Re: How Wireshark supports monitor mode for WLAN 802.11 adapter in Windows?

[Guy Harris <guy () alum mit edu>]

On Jan 1, 2016, at 8:27 AM, Yang Luo <hsluoyb () gmail com> wrote:

> On Thursday, December 31, 2015, Guy Harris <guy () alum mit edu> wrote:
>
> > What you *should* do is have a pcap_can_set_rfmon_win32() function in pcap-win32.c, and, at the end of 
> > pcap_create_interface() in pcap-win32.c, do
> >
> >         p->can_set_rfmon_op = pcap_can_set_rfmon_win32;
> >
> > right after setting p->activate_op.
>
> Yeah, this way is more conformant with the code style.

*And* means the libpcap code in NPcap isn't changed in a way that breaks libpcap; the ultimate goal should be to have 
NPcap source code not include libpcap source code, and have its build process separately check out libpcap from its 
repository; I think that's what WinPcap now does.

> > Currently, dumpcap only uses the pcap_create()/pcap_activate()/pcap_can_set_rfmon() APIs if, when it was compiled, 
> > it was built against a version of libpcap/WinPcap that doesn't have pcap_open().
> >
> > WinPcap has pcap_open(), so that means dumpcap *doesn't* use those APIs, which means that Wireshark on Windows won't 
> > use them and won't support monitor mode.
> >
> > This means that dumpcap needs to be changed to use those APIs on local adapters if they're available, regardless of 
> > whether pcap_open() is available, and to use pcap_open() *only* for remote adapters.
>
> Why not just use those APIs? I think they can totally substitute the pcap_open function?

They can't, yet, as they don't support remote interfaces.

I'm working on new APIs to allow specification of authentication information etc., so that pcap_create() and 
pcap_activate() can work on remote devices, but doing it in a general fashion involves a bit more work (the intent is 
to support more than just rpcap - we could, for example, support ssh+tcpdump://hostname/device, with the aid of an ssh 
client library).

> > *If* we're willing to require that the Windows version of Wireshark use only WinPcap 4.1 and later, or NPcap, that's 
> > a straightforward source code change.  This would mean people who had some reason to, for example, use WinPcap 3.x - 
> > for example, to capture on PPP devices (dial-up, mobile phone USB adapter, VPN, etc.) on Windows 2000 or the 32-bit 
> > versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 - would be unable to do so.
>
> Wireshark has shipped the winpcap 4.1.3 version, i don't know but if there are any places that 4.1.3 is inferior than 
> an old version?

I think that 3.x might support capturing on PPP devices (dial-up, VPN, mobile phone adapters, etc.) on Windows 2000/XP; 
I'd have to go through my mail to see why that's not supported in 4.x.
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