What is Wireshark?

Wireshark is the world’s most popular network protocol analyzer. It is used for troubleshooting, analysis, development and education.

What’s New

This is the final release of the Wireshark 2.6 branch. It will reach its official end of life on October 18, 2020. If you are still using Wireshark 2.6 you are encouraged to upgrade to Wireshark 3.2.

Bug Fixes

The following vulnerabilities have been fixed:

  • wnpa-sec-2020-11 MIME Multipart dissector crash. Bug 16741. Fixed in master: 2411eae9ed Fixed in master-3.2: 21f082cb6e Fixed in master-3.0: 14e274f3be Fixed in master-2.6: 5803c7b87b

  • wnpa-sec-2020-12 TCP dissector crash. Bug 16816. Fixed in master: c4634b1e99 Fixed in master-3.2: e9b727595b Fixed in master-3.0: 7f3fe6164a Fixed in master-2.6: 9d7ab8b46f

The following bugs have been fixed:

  • Buildbot crash output: randpkt-2019-04-01-28345.pcap Bug 15661.

  • Buildbot crash output: fuzz-2020-07-28-5905.pcap Bug 16741.

  • S1-U data forwarding info and S103 PDN data forwarding info IE’s showing improper value Bug 16777.

  • Wireshark fails to detect libssh >= 0.9.5 Bug 16845.

New and Updated Features

There are no new features in this release.

New Protocol Support

There are no new protocols in this release.

Updated Protocol Support

AARP, BSSMAP, GSM A RR, GTPv2, MIME Multipart, NCP, Q.933, S1AP, TCP, and X2AP

New and Updated Capture File Support

There is no new or updated capture file support in this release.

New and Updated Capture Interfaces support

There is no new or updated capture file support in this release.

Getting Wireshark

Wireshark source code and installation packages are available from https://www.wireshark.org/download.html.

Vendor-supplied Packages

Most Linux and Unix vendors supply their own Wireshark packages. You can usually install or upgrade Wireshark using the package management system specific to that platform. A list of third-party packages can be found on the download page on the Wireshark web site.

File Locations

Wireshark and TShark look in several different locations for preference files, plugins, SNMP MIBS, and RADIUS dictionaries. These locations vary from platform to platform. You can use About→Folders to find the default locations on your system.

Known Problems

The BER dissector might infinitely loop. Bug 1516.

Capture filters aren’t applied when capturing from named pipes. Bug 1814.

Filtering tshark captures with read filters (-R) no longer works. Bug 2234.

Application crash when changing real-time option. Bug 4035.

Wireshark and TShark will display incorrect delta times in some cases. Bug 4985.

Wireshark should let you work with multiple capture files. Bug 10488.

Getting Help

Community support is available on Wireshark’s Q&A site and on the wireshark-users mailing list. Subscription information and archives for all of Wireshark’s mailing lists can be found on the web site.

Frequently Asked Questions

A complete FAQ is available on the Wireshark web site.

Enhance Wireshark

Riverbed is Wireshark's primary sponsor and provides our funding. They also make great products.

Packet Analysis Made Easy

    SteelCentral Packet Analyzer Personal Edition graphs
  • Visually rich, powerful LAN analyzer
  • Quickly access very large pcap files
  • Professional, customizable reports
  • Advanced triggers and alerts
  • Fully integrated with Wireshark

Try Packet Analyzer PE FREE for 10 days