Wireshark Tool – Features & Benefits

Introduction

Wireshark is a leading network protocol analyser widely deployed for packet sniffing in pentesting procedures. A staple among security professionals, the wireshark tool is used for troubleshooting network problems and investigating security incidents. This open-source tool also comes handy to gather insights about new networks. The post below offers a brief on the major aspects of the wireshark tool.

Key Features of Wireshark Tool

Some of the top wireshark features that make it a popular tool in ethical hacking are:

• Compatibility across platforms:
It is one of the multi-platform cybersecurity tools that can run on Windows, Linux, NetBSD, and others.

• Live capture:
The real-time capabilities in Wireshark enable the user to create a view and scrutinise the network packets for traversing the network.

• Deep inspection:
The wireshark network analyzer analyses various network protocols that offer a comprehensive overview of the contents of the package. It also allows for deep inspection of various functionalities, thus providing the user with a thorough understanding of network communications. This further helps in the quick resolution and diagnosis of network issues, when needed.

• Filtering:
Wireshark has an excellent filtering capability that helps users refine the network traffic displayed based on certain defined protocols, ports, and IP addresses. The approach of targeting streamlines the overall analysis of complex traffic analysis, enabling users to focus on pertinent data. This makes it more convenient to determine potential flaws.

• Offline analysis:
Wireshark also allows offline analysis for the examination of network traffic that has already been captured from the saved files (PCAPNG or PCAP). This feature comes in handy to revisit all the network activities and share networks captured for problem-solving and executing collaborative investigation.

• Statistical and graphical analysis:
The tool offers diverse statistical and graphical tools that include hierarchical statistics, flow graphs, and statistics of conversation. All the instruments assist users in visualising various network activities that enable easy detection of anomalies or discrepancies impacting overall network performance.

• Colour coding:
This feature is useful in the identification of issues and recognition of the patterns that are available in captured traffic. The tool also employs color coding that visually distinguishes packets and their status. All these features enhance the overall experience of the user and also help in effective data analysis.

• Exporting of data:
Wireshark allows data export in a variety of file formats such as XMl, plain text, and CSV to make sharing easier. The multiple file formats help in reporting and easy analysis by the users.

• Easy customisation:
The tailored approach in Wireshark helps in the creation and implementation of display filters, plugins, and dissectors. It also ensures that Wireshark is relevant to use cases and can accommodate network protocol landscape.

All these cutting-edge features make Wireshark an indispensable part of cyber security courses online.

Interfaces supported by Wireshark

Wireshark is intelligently designed to work with different interfaces. Easy compatibility with multiple interfaces makes it easy to work with a wide number of network analysers.

• Wireless interfaces:
Enable troubleshooting and monitoring issues across wireless networks for gaining insights into overall Wi-Fi connections.

• Ethernet interfaces:
Wireshark supports Ethernet interfaces and also enables analysing and capturing traffic across LAN.

• Loopback interfaces:
The Loopback interface in Wireshark assists users in analysing and capturing traffic generated by the device. Thus, there is no requirement for external network connectivity. The functions are also used for debugging and testing the various applications that can communicate over the network protocol.

• USB interfaces:
Wireshark is supported by USB interfaces that can diagnose and analyse the network traffic. It helps with USB communications, for instance, problems associated with data transfer.

• Remote interfaces:
Regarding remote interfaces, Wireshark is configured with the ability to capture traffic from tools such as sshdump or rpcapd. These can provide insightful information for optimisation of distributed networks.

• Virtual interfaces:
Virtual machines are a part of the virtual interfaces in Wireshark. These interfaces help users in analysis of network traffic across virtualized environments for troubleshooting network configurations.

How does Wireshark work?

The steps for capturing network packages in Wireshark are as follows:

• Step 1:
Start Wireshark and click the first option for capturing.

• Step 2:
There are various destinations and sources such as lengths, protocols, and addresses where you can capture the protocols. Filters can be applied in terms of protocol name to see the packets that are being filtered.

• Step 3:
After the required packets are captured, you can stop the capturing by clicking the red button and can again start if required.

Sign up with DataSpace Academy's top cybersecurity certifications to know more about working with Wireshark.

Benefits of using Wireshark

The wireshark in cyber security benefits the cybersecurity professional in troubleshooting networks. The tool enables users to trace connections and gather an overview of contents regarding suspected transactions across networks. Wireshark further helps to identify bursts that are prevalent in network traffic. Needless to say, Wireshark is an indispensable part of the usability pro toolkit.

Popular competitors of Wireshark

Some of the popular competitors of Wireshark in packet sniffing are as follows:

• SmartSniff
• EtherApe
• Kismet
• Ettercap
• LiveAction
• Omnipeek

Conclusion

The robust features in Wireshark enable network analysts to effectively examine and dissect PCAP files to acquire invaluable information about the network traffic. The blog gives an overview of the features of Wireshark and also interfaces that are supported by Wireshark. DataSpace Academy extends hands-on training on tools like Wireshark so that you can master your ethical hacking and pentesting career.