The capture engine still lacks the following features:
• Stop capturing (or perform some other action) depending on the captured data.
Prerequisites
Setting up Wireshark to capture packets for the first time can be tricky. A comprehensive guide
“How To setup a Capture” is available at https://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureSetup.
Here are some common pitfalls:
• You may need special privileges to start a live capture.
• You need to choose the right network interface to capture packet data from.
• You need to capture at the right place in the network to see the traffic you want to see.
If you have any problems setting up your capture environment you should have a look at the guide
mentioned above.
Start Capturing
The following methods can be used to start capturing packets with Wireshark:
• You can double-click on an interface in the main window.
• You can get an overview of the available interfaces using the “Capture Interfaces” dialog box
55
(Capture › Options…). See The “Capture Interfaces” dialog box on Microsoft Windows or The
“Capture Interfaces” dialog box on Unix/Linux for more information. You can start a capture
from this dialog box using the [ Start ] button.
•
You can immediately start a capture using your current settings by selecting Capture › Start or
by cliking the first toolbar button.
• If you already know the name of the capture interface you can start Wireshark from the
command line:
$ wireshark -i eth0 -k
This will start Wireshark capturing on interface eth0. More details can be found at Start Wireshark
from the command line.
The “Capture Interfaces” dialog box
When you select Capture › Options… from the main menu Wireshark pops up the “Capture
Interfaces” dialog box as shown in The “Capture Interfaces” dialog box on Microsoft Windows or
The “Capture Interfaces” dialog box on Unix/Linux.
Both you and your OS can hide interfaces
This dialog box will only show the local interfaces Wireshark can access. It will also
NOTE
It is possible to select more than one interface and capture from them simultaneously.
Figure 26. The “Capture Interfaces” dialog box on Microsoft Windows
hide interfaces marked as hidden in Interface Options. As Wireshark might not be
able to detect all local interfaces and it cannot detect the remote interfaces available
there could be more capture interfaces available than listed.
56
Figure 27. The “Capture Interfaces” dialog box on Unix/Linux
Device (Unix/Linux only)
The interface device name.
Description
The interface description provided by the operating system, or the user defined comment added
in Interface Options.
IP
The first IP address Wireshark could find for this interface. You can click on the address to cycle
through other addresses assigned to it, if available. If no address could be found “none” will be
displayed.
Packets
The number of packets captured from this interface, since this dialog was opened. Will be
greyed out, if no packet was captured in the last second.
Packets/s
Number of packets captured in the last second. Will be greyed out, if no packet was captured in
the last second.
Stop
Stop a currently running capture.
Start
Start a capture on all selected interfaces immediately, using the settings from the last capture or
the default settings, if no options have been set.
Options
Open the Capture Options dialog with the marked interfaces selected. See The “Capture Options”
dialog box.
Details (Microsoft Windows only)
57
Open a dialog with detailed information about the interface. See The “Interface Details” dialog
box.
Help
Show this help page.
Close
Close this dialog box.
The “Capture Options” dialog box
When you select Capture › Options… (or use the corresponding item in the main toolbar),
Wireshark pops up the “Capture Options” dialog box as shown in The “Capture Options” dialog box.
Figure 28. The “Capture Options” dialog box
58
TIP
If you are unsure which options to choose in this dialog box just try keeping the
defaults as this should work well in many cases.
Capture frame
The table shows the settings for all available interfaces:
• The name of the interface and its IP addresses. If no address could be resolved from the system,
“none” will be shown.
NOTELoopback interfaces are not available on Windows platforms.
• The link-layer header type.
• The information whether promicuous mode is enabled or disabled.
• The maximum amount of data that will be captured for each packet. The default value is set to
the 262144 bytes.
• The size of the kernel buffer that is reserved to keep the captured packets.
• The information whether packets will be captured in monitor mode (Unix/Linux only).
• The chosen capture filter.
By marking the checkboxes in the first column the interfaces are selected to be captured from. By
double-clicking on an interface the “Edit Interface Settings” dialog box as shown in The “Edit
Interface Settings” dialog box will be opened.
Capture on all interfaces
As Wireshark can capture on multiple interfaces it is possible to choose to capture on all
available interfaces.
Capture all packets in promiscuous mode
This checkbox allows you to specify that Wireshark should put all interfaces in promiscuous
mode when capturing.
Capture Filter
This field allows you to specify a capture filter for all interfaces that are currently selected. Once
a filter has been entered in this field, the newly selected interfaces will inherit the filter. Capture
filters are discussed in more details in Filtering while capturing. It defaults to empty, or no filter.
You can also click on the [ Capture Filter ] button and Wireshark will bring up the Capture
Filters dialog box and allow you to create and/or select a filter. Please see Defining and saving
filters
Compile selected BPFs
This button allows you to compile the capture filter into BPF code and pop up a window showing
59
you the resulting pseudo code. This can help in understanding the working of the capture filter
you created. The [ Compile Selected BPFs ] button leads you to The “Compile Results” dialog
box.
TIPLinux power user tip
The execution of BPFs can be sped up on Linux by turning on BPF JIT by executing
$ echo 1 >/proc/sys/net/core/bpf_jit_enable
if it is not enabled already. To make the change persistent you can use sysfsutils.
Manage Interfaces
The [ Manage Interfaces ] button opens the The “Add New Interfaces” dialog box where pipes
can be defined, local interfaces scanned or hidden, or remote interfaces added (Windows only).
Capture File(s) frame
An explanation about capture file usage can be found in Capture files and file modes.
File
This field allows you to specify the file name that will be used for the capture file. This field is
left blank by default. If the field is left blank, the capture data will be stored in a temporary file.
See Capture files and file modes for details.
You can also click on the button to the right of this field to browse through the filesystem.
Use multiple files
Instead of using a single file Wireshark will automatically switch to a new one if a specific
trigger condition is reached.
Use pcapng format
This checkbox allows you to specify that Wireshark saves the captured packets in pcapng
format. This next generation capture file format is currently in development. If more than one
interface is chosen for capturing, this checkbox is set by default. See https://wiki.wireshark.org/
Development/PcapNg for more details on pcapng.
Next file every n megabyte(s)
Multiple files only. Switch to the next file after the given number of
byte(s)/kilobyte(s)/megabyte(s)/gigabyte(s) have been captured.
Next file every n minute(s)
Multiple files only: Switch to the next file after the given number of
60
second(s)/minutes(s)/hours(s)/days(s) have elapsed.
Ring buffer with n files
Multiple files only: Form a ring buffer of the capture files with the given number of files.
Stop capture after n file(s)
Multiple files only: Stop capturing after switching to the next file the given number of times.
Stop Capture… frame
… after n packet(s)
Stop capturing after the given number of packets have been captured.
… after n megabytes(s)
Stop capturing after the given number of byte(s)/kilobyte(s)/megabyte(s)/gigabyte(s) have been
captured. This option is greyed out if “Use multiple files” is selected.
… after n minute(s)
Stop capturing after the given number of second(s)/minutes(s)/hours(s)/days(s) have elapsed.
Display Options frame
Update list of packets in real time
This option allows you to specify that Wireshark should update the packet list pane in real time.
If you do not specify this, Wireshark does not display any packets until you stop the capture.
When you check this, Wireshark captures in a separate process and feeds the captures to the
display process.
Automatic scrolling in live capture
This option allows you to specify that Wireshark should scroll the packet list pane as new
packets come in, so you are always looking at the last packet. If you do not specify this
Wireshark simply adds new packets onto the end of the list but does not scroll the packet list
pane. This option is greyed out if “Update list of packets in real time” is disabled.
Name Resolution frame
Enable MAC name resolution
This option allows you to control whether or not Wireshark translates MAC addresses into
names. See Name Resolution.
Enable network name resolution
This option allows you to control whether or not Wireshark translates network addresses into
names. See Name Resolution.
61
Enable transport name resolution
This option allows you to control whether or not Wireshark translates transport addresses into
protocols. See Name Resolution.
Buttons
Once you have set the values you desire and have selected the options you need, simply click on
[ Start ] to commence the capture or [ Cancel ] to cancel the capture.
The “Edit Interface Settings” dialog box
If you double-click on an interface in The “Capture Options” dialog box the following dialog box
pops up.
Figure 29. The “Edit Interface Settings” dialog box
You can set the following fields in this dialog box:
IP address
The IP address(es) of the selected interface. If no address could be resolved from the system
“none” will be shown.
Link-layer header type
Unless you are in the rare situation that requires this keep the default setting. For a detailed
description. See Link-layer header type
Wireless settings (Windows only)
Here you can set the settings for wireless capture using the AirPCap adapter. For a detailed
description see the AirPCap Users Guide.
Remote settings (Windows only)
62
Here you can set the settings for remote capture. For a detailed description see The “Remote
Capture Interfaces” dialog box
Capture packets in promiscuous mode
This checkbox allows you to specify that Wireshark should put the interface in promiscuous
mode when capturing. If you do not specify this Wireshark will only capture the packets going to
or from your computer (not all packets on your LAN segment).
If some other process has put the interface in promiscuous mode you may be
capturing in promiscuous mode even if you turn off this option.
NOTE
Even in promiscuous mode you still won’t necessarily see all packets on your LAN
segment. See the Wireshark FAQ for more information.
Limit each packet to n bytes
This field allows you to specify the maximum amount of data that will be captured for each
packet, and is sometimes referred to as the snaplen. If disabled the value is set to the maximum
65535 which will be sufficient for most protocols. Some rules of thumb:
• If you are unsure just keep the default value.
• If you don’t need or don’t want all of the data in a packet - for example, if you only need the
link-layer, IP, and TCP headers - you might want to choose a small snapshot length, as less
CPU time is required for copying packets, less buffer space is required for packets, and thus
perhaps fewer packets will be dropped if traffic is very heavy.
• If you don’t capture all of the data in a packet you might find that the packet data you want is
in the part that’s dropped or that reassembly isn’t possible as the data required for
reassembly is missing.
Buffer size: n megabyte(s)
Enter the buffer size to be used while capturing. This is the size of the kernel buffer which will
keep the captured packets, until they are written to disk. If you encounter packet drops, try
increasing this value.
Capture packets in monitor mode (Unix/Linux only)
This checkbox allows you to setup the Wireless interface to capture all traffic it can receive, not
just the traffic on the BSS to which it is associated, which can happen even when you set
promiscuous mode. Also it might be necessary to turn this option on in order to see IEEE 802.11
headers and/or radio information from the captured frames.
NOTE
In monitor mode the adapter might disassociate itself from the network it was
associated to.
Capture Filter
This field allows you to specify a capture filter. Capture filters are discussed in more details in
63
Filtering while capturing. It defaults to empty, or no filter.
You can also click on the [ Capture Filter ] button and Wireshark will bring up the “Capture
Filters” dialog box and allow you to create and/or select a filter. Please see Defining and saving
filters
Compile BPF
This button allows you to compile the capture filter into BPF code and pop up a window showing
you the resulting pseudo code. This can help in understanding the working of the capture filter
you created.
The “Compile Results” dialog box
This figure shows the compile results of the selected interfaces.
Figure 30. The “Compile Results” dialog box
In the left window the interface names are listed. The results of an individual interface are shown
in the right window when it is selected.
The “Add New Interfaces” dialog box
As a central point to manage interfaces this dialog box consists of three tabs to add or remove
interfaces.
64
Figure 31. The “Add New Interfaces” dialog box
Add or remove pipes
Figure 32. The “Add New Interfaces - Pipes” dialog box
To successfully add a pipe, this pipe must have already been created. Click the [ New ] button and
type the name of the pipe including its path. Alternatively, the [ Browse ] button can be used to
locate the pipe. With the [ Save ] button the pipe is added to the list of available interfaces.
Afterwards, other pipes can be added.
To remove a pipe from the list of interfaces it first has to be selected. Then click the [ Delete ]
button.
65
Add or hide local interfaces
Figure 33. The “Add New Interfaces - Local Interfaces” dialog box
The tab “Local Interfaces” contains a list of available local interfaces, including the hidden ones,
which are not shown in the other lists.
If a new local interface is added, for example, a wireless interface has been activated, it is not
automatically added to the list to prevent the constant scanning for a change in the list of available
interfaces. To renew the list a rescan can be done.
One way to hide an interface is to change the preferences. If the “Hide” checkbox is activated and
the [ Apply ] button clicked, the interface will not be seen in the lists of the “Capture Interfaces”
dialog box any more. The changes are also saved in the preferences file.
Add or hide remote interfaces
66
Figure 34. The “Add New Interfaces - Remote Interfaces” dialog box
In this tab interfaces on remote hosts can be added. One or more of these interfaces can be hidden.
In contrast to the local interfaces they are not saved in the preferences file.
To remove a host including all its interfaces from the list, it has to be selected. Then click the
[Delete] button.
For a detailed description see The “Remote Capture Interfaces” dialog box
The “Remote Capture Interfaces” dialog box
Besides doing capture on local interfaces Wireshark is capable of reaching out across the network
to a so called capture daemon or service processes to receive captured data from.
Microsoft Windows only
NOTE
The Remote Packet Capture Protocol service must first be running on the target platform before
Wireshark can connect to it. The easiest way is to install WinPcap from https://www.winpcap.org/
install/ on the target. Once installation is completed go to the Services control panel, find the
Remote Packet Capture Protocol service and start it.
NOTE
To access the Remote Capture Interfaces dialog use the “Add New Interfaces - Remote” dialog. See
The “Add New Interfaces - Remote Interfaces” dialog box and select [ Add ].
This dialog and capability is only available on Microsoft Windows. On Linux/Unix
you can achieve the same effect (securely) through an SSH tunnel.
Make sure you have outside access to port 2002 on the target platform. This is the
port where the Remote Packet Capture Protocol service can be reached by default.
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Remote Capture Interfaces
Figure 35. The “Remote Capture Interfaces” dialog box
You have to set the following parameters in this dialog:
Host
Enter the IP address or host name of the target platform where the Remote Packet Capture
Protocol service is listening. The drop down list contains the hosts that have previously been
successfully contacted. The list can be emptied by choosing “Clear list” from the drop down list.
Port
Set the port number where the Remote Packet Capture Protocol service is listening on. Leave
open to use the default port (2002).
Null authentication
Select this if you don’t need authentication to take place for a remote capture to be started. This
depends on the target platform. Configuring the target platform like this makes it insecure.
Password authentication
This is the normal way of connecting to a target platform. Set the credentials needed to connect
to the Remote Packet Capture Protocol service.
Remote Capture Settings
The remote capture can be further fine tuned to match your situation. The [ Remote Settings ]
button in The “Edit Interface Settings” dialog box gives you this option. It pops up the dialog shown
in The “Remote Capture Settings” dialog box.
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Figure 36. The “Remote Capture Settings” dialog box
You can set the following parameters in this dialog:
Do not capture own RPCAP traffic
This option sets a capture filter so that the traffic flowing back from the Remote Packet Capture
Protocol service to Wireshark isn’t captured as well and also send back. The recursion in this
saturates the link with duplicate traffic.
You only should switch this off when capturing on an interface other than the interface
connecting back to Wireshark.
Use UDP for data transfer
Remote capture control and data flows over a TCP connection. This option allows you to choose
an UDP stream for data transfer.
Sampling option None
This option instructs the Remote Packet Capture Protocol service to send back all captured
packets which have passed the capture filter. This is usually not a problem on a remote capture
session with sufficient bandwidth.
Sampling option 1 of x packets
This option limits the Remote Packet Capture Protocol service to send only a sub sampling of the
captured data, in terms of number of packets. This allows capture over a narrow band remote
capture session of a higher bandwidth interface.
Sampling option 1 every x milliseconds
This option limits the Remote Packet Capture Protocol service to send only a sub sampling of the
captured data in terms of time. This allows capture over a narrow band capture session of a
higher bandwidth interface.
The “Interface Details” dialog box
When you select Details from the Capture Interface menu, Wireshark pops up the “Interface
Details” dialog box as shown in The “Interface Details” dialog box. This dialog shows various
characteristics and statistics for the selected interface.
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NOTE
Microsoft Windows only
This dialog is only available on Microsoft Windows
Figure 37. The “Interface Details” dialog box
Capture files and file modes
While capturing the underlying libpcap capturing engine will grab the packets from the network
card and keep the packet data in a (relatively) small kernel buffer. This data is read by Wireshark
and saved into a capture file.
By default Wireshark saves packets to a temporary file. You can also tell Wireshark to save to a
specific (“permanent”) file and switch to a different file after a given time has elapsed or a given
number of packets have been captured. These options are controlled in the “Output” tab in the
“Capture Options” dialog.
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Figure 38. Capture output options
Working with large files (several hundred MB) can be quite slow. If you plan to do a
TIP
long term capture or capturing from a high traffic network, think about using one of
the “Multiple files” options. This will spread the captured packets over several smaller
files which can be much more pleasant to work with.
Using Multiple files may cut context related information. Wireshark keeps context information of
the loaded packet data, so it can report context related problems (like a stream error) and keeps
information about context related protocols (e.g. where data is exchanged at the establishing phase
and only referred to in later packets). As it keeps this information only for the loaded file, using one
of the multiple file modes may cut these contexts. If the establishing phase is saved in one file and
the things you would like to see is in another, you might not see some of the valuable context
related information.
Information about the folders used for capture files can be found in Files and Folders.
Table 16. Capture file mode selected by capture options
File Name“Create a
new file…”
“Use a ring
buffer…”
ModeResulting filename(s) used
---Single temporary file wiresharkXXXXXX (where
XXXXXX is a unique number)
A temporary file will be created and used (this is the default). After capturing is stopped this file
can be saved later under a user specified name.
Single named file
A single capture file will be used. If you want to place the new capture file in a specific folder
choose this mode.
Multiple files, continuous
Like the “Single named file” mode, but a new file is created and used after reaching one of the
multiple file switch conditions (one of the “Next file every …” values).
Multiple files, ring buffer
Much like “Multiple files continuous”, reaching one of the multiple files switch conditions (one
of the “Next file every …” values) will switch to the next file. This will be a newly created file if
value of “Ring buffer with n files” is not reached, otherwise it will replace the oldest of the
formerly used files (thus forming a “ring”). + This mode will limit the maximum disk usage, even
for an unlimited amount of capture input data, only keeping the latest captured data.
Link-layer header type
In most cases you won’t have to modify link-layer header type. Some exceaptions are as follows:
If you are capturing on an Ethernet device you might be offered a choice of “Ethernet” or “DOCSIS”.
If you are capturing traffic from a Cisco Cable Modem Termination System that is putting DOCSIS
traffic onto the Ethernet to be captured, select “DOCSIS”, otherwise select “Ethernet”.
If you are capturing on an 802.11 device on some versions of BSD you might be offered a choice of
“Ethernet” or “802.11”. “Ethernet” will cause the captured packets to have fake (“cooked”) Ethernet
headers. “802.11” will cause them to have full IEEE 802.11 headers. Unless the capture needs to be
read by an application that doesn’t support 802.11 headers you should select “802.11”.
If you are capturing on an Endace DAG card connected to a synchronous serial line you might be
offered a choice of “PPP over serial” or “Cisco HDLC”. If the protocol on the serial line is PPP, select
“PPP over serial” and if the protocol on the serial line is Cisco HDLC, select “Cisco HDLC”.
If you are capturing on an Endace DAG card connected to an ATM network you might be offered a
choice of “RFC 1483 IP-over-ATM” or “Sun raw ATM”. If the only traffic being captured is RFC 1483
LLC-encapsulated IP, or if the capture needs to be read by an application that doesn’t support
SunATM headers, select “RFC 1483 IP-over-ATM”, otherwise select “Sun raw ATM”.
Filtering while capturing
Wireshark uses the libpcap filter language for capture filters. A brief overview of the syntax
follows. Complete documentation can be found in the pcap-filter man page. You can find a lot of
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Capture Filter examples at https://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureFilters.
You enter the capture filter into the “Filter” field of the Wireshark “Capture Options” dialog box, as
shown in The “Capture Options” dialog box.
A capture filter takes the form of a series of primitive expressions connected by conjunctions
(and/or) and optionally preceded by not:
[not] primitive [and|or [not] primitive ...]
An example is shown in A capture filter for telnet that captures traffic to and from a particular host.
Example 1. A capture filter for telnet that captures traffic to and from a particular host
A capture filter for telnet that captures traffic to and from a particular host
tcp port 23 and host 10.0.0.5
This example captures telnet traffic to and from the host 10.0.0.5, and shows how to use two
primitives and the and conjunction. Another example is shown in Capturing all telnet traffic not
from 10.0.0.5, and shows how to capture all telnet traffic except that from 10.0.0.5.
Example 2. Capturing all telnet traffic not from 10.0.0.5
Capturing all telnet traffic not from 10.0.0.5
tcp port 23 and not src host 10.0.0.5
A primitive is simply one of the following: [src|dst] host <host>
This primitive allows you to filter on a host IP address or name. You can optionally precede the
primitive with the keyword src|dst to specify that you are only interested in source or
destination addresses. If these are not present, packets where the specified address appears as
either the source or the destination address will be selected.
ether [src|dst] host <ehost>
This primitive allows you to filter on Ethernet host addresses. You can optionally include the
keyword src|dst between the keywords ether and host to specify that you are only interested in
source or destination addresses. If these are not present, packets where the specified address
appears in either the source or destination address will be selected.
gateway host <host>
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This primitive allows you to filter on packets that used host as a gateway. That is, where the
Ethernet source or destination was host but neither the source nor destination IP address was
host.
[src|dst] net <net> [{mask <mask>}|{len <len>}]
This primitive allows you to filter on network numbers. You can optionally precede this
primitive with the keyword src|dst to specify that you are only interested in a source or
destination network. If neither of these are present, packets will be selected that have the
specified network in either the source or destination address. In addition, you can specify either
the netmask or the CIDR prefix for the network if they are different from your own.
[tcp|udp] [src|dst] port <port>
This primitive allows you to filter on TCP and UDP port numbers. You can optionally precede this
primitive with the keywords src|dst and tcp|udp which allow you to specify that you are only
interested in source or destination ports and TCP or UDP packets respectively. The keywords
tcp|udp must appear before src|dst.
If these are not specified, packets will be selected for both the TCP and UDP protocols and when
the specified address appears in either the source or destination port field.
less|greater <length>
This primitive allows you to filter on packets whose length was less than or equal to the
specified length, or greater than or equal to the specified length, respectively.
ip|ether proto <protocol>
This primitive allows you to filter on the specified protocol at either the Ethernet layer or the IP
layer.
ether|ip broadcast|multicast
This primitive allows you to filter on either Ethernet or IP broadcasts or multicasts.
<expr> relop <expr>
This primitive allows you to create complex filter expressions that select bytes or ranges of bytes
in packets. Please see the pcap-filter man page at http://www.tcpdump.org/manpages/pcap-
filter.7.html for more details.
Automatic Remote Traffic Filtering
If Wireshark is running remotely (using e.g. SSH, an exported X11 window, a terminal server, …),
the remote content has to be transported over the network, adding a lot of (usually unimportant)
packets to the actually interesting traffic.
To avoid this, Wireshark tries to figure out if it’s remotely connected (by looking at some specific
environment variables) and automatically creates a capture filter that matches aspects of the
connection.
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The following environment variables are analyzed:
SSH_CONNECTION (ssh)
<remote IP> <remote port> <local IP> <local port>
SSH_CLIENT (ssh)
<remote IP> <remote port> <local port>
REMOTEHOST (tcsh, others?)
<remote name>
DISPLAY (x11)
[remote name]:<display num>
SESSIONNAME (terminal server)
<remote name>
On Windows it asks the operating system if it’s running in a Remote Desktop Services environment.
While a Capture is running …
You might see the following dialog box while a capture is running:
Figure 39. The “Capture Information” dialog box
This dialog box shows a list of protocols and their activity over time. It can be enabled via the
“capture.show_info” setting in the “Advanced” preferences.
Stop the running capture
A running capture session will be stopped in one of the following ways:
1. The [ Stop Capture ] button in the “Capture Information” dialog box.
2.
The Capture › Stop menu item.
3. The [ Stop ] toolbar button.
4. Pressing Ctrl+E.
5. The capture will be automatically stopped if one of the Stop Conditions is met, e.g. the maximum
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amount of data was captured.
Restart a running capture
A running capture session can be restarted with the same capture options as the last time, this will
remove all packets previously captured. This can be useful, if some uninteresting packets are
captured and there’s no need to keep them.
Restart is a convenience function and equivalent to a capture stop following by an immediate
capture start. A restart can be triggered in one of the following ways:
1.
Using the Capture › Restart menu item.
2. Using the [ Restart ] toolbar button.
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File Input, Output, and Printing
Introduction
This chapter will describe input and output of capture data.
• Open capture files in various capture file formats
• Save/Export capture files in various capture file formats
• Merge capture files together
• Import text files containing hex dumps of packets
• Print packets
Open capture files
Wireshark can read in previously saved capture files. To read them, simply select the File › Open
menu or toolbar item. Wireshark will then pop up the “File Open” dialog box, which is discussed in
more detail in The “Open Capture File” dialog box.
It’s convenient to use drag-and-drop
TIP
If you haven’t previously saved the current capture file you will be asked to do so to prevent data
loss. This warning can be disabled in the preferences.
In addition to its native file format (pcapng), Wireshark can read and write capture files from a
large number of other packet capture programs as well. See Input File Formats for the list of
capture formats Wireshark understands.
You can open a file by simply dragging it in your file manager and dropping it onto
Wireshark’s main window. However, drag-and-drop may not be available in all
desktop environments.
The “Open Capture File” dialog box
The “Open Capture File” dialog box allows you to search for a capture file containing previously
captured packets for display in Wireshark. The following sections show some examples of the
Wireshark “Open File” dialog box. The appearance of this dialog depends on the system. However,
the functionality should be the same across systems.
Common dialog behaviour on all systems:
• Select files and directories.
• Click the [ Open ] or [ OK ] button to accept your selected file and open it.
• Click the [ Cancel ] button to go back to Wireshark and not load a capture file.
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Wireshark extensions to the standard behaviour of these dialogs:
• View file preview information such as the filesize and the number of packets in a selected a
capture file.
• Specify a display filter with the [ Filter ] button and filter field. This filter will be used when
opening the new file. The text field background becomes green for a valid filter string and red
for an invalid one. Clicking on the [ Filter ] button causes Wireshark to pop up the “Filters”
dialog box (which is discussed further in Filtering packets while viewing).
• Specify which type of name resolution is to be performed for all packets by clicking on one of
the “… name resolution” check buttons. Details about name resolution can be found in Name
Resolution.
Save a lot of time loading huge capture files
You can change the display filter and name resolution settings later while viewing the
TIP
packets. However, loading huge capture files can take a significant amount of extra
time if these settings are changed later, so in such situations it can be a good idea to
set at least the filter in advance here.
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Figure 40. “Open” on Microsoft Windows
This is the common Windows file open dialog - plus some Wireshark extensions.
Specific for this dialog:
• The [ Help ] button will lead you to this section of this “User’s Guide”.
79
Figure 41. “Open” - Linux and UNIX
This is the common Gimp/GNOME file open dialog plus some Wireshark extensions.
Specific for this dialog:
• The [ + ] button allows you to add a directory selected in the right-hand pane to the favorites list
on the left. These changes are persistent.
• The [ - ] button allows you to remove a selected directory from the list. Some items (such as
“Desktop”) cannot be removed from the favorites list.
• If Wireshark doesn’t recognize the selected file as a capture file it will grey out the [ Open ]
button.
Input File Formats
The following file formats from other capture tools can be opened by Wireshark:
• pcapng. A flexible, etensible successor to the libpcap format. Wireshark 1.8 and later save files
as pcapng by default. Versions prior to 1.8 used libpcap.
• libpcap. The default format used by the libpcap packet capture library. Used by tcpdump, _Snort,
Nmap, Ntop, and many other tools.
• Oracle (previously Sun) snoop and atmsnoop
• Finisar (previously Shomiti) Surveyor captures
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• Microsoft Network Monitor captures
• Novell LANalyzer captures
• AIX iptrace captures
• Cinco Networks NetXray captures
• Network Associates Windows-based Sniffer and Sniffer Pro captures
• Network General/Network Associates DOS-based Sniffer (compressed or uncompressed)
captures
• AG Group/WildPackets/Savvius EtherPeek/TokenPeek/AiroPeek/EtherHelp/PacketGrabber
captures
• RADCOM’s WAN/LAN Analyzer captures
• Network Instruments Observer version 9 captures
• Lucent/Ascend router debug output
• HP-UX’s nettl
• Toshiba’s ISDN routers dump output
• ISDN4BSD i4btrace utility
• traces from the EyeSDN USB S0
• IPLog format from the Cisco Secure Intrusion Detection System
• pppd logs (pppdump format)
• the output from VMS’s TCPIPtrace/TCPtrace/UCX$TRACE utilities
• the text output from the DBS Etherwatch VMS utility
• Visual Networks’ Visual UpTime traffic capture
• the output from CoSine L2 debug
• the output from Accellent’s 5Views LAN agents
• Endace Measurement Systems’ ERF format captures
• Linux Bluez Bluetooth stack hcidump -w traces
• Catapult DCT2000 .out files
• Gammu generated text output from Nokia DCT3 phones in Netmonitor mode
• IBM Series (OS/400) Comm traces (ASCII & UNICODE)
• Juniper Netscreen snoop captures
• Symbian OS btsnoop captures
• Tamosoft CommView captures
• Textronix K12xx 32bit .rf5 format captures
• Textronix K12 text file format captures
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• Apple PacketLogger captures
• Captures from Aethra Telecommunications’ PC108 software for their test instruments
New file formats are added from time to time.
It may not be possible to read some formats dependent on the packet types captured. Ethernet
captures are usually supported for most file formats but it may not be possible to read other packet
types such as PPP or IEEE 802.11 from all file formats.
Saving captured packets
You can save captured packets simply by using the File › Save As… menu item. You can choose
which packets to save and which file format to be used.
Not all information will be saved in a capture file. For example, most file formats don’t record the
number of dropped packets. See Capture Files for details.
The “Save Capture File As” dialog box
The “Save Capture File As” dialog box allows you to save the current capture to a file. The following
sections show some examples of this dialog box. The appearance of this dialog depends on the
system. However, the functionality should be the same across systems.
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Figure 42. “Save” on Microsoft Windows
This is the common Windows file save dialog with some additional Wireshark extensions.
Specific behavior for this dialog:
• If available, the “Help” button will lead you to this section of this “User’s Guide”.
• If you don’t provide a file extension to the filename (e.g. .pcap) Wireshark will append the
standard file extension for that file format.
83
Figure 43. “Save” on Linux and UNIX
This is the common Gimp/GNOME file save dialog with additional Wireshark extensions.
Specific for this dialog:
• Clicking on the + at “Browse for other folders” will allow you to browse files and folders in your
file system.
With this dialog box, you can perform the following actions:
1. Type in the name of the file you wish to save the captured packets in, as a standard file name in
your file system.
2. Select the directory to save the file into.
3. Select the range of the packets to be saved. See The “Packet Range” frame.
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4. Specify the format of the saved capture file by clicking on the File type drop down box. You can
choose from the types described in Output File Formats.
Some capture formats may not be available depending on the packet types captured.
Wireshark can convert file formats
TIP
You can convert capture files from one format to another by reading in a capture file
and writing it out using a different format.
1. Click the [ Save ] or [ OK ] button to accept your selected file and save to it. If Wireshark has a
problem saving the captured packets to the file you specified it will display an error dialog box.
After clicking [ OK ] on that error dialog box you can try again.
2. Click on the [ Cancel ] button to go back to Wireshark without saving any packets.
Output File Formats
Wireshark can save the packet data in its native file format (pcapng) and in the file formats of other
protocol analyzers so other tools can read the capture data.
Different file formats have different time stamp accuracies
WARNING
The following file formats can be saved by Wireshark (with the known file extensions):
Saving from the currently used file format to a different format may reduce
the time stamp accuracy; see the Time Stamps for details.
• pcapng (*.pcapng). A flexible, etensible successor to the libpcap format. Wireshark 1.8 and later
save files as pcapng by default. Versions prior to 1.8 used libpcap.
• libpcap, tcpdump and various other tools using tcpdump’s capture format (*.pcap,*.cap,*.dmp)
• Accellent 5Views (*.5vw)
• HP-UX’s nettl (*.TRC0,*.TRC1)
• Microsoft Network Monitor - NetMon (*.cap)
• Network Associates Sniffer - DOS (*.cap,*.enc,*.trc,*fdc,*.syc)
• Network Associates Sniffer - Windows (*.cap)
• Network Instruments Observer version 9 (*.bfr)
• Novell LANalyzer (*.tr1)
• Oracle (previously Sun) snoop (*.snoop,*.cap)
• Visual Networks Visual UpTime traffic (*.*)
New file formats are added from time to time.
Whether or not the above tools will be more helpful than Wireshark is a different question ;-)
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Third party protocol analyzers may require specific file extensions
NOTE
Wireshark examines a file’s contents to determine its type. Some other protocol
analyzers only look at a filename extensions. For example, you might need to use
the .cap extension in order to open a file using Sniffer.
Merging capture files
Sometimes you need to merge several capture files into one. For example, this can be useful if you
have captured simultaneously from multiple interfaces at once (e.g. using multiple instances of
Wireshark).
There are three ways to merge capture files using Wireshark:
•
Use the File › Merge menu to open the “Merge” dialog. See The “Merge with Capture File” dialog
box. This menu item will be disabled unless you have loaded a capture file.
• Use drag-and-drop to drop multiple files on the main window. Wireshark will try to merge the
packets in chronological order from the dropped files into a newly created temporary file. If you
drop only a single file it will simply replace the existing capture.
• Use the mergecap tool, a command line tool to merge capture files. This tool provides the most
options to merge capture files. See mergecap: Merging multiple capture files into one for details.
The “Merge with Capture File” dialog box
This dialog box let you select a file to be merged into the currently loaded file. If your current data
has not been saved you will be asked to save it first.
Most controls of this dialog will work the same way as described in the “Open Capture File” dialog
box, see The “Open Capture File” dialog box.
Specific controls of this merge dialog are:
Prepend packets to existing file
Prepend the packets from the selected file before the currently loaded packets.
Merge packets chronologically
Merge both the packets from the selected and currently loaded file in chronological order.
Append packets to existing file
Append the packets from the selected file after the currently loaded packets.
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Figure 44. “Merge” on Microsoft Windows
This is the common Windows file open dialog with additional Wireshark extensions.
87
Figure 45. “Merge” on Linux and UNIX
This is the common Gimp/GNOME file open dialog with additional Wireshark extensions.
Import hex dump
Wireshark can read in an ASCII hex dump and write the data described into a temporary libpcap
capture file. It can read hex dumps with multiple packets in them, and build a capture file of
multiple packets. It is also capable of generating dummy Ethernet, IP and UDP, TCP, or SCTP
headers, in order to build fully processable packet dumps from hexdumps of application-level data
only.
Wireshark understands a hexdump of the form generated by od -Ax -tx1 -v. In other words, each
byte is individually displayed and surrounded with a space. Each line begins with an offset
describing the position in the file. The offset is a hex number (can also be octal or decimal), of more
than two hex digits. Here is a sample dump that can be imported:
000000 00 e0 1e a7 05 6f 00 10 ........
000008 5a a0 b9 12 08 00 46 00 ........
000010 03 68 00 00 00 00 0a 2e ........
000018 ee 33 0f 19 08 7f 0f 19 ........
000020 03 80 94 04 00 00 10 01 ........
000028 16 a2 0a 00 03 50 00 0c ........
000030 01 01 0f 19 03 80 11 01 ........
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There is no limit on the width or number of bytes per line. Also the text dump at the end of the line
is ignored. Byte and hex numbers can be uppercase or lowercase. Any text before the offset is
ignored, including email forwarding characters >. Any lines of text between the bytestring lines are
ignored. The offsets are used to track the bytes, so offsets must be correct. Any line which has only
bytes without a leading offset is ignored. An offset is recognized as being a hex number longer than
two characters. Any text after the bytes is ignored (e.g. the character dump). Any hex numbers in
this text are also ignored. An offset of zero is indicative of starting a new packet, so a single text file
with a series of hexdumps can be converted into a packet capture with multiple packets. Packets
may be preceded by a timestamp. These are interpreted according to the format given. If not the
first packet is timestamped with the current time the import takes place. Multiple packets are read
in with timestamps differing by one microsecond each. In general, short of these restrictions,
Wireshark is pretty liberal about reading in hexdumps and has been tested with a variety of
mangled outputs (including being forwarded through email multiple times, with limited line wrap
etc.)
There are a couple of other special features to note. Any line where the first non-whitespace
character is # will be ignored as a comment. Any line beginning with #TEXT2PCAP is a directive and
options can be inserted after this command to be processed by Wireshark. Currently there are no
directives implemented. In the future these may be used to give more fine grained control on the
dump and the way it should be processed e.g. timestamps, encapsulation type etc. Wireshark also
allows the user to read in dumps of application-level data, by inserting dummy L2, L3 and L4
headers before each packet. The user can elect to insert Ethernet headers, Ethernet and IP, or
Ethernet, IP and UDP/TCP/SCTP headers before each packet. This allows Wireshark or any other
full-packet decoder to handle these dumps.
The “Import from Hex Dump” dialog box
This dialog box lets you select a text file, containing a hex dump of packet data, to be imported and
set import parameters.
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Figure 46. The “Import from Hex Dump” dialog
Specific controls of this import dialog are split in two sections:
Input
Determine which input file has to be imported and how it is to be interpreted.
Import
Determine how the data is to be imported.
The input parameters are as follows:
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Filename / Browse
Enter the name of the text file to import. You can use Browse to browse for a file.
Offsets
Select the radix of the offsets given in the text file to import. This is usually hexadecimal, but
decimal and octal are also supported.
Date/Time
Tick this checkbox if there are timestamps associated with the frames in the text file to import
you would like to use. Otherwise the current time is used for timestamping the frames.
Format
This is the format specifier used to parse the timestamps in the text file to import. It uses a
simple syntax to describe the format of the timestamps, using %H for hours, %M for minutes, %S
for seconds, etc. The straightforward HH:MM:SS format is covered by %T. For a full definition of
the syntax look for strptime(3).
The import parameters are as follows:
Encapsulation type
Here you can select which type of frames you are importing. This all depends on from what type
of medium the dump to import was taken. It lists all types that Wireshark understands, so as to
pass the capture file contents to the right dissector.
Dummy header
When Ethernet encapsulation is selected you have to option to prepend dummy headers to the
frames to import. These headers can provide artificial Ethernet, IP, UDP or TCP or SCTP headers
and SCTP data chunks. When selecting a type of dummy header the applicable entries are
enabled, others are grayed out and default values are used.
Maximum frame length
You may not be interested in the full frames from the text file, just the first part. Here you can
define how much data from the start of the frame you want to import. If you leave this open the
maximum is set to 65535 bytes.
Once all input and import parameters are setup click [ OK ] to start the import. If your current data
wasn’t saved before you will be asked to save it first.
When completed there will be a new capture file loaded with the frames imported from the text
file.
File Sets
When using the “Multiple Files” option while doing a capture (see: Capture files and file modes), the
capture data is spread over several capture files, called a file set.
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As it can become tedious to work with a file set by hand, Wireshark provides some features to
handle these file sets in a convenient way.
How does Wireshark detect the files of a file set?
A filename in a file set uses the format Prefix_Number_DateTimeSuffix which might look
something like test_00001_20060420183910.pcap. All files of a file set share the same prefix (e.g.
“test”) and suffix (e.g. “.pcap”) and a varying middle part.
To find the files of a file set, Wireshark scans the directory where the currently loaded file
resides and checks for files matching the filename pattern (prefix and suffix) of the currently
loaded file.
This simple mechanism usually works well but has its drawbacks. If several file sets were
captured with the same prefix and suffix, Wireshark will detect them as a single file set. If
files were renamed or spread over several directories the mechanism will fail to find all files
of a set.
The following features in the File › File Set submenu are available to work with file sets in a
convenient way:
• The “List Files” dialog box will list the files Wireshark has recognized as being part of the
current file set.
• [ Next File ] closes the current and opens the next file in the file set.
• [ Previous File ] closes the current and opens the previous file in the file set.
The “List Files” dialog box
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Figure 47. The “List Files” dialog box
Each line contains information about a file of the file set:
• Filename the name of the file. If you click on the filename (or the radio button left to it), the
current file will be closed and the corresponding capture file will be opened.
• Created the creation time of the file
• Last Modified the last time the file was modified
• Size the size of the file
The last line will contain info about the currently used directory where all of the files in the file set
can be found.
The content of this dialog box is updated each time a capture file is opened/closed.
The [ Close ] button will, well, close the dialog box.
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Exporting data
Wireshark provides several ways and formats to export packet data. This section describes general
ways to export data from the main Wireshark application. There are more specialized functions to
export specific data which are described elsewhere.
The “Export as Plain Text File” dialog box
Export packet data into a plain ASCII text file, much like the format used to print packets.
If you would like to be able to import any previously exported packets from a plain
text file it is recommended that you:
• Add the “Absolute date and time” column.
• Temporarily hide all other columns.
•
TIP
Disable the Edit › Preferences › Protocols › Data “Show not dissected data on new
Packet Bytes pane” preference. More details are provided in Preferences
• Include the packet summary line.
• Exclude column headings.
• Exclude packet details.
• Include the packet bytes.
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Figure 48. The “Export as Plain Text File” dialog box
• The “Export to file:” frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
• The “Packet Range” frame is described in The “Packet Range” frame.
• The “Packet Details” frame is described in The Packet Format frame.
The “Export as PostScript File” dialog box
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Figure 49. The “Export as PostScript File” dialog box
• Export to file: frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
• The Packet Range frame is described in The “Packet Range” frame.
• The Packet Details frame is described in The Packet Format frame.
The “Export as CSV (Comma Separated Values) File” dialog box
Export packet summary into CSV, used e.g. by spreadsheet programs to im-/export data.
• Export to file: frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
• The Packet Range frame is described in The “Packet Range” frame.
The “Export as C Arrays (packet bytes) file” dialog box
Export packet bytes into C arrays so you can import the stream data into your own C program.
• Export to file: frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
• The Packet Range frame is described in The “Packet Range” frame.
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The “Export as PSML File” dialog box
Export packet data into PSML. This is an XML based format including only the packet summary. The
PSML file specification is available at: http://www.nbee.org/doku.php?id=netpdl:psml_specification.
Figure 50. The “Export as PSML File” dialog box
• Export to file: frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
• The Packet Range frame is described in The “Packet Range” frame.
There’s no such thing as a packet details frame for PSML export, as the packet format is defined by
the PSML specification.
The “Export as PDML File” dialog box
Export packet data into PDML. This is an XML based format including the packet details. The PDML
file specification is available at: http://www.nbee.org/doku.php?id=netpdl:pdml_specification.
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NOTE
The PDML specification is not officially released and Wireshark’s implementation of
it is still in an early beta state, so please expect changes in future Wireshark
versions.
Figure 51. The “Export as PDML File” dialog box
• Export to file: frame chooses the file to export the packet data to.
• The Packet Range frame is described in The “Packet Range” frame.
There’s no such thing as a packet details frame for PDML export, as the packet format is defined by
the PDML specification.
The “Export selected packet bytes” dialog box
Export the bytes selected in the “Packet Bytes” pane into a raw binary file.
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Figure 52. The “Export Selected Packet Bytes” dialog box
• Name: the filename to export the packet data to.
• The Save in folder: field lets you select the folder to save to (from some predefined folders).
• Browse for other folders provides a flexible way to choose a folder.
The “Export Objects” dialog box
This feature scans through the selected protocol’s streams in the currently open capture file or
running capture and allows the user to export reassembled objects to the disk. For example, if you
select HTTP, you can export HTML documents, images, executables, and any other files transferred
over HTTP to the disk. If you have a capture running, this list is automatically updated every few
seconds with any new objects seen. The saved objects can then be opened or examined
independently of Wireshark.
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