Kismet, an 802.11 Layer2 Wireless Network Detector and Packet Sniffer

What is Kismet

Kismet is an 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, packet sniffer, and intrusion detection system. Kismet will work with any wireless card which supports raw monitoring (rfmon) mode, and can sniff 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11n, and 802.11g traffic (devices and drivers permitting). Kismet identifies networks by passively collecting packets and detecting standard named networks, detecting (and given time, decloaking) hidden networks, and inferring the presence of non-beaconing networks via data traffic.

Feature Overview

Kismet has many features useful in different situations for monitoring wireless networks:

- Ethereal/Tcpdump compatible data logging
- Airsnort compatible weak-iv packet logging
- Network IP range detection
- Built-in channel hopping and multicard split channel hopping
- Hidden network SSID decloaking
- Graphical mapping of networks
- Client/Server architecture allows multiple clients to view a single Kismet server simultaneously
- Manufacturer and model identification of access points and clients
- Detection of known default access point configurations
- Runtime decoding of WEP packets for known networks
- Named pipe output for integration with other tools, such as a layer3 IDS like Snort
- Multiplexing of multiple simultaneous capture sources on a single Kismet instance
- Distributed remote drone sniffing
- XML output

Typical Uses

Common applications Kismet is useful for:

- Wardriving: Mobile detection of wireless networks, logging and mapping of network location, WEP, etc.
- Site survey: Monitoring and graphing signal strength and location.
- Distributed IDS: Multiple Remote Drone sniffers distributed throughout an installation monitored by a single server, possibly combined with a layer3 IDS like Snort.
- Rogue AP Detection: Stationary or mobile sniffers to enforce site policy against rogue access points.

Download

Kismet can be downloaded here

What Can Hackers Do with a Packet Sniffer

What Can Hackers Do with a Packet Sniffer?

A packet sniffer in the wrong hands is a deadly weapon. A packet sniffer is a real danger because it is a very powerful and difficult to detect tool

Security breaches of all kinds are reported all the time. Everyday we hear of hackers who managed to steal sensitive data, of people who become victims of identity theft, etc. Very often the breaches are so incredible that you wonder if hackers have supernatural powers. Well, hackers hardly have supernatural powers but they don't need them –supernatural powers are not necessary when a networklacks security and one has the right tools to break in.

Hackers Can Monitor Networks With a Packet Sniffer

The tools hackers use to break into networks are more or less the same tools network admins use to monitor and maintain their network with. For example, packet sniffers are among the tools hackers love most. A packet sniffer captures packets and shows you their contents.This means that with the help of a packet sniffer running somewhere into the network, hackers can monitor all the unencrypted traffic to and from this network.

This is really scary – just imagine a malicious hacker who knows all the secrets of your company. It gets even more dangerous for networks, where hubs (and not switches) are used because in this case a packet sniffer can be installed on any computer and the hacker will monitor all the traffic in that segment, not only the traffic to and from the host. The good news is that hubs are almost out of use today and because of that hackers can do less damage with a packet sniffer.

Hackers Can Obtain Passwords and Credit Card Numbers With a Packet Sniffer

When a hacker uses a packet sniffer to monitor your network, this is not nice but when he or she steals passwords, credit card numbers and other types of sensitive data, this is a real danger. Unencrypted passwords, credit card numbers and other sensitive data are an easy target for a hacker with a packet sniffer.

In many of the cases of mass theft of credit card numbers and passwords happen because hackers use a packet sniffer on an unencrypted network. For truth's sake, it is important to mention that even if all the traffic is encrypted, there are still many other ways to obtain sensitive data. But when the traffic over a network is not encrypted and nobody monitors the network for unauthorized packet sniffers, sooner or later data will be stolen.

One of the greatest achievements for hackers with a packet sniffer is to capture the administrator's password. When the administrator's password is transmitted over the network in an unencrypted form, this is an easy target for hackers. If hackers manage to intercept the admin password, they have the power to do everything they want to on your network – delete data, modify data, etc. So, do you see why hackers don't need supernatural powers but only the admin password?

About Colasoft

Ever since 2001, Colasoft has been an innovative provider of all-in-one and easy-to-use network analyzer software for network administrators and IT managers to monitor network activities, analyze network performance, enhance network security, and troubleshoot network problems. Up to now, more than 5000 customers in over 70 countries trust the flagship product – Capsa as their network monitoring and troubleshooting solution. Colasoft also offers four free network utilities: Colasoft Packet Builder, Colasoft Packet Player, Colasoft MAC Scanner, and Colasoft Ping Tool. Learn more about Colasoft and its solutions, please visit http://www.colasoft.com/.

Analyze Protocols With Packet Sniffer

What is Network Protocol?
A Protocol can be defined as rules governing the syntax, semantics and synchronization of communication.
In computing, A Protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection, communication and data transfer between two computing endpoints.
Protocols may be implemented by Hardware, Software or a Combination of two. At the lowest level, a protocol defines the behaviour of a hardware connection.

Why Protocol Analyzing Important?
Since all network communications are based on protocols and different protocols indicates varieties of network behaviours, by analyzing protocols using a Packet Sniffer, we get to know what network applications are used on the network and what network behaviour is taken against your network. You may check out our protocols database to get an explanation of each protocol.

Analyze Protocols With Packet Sniffer
A Packet Sniffer is an important part of the Network Manager's toolkit. Traditionally sniffers are useful for troubleshooting networks and SNMP tools are better for trending and service management. The combination of an SNMP based Performance Manager and a well-featured Packet Sniffer will allow you to perform many of the fundamental tasks required for successful network management.

Packet Sniffers, often called "packet sniffers" after Network Associates market leading Sniffer product, capture packets and decode them into their component parts. It's fairly obvious how sniffers can be used to troubleshooting network problems. Once a problem is detected packets are captured and analyzed and the details of the communication can be worked out. But sniffers can do more than this and, in fact, turn out to be surprisingly useful in many aspects of network management.

Unexpected Traffic
The obvious thing to do is monitor the network for unexpected traffic. Most network managers know the types of application that they expect to see and can point out anything unusual. If anything unexpected is spotted then a capture of some of the traffic is usually sufficient to pinpoint the machines involved.

Unnecessary Traffic
Many machines to be set by default to run protocols that may not be required.
For Example: Many printers broadcast using Novell's IPX protocol. It is fine if you are using NetWare, but not always necessary. It's good housekeeping to remove any protocols that you do not need. You may be concerned about how your users are using the available bandwidth. A good sniffer will allow you to filter specific types of traffic, so that you can keep an eye on any traffic that may cause you a problem.

Unauthorized Program Use
It is useful to check the specific port numbers for services on your Servers. Most common services operate on defined port numbers, a packet capture on a Server will soon reveal what services are running. You can disable any services that you do not need. This has two benefits, one, it avoids unnecessary traffic on the network, and second it means that no unauthorized user can take advantage of that service. If anyone is using a service a packet capture will show you the address. Most sniffers allow filtering on specified port numbers so it is possible to monitor continuously for specified port numbers.

Email Problems
Email systems typically use standard port numbers, 25 for SMTP, 143 for IMAP, 110 for POP3. Setting filters for these ports will usually help to discover the cause of problems with email.

Virus Detection and Control
Antivirus software manufacturers offer updates services. Armed with the information on new threats it is often possible to build suitable filters to detect viruses. For example many sniffers allow you to specify a text pattern, so a virus contained in a message containing a known text string could be detected. Analysis of the capture will show the source and destination of the packets.

Firewalls
Firewalls need to be checked for outgoing and incoming traffic. You will have to define a set of filters for traffic in both directions. Should the firewall begin to let unauthorized traffic through you need to be able to detect it.

For Example:
TCP is a Reliable connection oriented Protocol. Common Applications of TCP are Email and File Transfer. TCP is optimized for accurate delivery rather than timely delivery, and therefore, TCP sometimes incurs relatively long delays (in the order of seconds) while waiting for out-of-order messages or retransmissions of lost messages. So TCP analysis is required with Colasoft Packet Sniffer for finding delays.
UDP is a Reliable Connectionless Protocol. Common Applications of UDP are DNS, VOIP, IPTV and FTP.Sometimes Packet loss will happen during transmission and no help for this. Using Colasoft Packet Sniffer we can find the loss
HTTP is a request/response standard of a client and a server. A client is the end-user; the server is the web site. The client making a HTTP request—using a web browser, spider or other end-user tool—is referred to as the user agent. The responding server—which stores or creates resources such as HTML files and images—is called the origin server. Certain design features of HTTP interact badly with TCP, causing problems with performance and with server scalability. Latency problems are caused by opening a single connection per request, through connection setup and slow-start costs. Scalability problems are caused by TCP requiring a server to maintain state for all recently closed connections. Colasoft Packet Sniffer is used to detection such problems.

Colasoft Packet Sniffer Capsa 6.9 Review

Overview
Not so hard for a freshman.
Auto diagnosis.
Real time capture.
If it's cheaper, I will definitely buy it!
After using Colasoft Packet Sniffer, I found 3 features of this product:

1.supports the real-time capturing and monitoring
2.excellent capability of protocol analyzing (approximately 300 types) and packet decoding
3.Well, the most exciting part is the automatic expert diagnosing! That really saves so much money and time for me, and I do not worry about the solution of failure again!

Cost and performance are in desired level .

What It Is and What It Can Do
Colasoft Packet Sniffer is an expert packet sniffer and protocol analyzer designed for packet decoding and network diagnosis; it monitors the network traffic transmitted over a local host and a local network, with the ability of real time packet capture and accurate data analysis. Colasoft Packet Sniffer makes your network operations completely transparent before you, letting you isolate and troubleshoot network problems quickly and efficiently. The flexible and intuitive user interface lets either IT professionals or novice users skilfully handle it in a few moments.

Easily understand how to use this packet sniffer with samples provided with the Tool. Sample packets helps me a lot for my first time deployment by avoiding contacting the Technical Support during my initial days of using this Tool.

For a Small Business Enterprise, This tool's network diagnosis helps me to detect slow network and upgraded speed for better utilization.

I prefer this for a Medium Business Enterprise as troubleshooting network issues is simply superb.

For Medium and a Large Business Enterprises, Security is an issue.This packet sniffer enhances Network Security by monitoring the network with Logs. As every packet is recorded and analyzed, loopholes can easily detect.

For every organization, security is a major concern. By using this tool Monitoring of Email Contents and Monitoring IMs, Chats is easy. Every information in Messegers, chats, HTTP Requests is logged .

Can easily find where the problem from the Packet Analysis without letting the user to report about his huge traffic.

For Internet Service Provider, this is very very useful tool. ISPs have problems of Server down issues due to huge traffics. By diagnosing with this tool, Server down issues can be reduced.
Prevent hibernation while capturing and view both IP Addresses and Hostnames. This is a good feature in upgraded version.

Colasoft Packet Sniffer Supports Windows Vista-64 bit Edition. Able to identify and Analyze 300+ Network Protocols.

By going through the site www.colasoft.com, I came to know that Colasoft Packet Sniffer Professional Edition available and used it for Analyses. It really good to use and operate. Everything is logged and my network usage is monitored.

Videos in the website help me to understand the ARP Attacks, Monitoring Network traffic. So I can protect my network now by identifying the deceived hosts and by identifying who is consuming maximum bandwidth in a Local Segment.

I can monitor the traffic either by protocol, IP or MAC Address. So much flexibility in using this packet sniffer.

Internet Service Providers can use this tool for quick issue troubleshooting. Easy to identify problems and minimizes the time to service the customer.

The reports are displayed with Graphs and Tables .Viewing the connection in a matrix is wonderful and it is something special in Colasoft Packet Sniffer. This pictorial representation is really good to sort out the issue by easily detecting.

Colasoft Packet Sniffer has the tools that would not find in other protocol analyzers, including ping and scan IPs and MACS across the LAN.

Summary
Colasoft Packet Sniffer is an easy-to-use and all-in-one tool for IT Network Administrator, IT Consultant and for a Security Manager in IT Company.

Packet Sniffer, Basic Tool for Network Administrators

Packet sniffers are a valuable tool for both network administrators and hackers. There are many packet sniffers on the market and one of the most sophisticated is the packet sniffer from Colasoft

Packet sniffers are one of the best tools a network administrator has at his or her disposal to analyze network traffic and to troubleshoot problems. On the other hand, when a Packet sniffer is in the wrong hands – i.e. hackers use it – this can cause quite a lot of damage to a company or an individual, especially if the victim hasn't taken the required protective measures. You see, as with many things in life, packet sniffers can be a great tool to maintain a network, yet they can be very destructive, if misused.

Packet sniffers are very common, choose a best packet sniffer for you. There are many packet sniffers on the market and they range from free, to cheap, to expensive, from very simple, to advanced, to packed with features. Each type of packet sniffers has its purposes and if you need a simple tool for quick results on a small network, you don't have to buy the most expensive packet sniffers, no matter that they have tons of features. But in reality, if you need a packet sniffer for professional use, low-end sniffers are not the answer and you need something more sophisticated, for example Colasoft Network Analyzer. Colasoft Network Analyzer is built around packet sniffing but includes many other useful features as well.

As any other packet sniffer, the packet sniffer from Colasoft, intercepts and logs traffic, transmitted within a network (or a network segment). A packet sniffer can be really invisible because it monitors the network (almost) unobtrusively. Since a packet sniffer just sniffs the packets without modifying them, it doesn't cause disturbances to alert the administrator that something is going on. Unless the administrator doesn't run an anti-sniffer, the traffic can be eavesdropped and nobody will know about it.

Of course, a good network administrator knows how to detect a packet sniffer, so if you plan to get Colasoft packet sniffer and use it in a malicious way, don't expect that this will go unnoticed. The packet sniffer in the Colasoft Network Analyzer is not stealth but since anyway Colasoft Network Analyzer is intended for network troubleshooting, not network hacking, there is no reason to worry that the packet sniffer is not hidden. When a network administrator uses a packet sniffer in order to legitimately monitor network traffic, he or she doesn't need cover.

One of the most important features of a packet sniffer is the protocols it can sniff. In this aspect Colasoft Network Analyzer is an unbeaten packet sniffer because it can monitor over 300 protocols. Colasoft knows that when the packets of major protocols are not captured, this gives a wrong impression about the traffic in the network and that is why Colasoft Network Analyzer supports so many protocols. And no, the protocols Colasoft Network Analyzer can sniff are not exotic ones – they are protocols used frequently in networks.

Additionally, new and new protocols are added to the packet sniffer from Colasoft, so even if your network uses some really rare protocols, which are currently not supported by Colasoft Network Analyzer, they could be added in the future. Well, if you expect that the packet sniffer from Colasoft will sniff encrypted traffic, this will not happen because no packet sniffer can do it!

Top 10 Uses of Packet Sniffer Software

Packet Sniffer software is a network monitoring tool that helps us to be in control of our network 24/7. All computer networks that are connected to the internet are highly vulnerable to security risks. If our networks are not constantly monitored, we can easily become a prey for the hackers. Packet sniffer software logs all traffic and all data that is sent in and out of the network that matches the specific packet criteria set by the network administrator.

Packet sniffer software has a number of uses and all of them are of critical nature.

1. Whenever there is a network related problem, we need some basic clues so that we can start addressing the problems. We will be able to get these clues from the packet sniffer software that is installed in the network. Therefore, packet sniffer software will not only help us monitor the network, but it will also help us analyze the network traffic so that we can identify any problem that crops up in the shortest time possible.
2. If there are any unauthorized intrusions, we will be able to detect the intrusions in good time. This will help us protect our network from the hackers.
3. We will be able to monitor the usage levels of the network at any given time. This will help us optimize the usage if we need to.
4. Using packet sniffer software we can keep a tab on each user in the network and gather sensitive information including passwords.
5. Packet sniffers will also be useful to monitor ‘on the fly’ network traffic to determine what is going on in the network at any given time.
6. Packet sniffers are not only useful for network administrators, it is also useful for programmers and security professionals to study the network traffic and possible loopholes so that they can be sealed.
7. Parents can keep a tab on their children’s online PC usage.
8. For those who are in learning stages packet sniffer will help them understand various protocols of the network such as HTTP, POP3, STMP, etc.
9. The reports generated can be used to build reliable statistics about the network use.
10. You will be able to find reasons for system slowdown. Using the packet sniffer software you will be able to troubleshoot the problem in the shortest time possible.

There many other uses besides the ones mentioned above. In addition, there are many packet sniffer software products available in the market. When you want to install packet sniffer software in your network, you must spend enough time in identifying the best packet sniffer software. The product you select should be a versatile tool and a popular product that has been tested in a variety of situations. It should be capable of handling small as well as large network without causing any problems in the network. One of the best packet sniffer software available in the market is Colasoft Capsa. For more information about this versatile tool, visit Colasoft.com.

About Colasoft
Ever since 2001, Colasoft has been dedicated in providing all-in-one and easy-to-use network analysis software for customers to monitor, analyze, and troubleshoot their network. Up to now, more than 4000 customers in over 70 countries trust the flagship product – Capsa as their network monitoring and troubleshooting solution. The company also offers four free network utilities: Colasoft Packet Builder, Colasoft Packet Player, Colasoft MAC Scanner, and Colasoft Ping Tool. Learn more today at http://www.colasoft.com/

Top Reasons Why Academic Users Need Packet Sniffer Software

Academic users need packet sniffer software for various reasons in their daily works, such as network performance monitoring, network behaviors supervising ,conceptual items demonstrating and so on. Two packet sniffers are highly recommended for such users.

Why Academic Users Need Packet Sniffer Software

For an academic network administrator who needs to make sure the network is running smoothly and reliably, he will need packet sniffer software for:

• Monitoring network performance around the clock,
• Supervising various kinds of network behaviors,
• Protecting network from suspicious intentions and attacks,
• Discovering network loopholes and network bottlenecks,
• Identifying and troubleshoot network problems in time,

For an academic teaching staff who needs to explain and demonstrate conceptual items to his students, he will need packet sniffer software for:

• Demonstrating how a service (such as DNS, DHCP) works for your network,
• Demonstrate the detail information within a packet of some sort of specific protocol,
• Demonstrate the network behaviors of an application,

For an academic researcher and developer, he will need packet sniffer software for:

• Network protocols research purpose
• Debug network relied applications

For an academic student, he will need packet sniffer software for his studying and researching purposes.

Suggested Packet Sniffer Software

Wireshark

Wireshark is a free network packet sniffer developed by an international team of networking experts. Its key features include:

• 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

Colasoft Packet Sniffer

If you are looking for a cost-effective and easy-to-use packet sniffer, then you should take a look at Capsa, a packet sniffer produced by Colasoft Co., Ltd. Its key features include:

• Monitor traffic and bandwidth details in graphs and numbers.
• Automatically diagnoses network and suggests solutions.
• Able to identify and analyze 300+ network protocols.
• Provides packet summary and decoding information.
• Monitors site visits, email contents, online chats, and more.
• Lists all hosts in network with details (traffic, IP, MAC, etc.).
• Visualizes the entire network in an ellipse, showing connections and traffic.
• Monitor all conversations and reconstruct packet stream.
• Free built-in tools to create and replay packets; scan and ping IPs.
• Quick generates reports of most concerned items.

Capsa runs under Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista. You can click here to download a trial version of Capsa.