How to install Wireshark on Linux and capture USB traffic?

Question

I have encountered numerous problems in the installation of Wireshark, and the capture of USB traffic, especially due to user permissions.

In the answer, I describe a full workflow for doing that. The answers to each individual problems are given on different forums, so I thought I'd bring everything together in one answer, to avoid future users to Google every single issue they encounter.

Answer 1

Tested on Ubuntu 14.04, but probably works on other distributions since none of the steps are specific to Ubuntu.

The first time you follow the tutorial, do all the steps 1 -> 7.

When you restart your computer, you have to repeat steps 6 and 7 to see the USB interfaces in Wireshark.

1. Install Wireshark and libpcap:

   sudo apt-get install wireshark libpcap0.8

2. For Debian, Ubuntu and other Debian derivatives, continue to step 3.

   For other Linux based systems or other installation methods, see the Wireshark Wiki, then go to step 6.

3. Reconfigure wireshark to allow non-superusers to track packets:

   sudo dpkg-reconfigure wireshark-common

   Select <Yes> in the prompt

4. Add your username to the "wireshark" usergroup:

   sudo usermod -a -G wireshark <your_username>

   You can verify if it’s done correctly by displaying the groups your username is part of:

   groups <your_username>

   If not, you can add the group "wireshark" manually:

   groupadd wireshark

   And then add your username to the group (see above)

5. Important: Logout of your session, then log back in.

6. This step depends on the kernel version that is installed on your machine. To know the version of your kernel, type:

   uname -r

   For versions of the kernel prior to 2.6.21, if debugfs is not already mounted on /sys/kernel/debug, ensure that it is mounted there by issuing the following command:

   sudo mount -t debugfs / /sys/kernel/debug

   For kernel version 2.6.21 and later, load the loadable module usbmon in the Kernel:

   sudo modprobe usbmon

   See Wireshark Wiki for more information about this differentiation.

7. If the usbmon interfaces don't appear in Wireshark, look for interfaces using dumpcap (the command-line tool of Wireshark):

   sudo dumpcap -D

   You should see the usbmon* interfaces. Now display the permissions of the usbmon interfaces:

   ls -l /dev/usbmon*

   If the usbmon* files have 'crw-------', then it's normal that Wireshark cannot read them because it's not run as root. Do not execute wireshark in root mode, it may damage files. Instead, you can give it regular users privileges :

   sudo setfacl -m u:$USER:r /dev/usbmon*

Now the usbmon interfaces should appear in Wireshark.

Have fun !

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Sources:

https://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureSetup/USB#Linux

https://wiki.wireshark.org/CaptureSetup/CapturePrivileges#Most_UNIXes

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/55722/wireshark-couldnt-run-usr-sbin-dumpcap-in-child-process

http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/collab-maint/ext-maint/wireshark/trunk/debian/README.Debian?view=markup