Npcap Versions 1.70 and 1.71 improve Windows packet capturing performance, stability, security, and compatibility

[Gordon Fyodor Lyon <fyodor () nmap org>]

Hello folks.  While the Nmap Project has been quiet lately (this is my
first post of the year), I'm happy to share some great progress on both
Nmap and Npcap development.  Starting with our Npcap Windows packet
capturing/sending library, I'm happy to report that we quietly released
Version 1.70 in June and then 1.71 on August 19.  They include many key
improvements:

* Performance: A major overhaul of Packet.dll sped up routines that almost
every pcap application uses, including for listing and opening interfaces.
The driver itself was also refactored for performance.  Packet injection
operations can now be done in parallel, and loopback support is vastly more
efficient.

* Security: We enabled Microsoft's DEP and ASLR protections for the driver
itself and added the new Control Flow Guard (CFG) feature to Packet.dll and
the helper EXE's.

* Stability: Fixed some rare but important cases which could lead to a
system crash (BSoD).  Millions of people use Npcap every day, which gives
us visibility (through bug reports) to even the rarest stability problems.
Npcap has so many users thanks to its integration with Nmap and Wireshark
as well as with hundreds of popular commercial apps that utilize
Npcap through our OEM program (https://npcap.com/oem/redist.html).

* Compatibility: Npcap now supports more WWAN interfaces--especially the
LTE devices built into many Windows on ARM systems.  And it's now compiled
with the Windows 11 SDK and WDK. Plus our split driver approach allows
Npcap to support the latest Windows/NDIS/WFP features on newer systems
while still providing specially tailored compatibility drivers for older
generations of Windows.

That is just a summary.  You can read the full change details at
https://npcap.com/changelog and you can download the latest Npcap releases
from https://npcap.com.  Software developers can find the newest Npcap SDK
Version 1.13 there as well.  Organizations wishing to redistribute Npcap or
automate internal deployment with a silent installer can learn about Npcap
OEM at https://npcap.com/oem/.

While Npcap has become hugely successful in its own right, we created it
for Nmap and that is still our top focus.  We are the Nmap Project, after
all!  I'll send another announcement tonight with big news on that front.

Sincerely,
Gordon "Fyodor" Lyon
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