Wireshark is a network packet analyzer. A network packet analyzer will try to capture network packets and tries to display that packet data as detailed as possible. You could think of a network packet analyzer as a measuring device used to examine what"s going on inside a network cable, just like a voltmeter is used by an electrician to examine what"s going on inside an electric cable (but at a higher level, of course). In the past, such tools were either very expensive, proprietary, or both. However, with the advent of Wireshark, all that has changed. Wireshark is perhaps one of the best open source packet analyzers available today.
- Deep inspection of hundreds of protocols, with more being added all the time
- Live capture and offline analysis
- Standard three-pane packet browser
- Multi-platform: Runs on Windows, Linux, OS X, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, and many others
- Captured network data can be browsed via a GUI, or via the TTY-mode TShark utility
- The most powerful display filters in the industry
- Rich VoIP analysis
- Read/write many different capture file formats
- Capture files compressed with gzip can be decompressed on the fly
- Live data can be read from Ethernet, IEEE 802.11, PPP/HDLC, ATM, Bluetooth, USB, Token Ring, Frame Relay, FDDI, and others (depending on your platfrom)
- Decryption support for many protocols, including IPsec, ISAKMP, Kerberos, SNMPv3, SSL/TLS, WEP, and WPA/WPA2
- Coloring rules can be applied to the packet list for quick, intuitive analysis
- Output can be exported to XML, PostScript®, CSV, or plain text
The following features are new (or have been significantly updated) since version 4.0.0rc1:
- The macOS packages now ship with Qt 6.2.4 and require macOS 10.14. They previously shipped with Qt 5.15.3.
- The Windows installers now ship with Npcap 1.71. They previously shipped with Npcap 1.70.
- The following features are new (or have been significantly updated) since version 3.7.2:
- The Windows installers now ship with Npcap 1.70. They previously shipped with Npcap 1.60.
The following features are new (or have been significantly updated) since version 3.7.1:
- The "v" (lower case) and "V" (upper case) switches have been swapped for editcap and mergecap to match the other command line utilities.
- The ip.flags field is now only the three high bits, not the full byte. Display filters and Coloring rules using the field will need to be adjusted.
- New address type AT_NUMERIC allows simple numeric addresses for protocols which do not have a more common-style address approach, analog to AT_STRINGZ.
The following features are new (or have been significantly updated) since version 3.7.0:
- The Windows installers now ship with Qt 6.2.3. They previously shipped with Qt 6.2.4.
The Conversation and Endpoint dialogs have been redesigned with the following improvements:
- The context menu now includes the option to resize all columns, as well as copying elements.
- Data may be exported as JSON.
- Tabs may be detached and reattached from the dialog.
- Adding and removing tabs will keep them in the same order all the time.
- If a filter is applied, two columns are shown in either dialog detailing the difference between unmatched and matched packets.
- Columns are now sorted via secondary properties if an identical entry is found.
- Conversations are sorted via second address and first port number.
- Endpoints are sorted via port numbers.
- IPv6 addresses are sorted correctly after IPv4 addresses.
- The dialog elements have been moved to make it easier to handle for new users.
- Selection of tap elements is done via a list.
- All configurations and options are done via a left side button row.
- Columns for the Conversations and Endpoint dialogs can be hidden by a context menu.
- TCP and UDP conversations now include the stream ID and allow filtering on it.
The following features are new (or have been significantly updated) since version 3.6.0:
- The Windows installers now ship with Npcap 1.60. They previously shipped with Npcap 1.55.
- The Windows installers now ship with Qt 6.2.4. [full release notes]
Download: Wireshark 4.0.0 | 74.5 MB (Open Source)
Download: Portable Wireshark 4.0.0 | Wireshark for macOS
View: Wireshark Website