Wireshark-dev: [Wireshark-dev] Get "Malformed Packet" for 802.11 Beacon frames on Windows
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From: Yang Luo <hsluoyb@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2016 13:53:19 +0800
Hi list,

I have enabled 802.11 control and management frames capture on Windows using Npcap. I found that the Beacon frames are marked as "Malformed Packet" by Wireshark 2.0.2.

The false trace of the No. 40 packet is here:
(BTW, is there any simple copy text method for a packet in Wireshark, like copying all the protocol tree in text like below? I manually copied all the fields and it's slow)

IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN management frame
  Tagged parameters (213 bytes)
    Tag: Channel Usage
      Tag length: 175
        Expert Info (Error/Malformed): Tag Length is longer than remaining payload
          Tag Length is longer than remaining payload
          Severity level: Error
          Group: Malformed

The capture file with the error is:

You can test this feature using this release:

I'm not an expert of 802.11 protocols, so can anyone point out what's wrong here? Thanks!


--------------------------------------------------------
At last I paste the usage of this release here:

Usage:

  1. Install npcap-nmap-0.06-r15-wifi.exe.
  2. Run WlanHelper.exe with Administrator privilege. Type in the index of your wireless adapter (usually 0) and press Enter. Then type in 1 and press Enter to to switch on the Monitor Mode.
  3. Launch Wireshark and capture on the wireless adapter, you will see all 802.11 packets (data + control + management).
  4. If you need to return to Managed Mode, run WlanHelper.exe again and input the index of the adapter, then type in 0 and press Enter to to switch off the *Monitor Mode.

Notice:

You need to use WlanHelper.exe tool to switch on the Monitor Mode in order to see 802.11 control and management packets in Wireshark (also encrypted 802.11 data packets, you need to specify thedecipher key in Wireshark in order to decrypt those packets), otherwise you will only see 802.11 data packets.

Switching on the Monitor Mode will disconnect your wireless network from the AP, you can switch back to Managed Mode (aka ExtSTA in Microsoft's terminologies) using the same WlanHelper.exe tool.



Cheers,
Yang