How to Use Wireshark for Network Analysis in Kali Linux

Install Wireshark

Wireshark is a powerful network analysis tool that can be used to monitor and analyze network traffic in Kali Linux. To install Wireshark, open a terminal window and type the following command:

sudo apt-get install wireshark

Once the installation is complete, you can start Wireshark by typing the following command:

wireshark

You will then be prompted to select a network interface. To do this, click on the “Capture” tab and select the interface you want to monitor. Once you have selected the interface, click the “Start” button to begin capturing packets.

Once you have started capturing packets, you can analyze them by clicking on the “Statistics” tab. Here you can view information such as the number of packets sent and received, the types of packets, and the source and destination of the packets. You can also use the “Filter” tab to filter the packets based on various criteria.

When you are done capturing packets, you can stop the capture by clicking the “Stop” button. You can then save the captured packets by clicking the “File” menu and selecting “Save As”. You can then choose the file format you want to save the packets in.

Start Wireshark

In order to start using Wireshark for network analysis in Kali Linux, you first need to install it. To do this, open a terminal window and type in the following command: sudo apt-get install wireshark. Once the installation is complete, you can start Wireshark by typing in the command wireshark. This will open the Wireshark GUI, which will allow you to start capturing packets and analyzing them.

Once Wireshark is open, you will need to select the network interface that you want to use for capturing packets. To do this, click on the "Capture" tab at the top of the window and then select the interface from the drop-down menu. Once you have selected the interface, you can start capturing packets by clicking on the "Start" button.

Once you have started capturing packets, you can analyze them by using the various tools available in Wireshark. You can use the "Filter" tab to filter out specific types of packets, or you can use the "Statistics" tab to view detailed information about the packets that have been captured. You can also use the "Follow Stream" feature to view the contents of a particular packet.

When you are done analyzing the packets, you can stop capturing packets by clicking on the "Stop" button. You can then save the captured packets by clicking on the "Save" button. This will save the packets in a file, which you can then open in Wireshark for further analysis.

Select Network Interface

In order to use Wireshark for network analysis in Kali Linux, you must first select the network interface you want to use. To do this, open the Wireshark application and click on the "Capture" tab. From the drop-down menu, select the network interface you want to use. You can also select the "Options" tab to configure the network interface settings. For example, you can set the capture filter, the capture buffer size, and the capture limit. Once you have selected the network interface, you can start capturing packets.

# Select the network interface
$ sudo wireshark -i 

You can also use the ifconfig command to list all the available network interfaces in Kali Linux. This will help you to select the right network interface for your analysis.

# List all available network interfaces
$ ifconfig

For more information on how to use Wireshark for network analysis in Kali Linux, you can refer to the official Kali Linux Wireshark documentation.

Start Capturing Packets

In this step of the tutorial, we will learn how to start capturing packets using Wireshark in Kali Linux. To start capturing packets, open the Wireshark application and select the network interface you want to capture packets from. Then, click the "Start" button to begin capturing packets. You can also use the command line to start capturing packets. To do this, type the following command in the terminal: sudo wireshark -i <interface>. Replace <interface> with the name of the network interface you want to capture packets from. Once the capture has started, you will be able to view the packets being captured in the Wireshark window.

Analyze Captured Packets

Once you have started capturing packets with Wireshark in Kali Linux, you can begin analyzing them. To do this, you can use the various filters available in Wireshark. These filters allow you to narrow down the packets you are looking at, so you can focus on the ones that are most relevant to your analysis. For example, you can filter by protocol, source and destination IP address, and port number. You can also use the display filters to further refine your analysis. For example, you can filter out packets that are not related to the protocol you are analyzing. Once you have narrowed down the packets you are looking at, you can begin to analyze them. You can look at the packet headers to see what type of data is being sent, and you can also look at the payload to see what type of data is being sent. You can also use the Wireshark tools to decode the data and look for patterns or anomalies. Once you have finished analyzing the packets, you can stop capturing packets and save the captured packets for further analysis.

# To filter by protocol
wireshark -Y 

# To filter by source and destination IP address
wireshark -Y "ip.src ==  && ip.dst == "

# To filter by port number
wireshark -Y "tcp.port == "

# To decode the data
wireshark -V

Stop Capturing Packets

When you are done capturing packets with Wireshark in Kali Linux, you can stop the capture process by clicking the red square icon in the top left corner of the Wireshark window. This will stop the capture process and you will no longer be able to capture packets. You can also stop the capture process by pressing the Ctrl + E keyboard shortcut. After you have stopped the capture process, you can save the captured packets by clicking the File > Save As menu option. You can save the captured packets in the .pcap format, which is the standard format for Wireshark captures. You can also save the captured packets in other formats such as .csv or .txt. Once you have saved the captured packets, you can analyze them using Wireshark or other packet analysis tools.

Save Captured Packets

Once you have finished capturing packets with Wireshark in Kali Linux, you can save the captured packets for later analysis. To save the captured packets, click on the File menu and select Save As. You will be prompted to enter a file name and a location to save the file. Once you have entered the file name and location, click on the Save button to save the captured packets. The captured packets will be saved in the .pcap format, which is the standard format for packet capture files.

You can also save the captured packets in other formats such as .csv, .txt, and .xml. To save the captured packets in a different format, click on the File menu and select Export Specified Packets. You will be prompted to enter a file name and a location to save the file. Once you have entered the file name and location, select the desired format from the drop-down menu and click on the Save button to save the captured packets in the specified format.

You can also save the captured packets in the .pcapng format, which is the new format for packet capture files. To save the captured packets in the .pcapng format, click on the File menu and select Save As. You will be prompted to enter a file name and a location to save the file. Once you have entered the file name and location, select the .pcapng format from the drop-down menu and click on the Save button to save the captured packets in the .pcapng format.

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