Why am I able to open Wireshark and capture packets in macOS without root privileges?Difference between macOS...
How do you funnel food off a cutting board?
What is the wife of a henpecked husband called?
Gear reduction on large turbofans
Why would space fleets be aligned?
How to deal with an incendiary email that was recalled
Why is working on the same position for more than 15 years not a red flag?
Positioning node within rectangle Tikz
Why do neural networks need so many training examples to perform?
Consequences of lack of rigour
Why exactly do action photographers need high fps burst cameras?
What to look for when criticizing poetry?
Absorbing damage with Planeswalker
Why are the books in the Game of Thrones citadel library shelved spine inwards?
What is the purpose of easy combat scenarios that don't need resource expenditure?
Why don't hotels mount air conditioning units outside the rooms?
Should I reinstall Linux when changing the laptop's CPU?
Is it a fallacy if someone claims they need an explanation for every word of your argument to the point where they don't understand common terms?
Quickly creating a sparse array
Why did the villain in the first Men in Black movie care about Earth's Cockroaches?
A starship is travelling at 0.9c and collides with a small rock. Will it leave a clean hole through, or will more happen?
Why avoid shared user accounts?
Why is it that Bernie Sanders is always called a "socialist"?
Early credit roll before the end of the film
Cookies - Should the toggles be on?
Why am I able to open Wireshark and capture packets in macOS without root privileges?
Difference between macOS login root and Darwin Terminal root
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 16 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 16 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 16 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 16 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
asked 18 hours ago
scipsychoscipsycho
1179
edited 16 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
asked 18 hours ago
scipsychoscipsycho
1179
edited 16 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
edited 16 mins ago
jksoegaard
17.9k1748
edited 16 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
19 mins ago
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "118"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fapple.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f352593%2fwhy-am-i-able-to-open-wireshark-and-capture-packets-in-macos-without-root-privil%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
1 Answer
1
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
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
19 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
19 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
19 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
19 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
19 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
19 mins ago
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to Ask Different!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fapple.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f352593%2fwhy-am-i-able-to-open-wireshark-and-capture-packets-in-macos-without-root-privil%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
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