Wireshark-users: Re: [Wireshark-users] Wireshark needs root privileges?
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From: Jeff Morriss <jeff.morriss.ws@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 03 Jun 2010 13:48:30 -0400
Guy Harris wrote:

On Jun 3, 2010, at 9:13 AM, Jakub Zawadzki wrote:


What about dropping root privilages after invoking dumpcap?


If you mean "what about having dumpcap drop privileges when it no longer needs them?", as I remember, it does that in 1.2 and later, and perhaps even in 1.0 and later.
If, instead, you mean Wireshark could drop privileges after invoking dumpcap (with privileges) I think that wouldn't work: GTK won't allow you to start Wireshark if Wireshark is setuid-root and without being setuid-root I don't think Wireshark could know what user id to drop down to (but I've never taken the time to understand the ins and outs of euids).