Why am I able to open Wireshark and capture packets in macOS without root privileges?
As far as I know, capturing packets using Wireshark requires root/administrator privileges. In Windows, it prompts for UAC elevation and runs with administrative privileges. The same thing in Ubuntu; it prompts for a password to authorize access before showing me the interfaces.
However, in macOS, there is no authorization required. I don't have to enter a password. Instead, Wireshark is directly showing me the interfaces and I am able to capture packets.
How is Wireshark able to do this on macOS? What is special about macOS that allows interfaces and packets to be monitored without administrative access?
root wireshark
edited 12 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
asked 18 hours ago
scipsychoscipsycho
1179
add a comment |
As far as I know, capturing packets using Wireshark requires root/administrator privileges. In Windows, it prompts for UAC elevation and runs with administrative privileges. The same thing in Ubuntu; it prompts for a password to authorize access before showing me the interfaces.
However, in macOS, there is no authorization required. I don't have to enter a password. Instead, Wireshark is directly showing me the interfaces and I am able to capture packets.
How is Wireshark able to do this on macOS? What is special about macOS that allows interfaces and packets to be monitored without administrative access?
root wireshark
edited 12 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
asked 18 hours ago
scipsychoscipsycho
1179
What kind of wireshark are you running? GUI (app) or command line?
– IconDaemon
18 hours ago
Did you login as a standard user or as an administrator user?
– jksoegaard
18 hours ago
The question in the title and the question in the body of your post aren't the same. The reason why you can open Wireshark without root privileges is because you can use it to analyze packet dumps, which are just ordinary files.
– Mark
10 hours ago
add a comment |
As far as I know, capturing packets using Wireshark requires root/administrator privileges. In Windows, it prompts for UAC elevation and runs with administrative privileges. The same thing in Ubuntu; it prompts for a password to authorize access before showing me the interfaces.
However, in macOS, there is no authorization required. I don't have to enter a password. Instead, Wireshark is directly showing me the interfaces and I am able to capture packets.
How is Wireshark able to do this on macOS? What is special about macOS that allows interfaces and packets to be monitored without administrative access?
root wireshark
edited 12 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
asked 18 hours ago
scipsychoscipsycho
1179
As far as I know, capturing packets using Wireshark requires root/administrator privileges. In Windows, it prompts for UAC elevation and runs with administrative privileges. The same thing in Ubuntu; it prompts for a password to authorize access before showing me the interfaces.
However, in macOS, there is no authorization required. I don't have to enter a password. Instead, Wireshark is directly showing me the interfaces and I am able to capture packets.
How is Wireshark able to do this on macOS? What is special about macOS that allows interfaces and packets to be monitored without administrative access?
root wireshark
root wireshark
edited 12 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
asked 18 hours ago
scipsychoscipsycho
1179
edited 12 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
asked 18 hours ago
scipsychoscipsycho
1179
edited 12 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
edited 12 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
edited 12 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
17.9k1748
asked 18 hours ago
scipsychoscipsycho
1179
asked 18 hours ago
scipsychoscipsycho
1179
asked 18 hours ago
scipsychoscipsycho
1179
1179
What kind of wireshark are you running? GUI (app) or command line?
– IconDaemon
18 hours ago
Did you login as a standard user or as an administrator user?
– jksoegaard
18 hours ago
The question in the title and the question in the body of your post aren't the same. The reason why you can open Wireshark without root privileges is because you can use it to analyze packet dumps, which are just ordinary files.
– Mark
10 hours ago
add a comment |
What kind of wireshark are you running? GUI (app) or command line?
– IconDaemon
18 hours ago
Did you login as a standard user or as an administrator user?
– jksoegaard
18 hours ago
The question in the title and the question in the body of your post aren't the same. The reason why you can open Wireshark without root privileges is because you can use it to analyze packet dumps, which are just ordinary files.
– Mark
10 hours ago
What kind of wireshark are you running? GUI (app) or command line?
– IconDaemon
18 hours ago
What kind of wireshark are you running? GUI (app) or command line?
– IconDaemon
18 hours ago
Did you login as a standard user or as an administrator user?
– jksoegaard
18 hours ago
Did you login as a standard user or as an administrator user?
– jksoegaard
18 hours ago
The question in the title and the question in the body of your post aren't the same. The reason why you can open Wireshark without root privileges is because you can use it to analyze packet dumps, which are just ordinary files.
– Mark
10 hours ago
The question in the title and the question in the body of your post aren't the same. The reason why you can open Wireshark without root privileges is because you can use it to analyze packet dumps, which are just ordinary files.
– Mark
10 hours ago
add a comment |
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
The reason is that the Wireshark installer installs a LaunchDaemon (i.e. something that runs with superuser privileges on boot) for setting special permissions to capture network packets. More specifically you can look at the file /Library/LaunchDaemon/org.wireshark.ChmodBPF.plist to see what it does and when it is run.
As creating these LaunchDaemons require superuser privileges in itself, the Wireshark installer requires you to be a superuser (i.e. you have to enter an administrator user password to install the software).
If you look at the actual script run by the LaunchDaemon in /Library/Application Support/Wireshark/ChmodBPF/ChmodBPF, you'll see that it creates 256 devices entries /dev/bpf0 to /dev/bpf255 and sets to that everyone in the access_bpf group can read and write to these device files.
The access_bpf groups is actually also created by Wireshark installer. This also requires superuser privileges. If you open System Preferences and then Users & Groups, you'll be able to fold out the "Groups" part of the tree and see "access_bpf" listed there. You can then add/remove users from that group to give or remove permission to capture network packets within Wireshark.
answered 18 hours ago
jksoegaardjksoegaard
17.9k1748
How do thesebpfdevices work exactly? Does this imply there' a performance-cost to having wireshark installed, even when not capturing?
– Alexander
4 hours ago
At what level do you want the explanation? (I.e. are you home user, programmer, kernel developer?). In general terms they work like any other device. A program reads from the device and receives data. In this case the data is network packets. The program uses ioctl() to configure which NIC to listen on, set packet filters, etc. BPF is a common system which is also available on other systems like FreeBSD, Linux, etc. It does not mean that there’s a performance cost to having Wireshark installed. BPF is not a part of Wireshark, it is a standard part of the macOS kernel (Darwin).
– jksoegaard
16 mins ago
add a comment |
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1 Answer
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1 Answer
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oldest
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active
oldest
votes
The reason is that the Wireshark installer installs a LaunchDaemon (i.e. something that runs with superuser privileges on boot) for setting special permissions to capture network packets. More specifically you can look at the file /Library/LaunchDaemon/org.wireshark.ChmodBPF.plist to see what it does and when it is run.
As creating these LaunchDaemons require superuser privileges in itself, the Wireshark installer requires you to be a superuser (i.e. you have to enter an administrator user password to install the software).
If you look at the actual script run by the LaunchDaemon in /Library/Application Support/Wireshark/ChmodBPF/ChmodBPF, you'll see that it creates 256 devices entries /dev/bpf0 to /dev/bpf255 and sets to that everyone in the access_bpf group can read and write to these device files.
The access_bpf groups is actually also created by Wireshark installer. This also requires superuser privileges. If you open System Preferences and then Users & Groups, you'll be able to fold out the "Groups" part of the tree and see "access_bpf" listed there. You can then add/remove users from that group to give or remove permission to capture network packets within Wireshark.
answered 18 hours ago
jksoegaardjksoegaard
17.9k1748
How do thesebpfdevices work exactly? Does this imply there' a performance-cost to having wireshark installed, even when not capturing?
– Alexander
4 hours ago
At what level do you want the explanation? (I.e. are you home user, programmer, kernel developer?). In general terms they work like any other device. A program reads from the device and receives data. In this case the data is network packets. The program uses ioctl() to configure which NIC to listen on, set packet filters, etc. BPF is a common system which is also available on other systems like FreeBSD, Linux, etc. It does not mean that there’s a performance cost to having Wireshark installed. BPF is not a part of Wireshark, it is a standard part of the macOS kernel (Darwin).
– jksoegaard
16 mins ago
add a comment |
The reason is that the Wireshark installer installs a LaunchDaemon (i.e. something that runs with superuser privileges on boot) for setting special permissions to capture network packets. More specifically you can look at the file /Library/LaunchDaemon/org.wireshark.ChmodBPF.plist to see what it does and when it is run.
As creating these LaunchDaemons require superuser privileges in itself, the Wireshark installer requires you to be a superuser (i.e. you have to enter an administrator user password to install the software).
If you look at the actual script run by the LaunchDaemon in /Library/Application Support/Wireshark/ChmodBPF/ChmodBPF, you'll see that it creates 256 devices entries /dev/bpf0 to /dev/bpf255 and sets to that everyone in the access_bpf group can read and write to these device files.
The access_bpf groups is actually also created by Wireshark installer. This also requires superuser privileges. If you open System Preferences and then Users & Groups, you'll be able to fold out the "Groups" part of the tree and see "access_bpf" listed there. You can then add/remove users from that group to give or remove permission to capture network packets within Wireshark.
answered 18 hours ago
jksoegaardjksoegaard
17.9k1748
How do thesebpfdevices work exactly? Does this imply there' a performance-cost to having wireshark installed, even when not capturing?
– Alexander
4 hours ago
At what level do you want the explanation? (I.e. are you home user, programmer, kernel developer?). In general terms they work like any other device. A program reads from the device and receives data. In this case the data is network packets. The program uses ioctl() to configure which NIC to listen on, set packet filters, etc. BPF is a common system which is also available on other systems like FreeBSD, Linux, etc. It does not mean that there’s a performance cost to having Wireshark installed. BPF is not a part of Wireshark, it is a standard part of the macOS kernel (Darwin).
– jksoegaard
16 mins ago
add a comment |
The reason is that the Wireshark installer installs a LaunchDaemon (i.e. something that runs with superuser privileges on boot) for setting special permissions to capture network packets. More specifically you can look at the file /Library/LaunchDaemon/org.wireshark.ChmodBPF.plist to see what it does and when it is run.
As creating these LaunchDaemons require superuser privileges in itself, the Wireshark installer requires you to be a superuser (i.e. you have to enter an administrator user password to install the software).
If you look at the actual script run by the LaunchDaemon in /Library/Application Support/Wireshark/ChmodBPF/ChmodBPF, you'll see that it creates 256 devices entries /dev/bpf0 to /dev/bpf255 and sets to that everyone in the access_bpf group can read and write to these device files.
The access_bpf groups is actually also created by Wireshark installer. This also requires superuser privileges. If you open System Preferences and then Users & Groups, you'll be able to fold out the "Groups" part of the tree and see "access_bpf" listed there. You can then add/remove users from that group to give or remove permission to capture network packets within Wireshark.
answered 18 hours ago
jksoegaardjksoegaard
17.9k1748
The reason is that the Wireshark installer installs a LaunchDaemon (i.e. something that runs with superuser privileges on boot) for setting special permissions to capture network packets. More specifically you can look at the file /Library/LaunchDaemon/org.wireshark.ChmodBPF.plist to see what it does and when it is run.
As creating these LaunchDaemons require superuser privileges in itself, the Wireshark installer requires you to be a superuser (i.e. you have to enter an administrator user password to install the software).
If you look at the actual script run by the LaunchDaemon in /Library/Application Support/Wireshark/ChmodBPF/ChmodBPF, you'll see that it creates 256 devices entries /dev/bpf0 to /dev/bpf255 and sets to that everyone in the access_bpf group can read and write to these device files.
The access_bpf groups is actually also created by Wireshark installer. This also requires superuser privileges. If you open System Preferences and then Users & Groups, you'll be able to fold out the "Groups" part of the tree and see "access_bpf" listed there. You can then add/remove users from that group to give or remove permission to capture network packets within Wireshark.
answered 18 hours ago
jksoegaardjksoegaard
17.9k1748
answered 18 hours ago
jksoegaardjksoegaard
17.9k1748
answered 18 hours ago
jksoegaardjksoegaard
17.9k1748
answered 18 hours ago
jksoegaardjksoegaard
17.9k1748
17.9k1748
How do thesebpfdevices work exactly? Does this imply there' a performance-cost to having wireshark installed, even when not capturing?
– Alexander
4 hours ago
At what level do you want the explanation? (I.e. are you home user, programmer, kernel developer?). In general terms they work like any other device. A program reads from the device and receives data. In this case the data is network packets. The program uses ioctl() to configure which NIC to listen on, set packet filters, etc. BPF is a common system which is also available on other systems like FreeBSD, Linux, etc. It does not mean that there’s a performance cost to having Wireshark installed. BPF is not a part of Wireshark, it is a standard part of the macOS kernel (Darwin).
– jksoegaard
16 mins ago
add a comment |
How do thesebpfdevices work exactly? Does this imply there' a performance-cost to having wireshark installed, even when not capturing?
– Alexander
4 hours ago
At what level do you want the explanation? (I.e. are you home user, programmer, kernel developer?). In general terms they work like any other device. A program reads from the device and receives data. In this case the data is network packets. The program uses ioctl() to configure which NIC to listen on, set packet filters, etc. BPF is a common system which is also available on other systems like FreeBSD, Linux, etc. It does not mean that there’s a performance cost to having Wireshark installed. BPF is not a part of Wireshark, it is a standard part of the macOS kernel (Darwin).
– jksoegaard
16 mins ago
How do these
bpf devices work exactly? Does this imply there' a performance-cost to having wireshark installed, even when not capturing?– Alexander
4 hours ago
How do these
bpf devices work exactly? Does this imply there' a performance-cost to having wireshark installed, even when not capturing?– Alexander
4 hours ago
At what level do you want the explanation? (I.e. are you home user, programmer, kernel developer?). In general terms they work like any other device. A program reads from the device and receives data. In this case the data is network packets. The program uses ioctl() to configure which NIC to listen on, set packet filters, etc. BPF is a common system which is also available on other systems like FreeBSD, Linux, etc. It does not mean that there’s a performance cost to having Wireshark installed. BPF is not a part of Wireshark, it is a standard part of the macOS kernel (Darwin).
– jksoegaard
16 mins ago
At what level do you want the explanation? (I.e. are you home user, programmer, kernel developer?). In general terms they work like any other device. A program reads from the device and receives data. In this case the data is network packets. The program uses ioctl() to configure which NIC to listen on, set packet filters, etc. BPF is a common system which is also available on other systems like FreeBSD, Linux, etc. It does not mean that there’s a performance cost to having Wireshark installed. BPF is not a part of Wireshark, it is a standard part of the macOS kernel (Darwin).
– jksoegaard
16 mins ago
add a comment |
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What kind of wireshark are you running? GUI (app) or command line?
– IconDaemon
18 hours ago
Did you login as a standard user or as an administrator user?
– jksoegaard
18 hours ago
The question in the title and the question in the body of your post aren't the same. The reason why you can open Wireshark without root privileges is because you can use it to analyze packet dumps, which are just ordinary files.
– Mark
10 hours ago