README

Kismet 2011-03-R2
Mike Kershaw <dragorn@kismetwireless.net>
http://www.kismetwireless.net

1.  What is Kismet
2.  Upgrading from earlier versions
3.  Quick start
4.  Suidroot & security
5.  Capture sources
6.  Caveats & quirks for specific drivers
7.  Supported capture sources
8.  Plugins
9.  GPS
10. Logging
11. Filtering
12. Alerts & IDS
13. Server configuration options
14. Kismet UI
15. Kismet drones
16. Talking to Kismet
17. Troubleshooting
18. Frequently asked questions

1.  What is Kismet

    Kismet is an 802.11 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion
    detection system.  Kismet will work with any wireless card which
    supports raw monitoring mode, and can sniff 802.11b, 802.11a, 802.11g,
    and 802.11n traffic (devices and drivers permitting).

    Kismet also sports a plugin architecture allowing for additional
    non-802.11 protocols to be decoded.

    Kismet identifies networks by passively collecting packets and detecting
    networks, which allows it to detect (and given time, expose the names
    of) hidden networks and the presence of non-beaconing networks via data
    traffic.

2a. Upgrading from recent versions

    2009-06-R1 has changed some basic behavior when using multi-vap capable
    devices (ie, modern in-kernel Linux drivers).  Whenever possible, it
    will create a new VAP and reconfigure it, instead of modifying the
    existing interface.  To preserve the old behavior, specify
    'forcevap=false' on the source line.

2b. Upgrading from Kismet-old versions

    This release marks a MAJOR change in how Kismet works and is configured.
    While many aspects are similar, many others (the client, configuring
    sources and channels, etc) are very different.  

    To take advantage of the new features, replace your existing
    configuration files with the latest configuration data.
    
    Most notably:
     * Sources are defined differently.  See the "Capture Sources" section.
     * All UI configuration is handled inside the Kismet client and stored
       in the users home directory in ~/.kismet/kismet_ui.conf
     * Most situations which were previously fatal conditions which caused
       Kismet to exit can now be recovered from.
     * New filtering options
     * New alert options
     * Completely new UI
     * Revamped network protocol
     * Significantly less CPU used for high numbers of networks
     * Plugins

     While this release breaks almost everything from previous releases, it
     opens the door for smoother upgrades and major feature enhancements.

3.  Quick start

    PLEASE read the full manual, but for the impatient, here is the BARE
    MINIMUM needed to get Kismet working:

    * Download Kismet from http://www.kismetwireless.net/download.shtml
    * Run "./configure".  Pay attention to the output!  If Kismet cannot
      find all the headers and libraries it needs, major functionality may
      be missing.  Most notably, compiling Kismet yourself will require
      the development packages and headers, usually called foo-dev or
      foo-devel.
    * Make sure that all the functionality you need was enabled properly in
      configure.  Almost all users will need pcap and libnl support for
      proper operation.
    * Compile Kismet with "make".
    * Install Kismet with either "make install" or "make suidinstall".
      YOU MUST READ THE "SUID INSTALLATION & SECURITY" SECTION OF THE 
      README OR YOUR SYSTEM MAY BE INSECURE.
    * If you have installed Kismet as suid-root, add your user to the
      "kismet" group

    * Run "kismet".  If you did not install Kismet with suid-root support,
      you need to start it as root in nearly all situations.  This is not
      recommended as it is less secure than privsep mode, where packet
      processing is segregated from admin rights.
    * When prompted to start the Kismet server, choose "Yes"
    * When prompted to add a capture interface, add your wireless interface.
      In nearly all cases, Kismet will autodetect the device type and
      supported channels.  If it does not, you will have to manually define
      the capture type (as explained later in this README)
    * Logs will be stored in the directory you started Kismet from, unless
      changed via the "logprefix" config file or "--log-prefix" startup
      option.

    * READ THE REST OF THIS README.  Kismet has a lot of features and a lot
      of configuration options, to get the most out of it you should read
      all of the documentation.

3b.  Windows quick start

    * Note, at the time of this writing, the updated CACE install is not yet
    * available, so users wishing to take advantage of the newcore
    * functionality will need to build Kismet themselves in Cygwin

    Using the CACE Package:

    * Download the Win32/Cygwin installer created by CACE and linked from
      the download page (http://www.kismetwireless.net/download.shtml
    * Run the installer
    * Start Kismet
    * Pick your AirPcap or Kismet Drone sources

    * READ THE READ OF THIS README.

    Compiling it yourself:

    * Download the Cygwin setup tool (http://www.cygwin.org)
    * Install Cygwin with make, GCC, libncurses, libncurses-dev
    * Download the Airpcap_Devpack from CACE Support
    * Put Airpcap_Devpack and Libpcap_Devpack in the kismet source directory
    * Run "./configure", adding the options:
        --with-airpcap-devpack=... --with-winpcap-devpack=...
        --enable-airpcap
      The airpcap/winpcap devpack is available from the CACE website.
      Due to bugs in Cygwin, it appears that the airpcap and winpcap
      directories must be inside the kismet source directory.  If they are
      not, the Kismet binary will immediately exit with no output.
    * Compile Kismet with "make".
    * Install Kismet with "make install"

    NOTE: KISMET WILL **ONLY** WORK WITH THE CACE AIRPCAP DEVICE, SAVED PCAP
    FILES, -OR- REMOTE KISMET DRONES RUNNING ON A SUPPORTED PLATFORM.  NO 
    OTHER HARDWARE IS SUPPORTED IN WINDOWS, PERIOD.  WINDOWS DRIVERS DO NOT 
    INCLUDE SUPPORT FOR WIFI MONITORING WHICH KISMET REQUIRES.  THERE IS NO
    WAY TO CHANGE THIS.

3c.  OSX/Darwin quick start

    * Please note:  Many have complained that iTerm does not send correct
      key events.  However, Terminal.app appears to work fine, and is
      recommended for using Kismet.

    * Download Kismet from http://www.kismetwireless.net/download.shtml
    * Run "./configure".  Pay attention to the output!  If Kismet cannot
      find all the headers and libraries it needs, major functionality may
      be missing.  Notably, you may need to install libpcap manually.

      The libpcap included with OSX does not support PPI logging.  Kismet
      will not be able to log to PPI correctly (so it will log 802.11
      packets with no per-packet headers.)

      Configure will automatically detect OSX and default to the group
      "staff" for OSX suidinstall.  This may be overridden with the
      '--with-suidgroup' configure option.

    * Compile Kismet with "make".
    * Install Kismet with either "make install" or "make suidinstall".
      YOU MUST READ THE "SUID INSTALLATION & SECURITY" SECTION OF THE 
      README OR YOUR SYSTEM MAY BE VULNERABLE.
    * If you have installed Kismet as suid-root, add your user to the
      "staff" group if it is not already.

    * Run "kismet".  If you did not install Kismet with suid-root support,
      you need to start it as root in nearly all situations.  This is not
      recommended as it is less secure than privsep mode, where packet
      processing is segregated from admin rights.
    * When prompted to start the Kismet server, choose "Yes"
    * When prompted to add a capture interface, add your wireless interface.
      In nearly all cases, Kismet will autodetect the device type and
      supported channels.  If it does not, you will have to manually define
      the capture type (as explained later in this README)

      For many Macs, this will be 'en1', however start a terminal and check
      the output of "ifconfig -a".

      The wireless interface must be enabled in the wireless control panel
      for Kismet to work, otherwise it will not find any networks.

      Kismet currently ONLY works with the Airport wireless devices, NOT USB
      WIRELESS DEVICES.
    * Logs will be stored in the directory you started Kismet from, unless
      changed via the "logprefix" config file or "--log-prefix" startup
      option.

    * READ THE REST OF THIS README

4.  Suidroot & Security

    In order to configure the wireless card for monitor mode and start
    capturing packets, Kismet needs root access.  There are two ways to
    accomplish this:  Start Kismet as root, or install it so that the
    control components are set to start as root.

    Starting Kismet as root means that Kismet will continue running as root.
    In theory this presents no additional risk, however if there are any
    flaws in the Kismet packet dissection code then it may be possible for a
    malicious packet to cause code execution as root.  Additionally,
    third-party plugins will run as root, and may not be secure.

    Installing Kismet as suid-root creates a limited-functionality binary
    (kismet_capture) which is only launchable by members of the "kismet"
    group.  Kismet uses this to configure cards and control the channels,
    while packet decoding happens only in the user component, significantly
    limiting the attack surface.

    Distributions are strongly encouraged to use this method as it allows
    standard group controls for what users can use Kismet to change card
    states.

    Embedded systems typically have much less storage space and RAM, and
    often do not enforce user/root separation as strictly due to these
    limitations.  On embedded systems, Kismet may be installed without the
    kismet_capture binary and run in root mode only, however the above
    risks still apply.

    Under no situation should the kismet_server binary itself be set
    suidroot as this will bypass any security checks.

5.  Capture sources

    All packets in Kismet come from a capture source.  Capture sources are
    typically network cards on the local system, however they can also be a
    previously recorded file or a remote capture system running a Kismet
    drone.

    Kismet will, in most cases, autodetect the driver and supported channels
    for a capture source given only the network interface.  For many users
    this will be sufficient, however many expanded options are available for
    capture sources.

    Kismet captures packets at the 802.11 layer.  This requires changing the
    mode of the network interface, making it unavailable for normal use.  In
    most cases it is not possible to remain associated to a wireless network
    while running Kismet on the same interface.

    Capture sources may be added via the Kismet UI under the "Add Source"
    option, in which case the options may be added under the "Options:"
    field, comma separated.  They may also be defined in the kismet.conf
    configuration file as the "ncsource=" option, such as:
        ncsource=wlan0:option1=foo,option2=bar

    Source options:
      name=foo          Custom name for the source (otherwise it will be
                         named the same as the capture interface).  This is
                         completely arbitrary and meaningful only to the
                         user.
      type=foo          Sources which can not autodetect the type must have
                         the type specified.  This is rarely necessary.
                         Additional information on supported source types
                         follows.
      uuid=foo          Users wishing a static unique identifier on sources
                         may specify one here.  This is not necessary for
                         most users.  UUID is of the format:
                           XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX
      hop=true|false    Disable channel hopping on this source.  Default
                         behavior is for channel sources to hop channels to
                         cover the entire spectrum.  
      velocity=#        Channel hop velocity (number of channels per
                         second), Kismet can hop 1-10 channels per second.
      dwell=#           Channel dwell time, the number of seconds Kismet
                         will wait on each channel.  If hopping is enabled
                         and a channel dwell time is specified, Kismet will
                         hop at N seconds per channel, instead of N channels
                         per second.
      channellist=name  Use an alternate channel list instead of the
                         autodetected list of channels supported by this
                         interface.  The channellist must be defined.
      split=true|false  When multiple sources use the same channel list
                         (either autodetected or by the channellist= option)
                         Kismet will split them so that they do not cover the
                         same channels at the same time.  Sources can be 
                         forced to ignore this and begin hopping at the
                         beginning of the channel list regardless of overlap.
      retry=true|false  Kismet will attempt to re-open a capture source
                         which has encountered an error.  This behavior can
                         be disabled if the user wants the source to remain
                         closed.
      vap=interface     Create a secondary named interface for capture
                         instead of trying to change the mode of the
                         existing interface.  This is primarily only for use
                         by drivers using the mac80211 interface under
                         Linux.  Users wishing to do Kismet+Managed or
                         Kismet+Injection should create a vap.
      forcevap=t|f      True/False.  Force creation of a monitor-mode VAP
                         when possible (all Linux mac80211 based drivers
                         support this).  Default is "true", a VAP will be
                         made of the name '<interface>mon', ie 'wlan0mon',
                         'wlan1mon' and capture will be done with this VAP.
                         This behavior can be forced OFF with
                         'forcevap=false'.
      wpa_scan=time     When using a mac80211 VAP, Kismet can use
                         wpa_supplicant on a managed interface to trigger
                         hardware assisted scans, enabling some view of the
                         rest of the spectrum without significantly
                         disrupting operation of the managed VAP.  Suggested
                         time for scan intervals is 15 seconds.
      validatefcs=t|f   True/False.  Kismet normally will not bother trying
                         to validate the FCS checksum of incoming packets
                         because most drivers only report valid frames in
                         the first place.  Packet sources which report
                         invalid frames by default will enable this option
                         automatically.  If the drivers have been manually
                         configured to report invalid packets, this should
                         be specified to prevent Kismet from processing
                         broken packets.
      fcs=true|false    Force handling of FCS bytes on a packet source.
                         Default is "false", which implies "native FCS
                         handling".  Packet sources which include per-packet
                         headers like radiotap or PPI will ignore this value
                         as the FCS is encoded in the radio header.  Packet
                         sources such as pcapfile, reading raw 802.11 pcap
                         files with no headers, may need this turned on for
                         proper behavior.
      fcsfail=true      Force a mac80211 VAP to report packets with a known
                         bad FCS (packet checksum).  This is only available
                         on Linux and only when using mac80211 drivers.
                         This MUST come after a 'vap=' option or it will be
                         ignored.  Enabling 'fcsfail' will enable
                         'validatefcs' automatically.  The 'fcsfail' option 
                         should only be enabled when logging to PPI; Logging
                         to normal PCAP will not preserve the FCS data and
                         will produce unreadable output.
                         WARNING:  With some driver versions, enabling this
                         seems to cause kernel OOPS warnings and the
                         interface will become unresponsive if capture is
                         stopped and resume.  This option is for specific
                         expert use only, when in doubt, leave it alone.
      plcpfail=true     Force a mac80211 VAP to report packets which do not
                         pass the PLCP check (if possible on that
                         interface).  The same warnings and conditions as
                         'fcsfail' apply.  This option is for specific,
                         expert use only, when in doubt, leave it alone.

    Example sources (these are given as config file parameters, however they
    will work equally well as command-line options, ie "-c wlan0"):
      Capture on wlan0, channel 6, don't channel hop
       ncsource=wlan0:hop=false,channel=6

      Capture on wlan0, 802.11b channels only even if it supports 5GHz
       ncsource=wlan0:channellist=IEEE80211b

      Create a VAP on wlan0 named wlan0mon and use wpa_supplicant to
      give us some view of other channels, while remaining associated to a
      network:
       ncsource=wlan0:vap=wlan0mon,hop=false,wpa_scan=15

      Read from a pre-recorded pcap file:
       ncsource=/home/foo/old.pcap

      Capture using the first Airpcap device on Windows
       ncsource=airpcap

      Capture using a remote capture drone
       ncsource=drone:host=10.10.100.2,port=2502

    Channel lists:

    Channel lists control the channels and patterns hopped to by capture
    sources in Kismet, when the channels can not be autodetected (or when
    the user wishes to override them for some reason).  The default channel
    lists (IEEE80211b, IEEE80211a, and IEEE80211ab) are used only when a
    channel list is not provided by the driver, so should not be changed in
    most cases.

    When the channel list is automatically created from the channels
    supported by the driver, the preferredchannels= option will control
    which channels are weighted for extra time.  By setting this to channels
    known to be defaults (such as 1, 6, 11) or channels with known networks
    of interest (such as in a stationary install), Kismet will devote more
    time to those channels to gather more information.  For more complex
    channel timing, keep reading about how channel lists work.

    Channels can typically be specified as IEEE channels (11, 36, etc) 
    or as frequencies (2401, 5200) however some platforms and drivers may
    not support specifying channels or frequencies out of the IEEE standard
    range.

    channellist=name:channel,channel,channel

    Additionally, individual channels in the list can be weighted so that
    more time is spent on them; for a weighting value of 3, 3x more time is
    spent on that channel.

    channellist=foo:1:3,6:3,11:3,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10

    Up to 256 channels may be specified in a channel list.  For greater
    numbers of channels, a range must be specified.

    Ranges may consist of channels or of frequencies.

    channellist=name:range-[start]-[end]-[overlap]-[iteration]

    Channels between start and end, at a given iteration.  Kismet will not hop
    directly between channels that overlap.

    channellist=foo:range-1-11-3-1

    A similar range using frequencies (802.11 2.4GHz channels are ~20MHz
    wide; technically 22 but 20 suffices, and 5 MHz apart).

    channellist=foo:range-2412-2462-20-5

    Ranges are NOT split between sources.  Multiple sources hopping on the
    same channel list which includes a range will not split the expanded
    range - in other words, channel ranges are treated as a single channel
    entry.

    Multiple ranges can be specified in a single channel list, separated by
    commas.  They may also be mixed with channels:

    channellist=foo:range-1-11-3-1,36,52

6.  Caveats and quirks for specific drivers:

    Mac80211 General (Linux):

      At the time of this release, the mac80211 drivers in Linux are
      undergoing significant development, which means at any given time they
      can exhibit extremely odd behavior or be outright broken.  Users are
      encouraged to upgrade to the latest kernel, and to consider installing
      the compat-wireless backport package, if problems are experienced.

    Madwifi (Linux):

      Madwifi-ng has been largely deprecated by ath5k/ath9k for normal
      usage.  These drivers support multi-vap more cleanly via the mac80211
      layer and do not, typically, have the same problems historically
      present in madwifi.  
      
      Madwifi-ng sources can be specified as either the VAP (ath0, mon0,
      etc) or as the control interface (wifi0, wifi1).  However, IF THE
      CONTROL INTERFACE IS SPECIFIED, Kismet cannot extract the list of
      supported channels, and will default to IEEE80211b channels.

      Madwifi-ng continues to have problems with multi-vap and initial vap
      creation.  It is recommended that the initial VAP creation be turned off
      by the module parameter "autocreate=none" when loading ath_pci.  If the
      madwifi monitor vap stops reporting packets soon after being created,
      this is often the cause.

      Combining managed and monitor VAPs appears to still not work well.

    RT28xx (Linux)

      There are 2 drivers for the RT28xx chipsets.  The in-kernel driver
      available as of Linux-2.6.31 works properly with Kismet.  This is by
      far the preferred driver to use.  Be sure to enable the RT28xx driver
      in the wireless drivers section, NOT the staging driver.  The staging
      driver is not mac80211 based and will not necessarily behave.

      The out-of-kernel driver does not conform to mac80211 controls.
      This driver also cannot be auto-detected (they don't provide a valid 
      identifier in /sys) so the driver type mus be manually specified with 
      'type=rt2870sta' on the source line.

      This driver defaults to the name 'rausbX' which exposes a bug in some
      versions of libpcap and may require the device be renamed (See
      'Troubleshooting' section)

    rt73-k2wrlz (Linux)

      An out-of-tree rt73 driver similar to rt2870sta.  It may be necessary
      to specify a type of 'rt73' manually when using this driver.

      This driver defaults to the name 'rausbX' which exposes a bug in some
      versions of libpcap and may require the device be renamed (See
      'Troubleshooting' section)

    WL (Linux, Intel)

      Broadcom has released a binary version of their drivers called WL.
      These drivers are incapable of monitor mode, and cannot be used with
      Kismet.  Kismet will attempt to autodetect them and report this to the 
      user.  Users of Broadcom cards should use the b43 or b43xx in-kernel
      drivers.

    OTUS (Linux)

      Atheros released a driver for the 802.11n USB devices; however, this
      does not have support for monitor mode and cannot be used with Kismet.
      The ar9170 driver project is providing mac80211 kernel support for
      this card, and works with Kismet.  ar9170 has been merged with the
      wireless-git development kernel and should be present in the
      compat-wireless packages.

    Nokia ITT (Linux)

      For any chance of Kismet working on the Nokia ITT, the scan interval
      must be set to zero in the Nokia system control panel, connectivity
      section.  It should be disconnected from any network, but wireless
      must be turned on.

      The Nokia drivers often return FCS-invalid packets.  The Nokia source
      line should include 'fcs=true,validatefcs=true' to prevent these from
      creating multiple false networks out of invalid packets.

      The Nokia device does not autodetect properly, a driver type of
      'nokia770', 'nokia800', 'nokia810', or 'nokiaitt' must be set.
      'nokiaitt' is a generic source which should work on any Nokia ITT
      tablet.

    Orinoco (Linux)

      Due to problems in monitor mode with newer firmwares, the Orinoco kernel
      drivers have disabled monitor mode for newer/"modern" firmware versions
      in the Orinoco cards.

      Kismet will attempt to use the device, but warn the user that it will
      probably fail.  Monitor support can be forced on in the module via the
      module parameter "force_monitor=1" when loading orinoco.ko.

      For non-hermes chipsets like prism2, use hostap (also in the kernel).

    NDISWrapper (Linux)

      The NDIS-Wrapper driver loads Windows drivers into the Linux network
      stack.  These drivers are not capable of monitor mode, and will not
      work with Kismet.

      Note:  The rndis drivers are NOT the same as ndiswrapper.  rndis
      drivers are for a specific USB chipset and are not related to
      ndiswrapper, rndis will work.

    BSD (BSD Generic)

      Cards which work under the generic BSD framework for monitor mode with
      radiotap headers should work with Kismet via the source types
      "radiotap_bsd_ag", "radiotap_bsd_a", "radiotap_bsd_g", and
      "radiotap_bsd".  Channel detection and device type autodetection are
      currently not supported.

      ncsource=wl0:type=radiotap_bsd_ag

    Windows (Generic)

      ONLY THE AIRPCAP DEVICE IS SUPPORTED UNDER WINDOWS.  THIS IS A
      SPECIFIC HARDWARE DEVICE MADE BY CACE TECHNOLOGIES.  IF YOU DID NOT GO
      AND BUY AN AIRPCAP SPECIFICALLY FOR CAPTURING DATA, YOU DO NOT HAVE ONE, 
      AND THIS WILL NOT WORK.

      The Airpcap has monitor mode drivers with a *public* interface for
      controlling them.  This is the only device Kismet can capture packets
      from on Windows.

    AirPcap (Windows)

      By default Kismet will open the first Airpcap device found.  Multiple
      devices can be opened by using the full named interface, which can be
      found in the AirPcap tools but follows the pattern \\.\airpcapXX ; The
      first device is \\.\airpcap00, the second is \\.\airpcap01, and so on.

    USB Devices (OSX)

      Only devices using the Airport IOKit drivers are supported on OSX.
      USB devices are, in general, not supported because the drivers lack
      monitor mode or a method to set the channel.

7.  Supported capture source types

    Capture source types are only required in specific situations where
    Kismet cannot detect the capture source type automatically.

    Linux Capture Sources:

      All modern drivers on Linux use the mac80211 driver framework.  Kismet
      will auto-detect any driver using this framework.  A generic source
      type 'mac80211' can be used for forcing a type, however it is not
      strictly useful to do so.

      adm8211           Kernel adm8211 driver
      acx100            Kernel acx100 driver
      hostap            Kernel prism2 driver
      ipw2100           Kernel Intel 2100 driver
      ipw2200           Kernel Intel 2200 driver
      ipw2915           Kernel Intel 2915 driver
      ipw3945           Kernel intel 3945 driver
      mac80211          Generic mac80211 catch-all source for any mac80211
                        drivers.
      madwifi           Madwifi/Madwifi-ng
      madwifi_a         Alias for madwifi, default 802.11a channels
      madwifi_b         Alias for madwifi, default 802.11b/g channels
      madwifi_g         Alias for madwifi, default 802.11b/g channels
      madwifi_ag        Alias for madwifi, default 802.11abg channels
      nokia770          Conexant-based driver in Nokia Maemo tablets
      nokia800          Alias for nokia770
      nokia810          Alias for nokia770
      nokiaitt          Alias for nokia770

      pcapfile          Pcap-formatted previously recorded file
      rt2870sta         Out-of-kernel/Staging rt2870 11n driver (use
                         in-kernel instead)
      wl12xx            Patched wl12xx drivers for the N900, must use
                         patched drivers from http://david.gnedt.eu/blog/,
                         otherwise autodetected.
      drone             Remote Kismet packet capture, source options
                        "host=..." and "port=..." are required.
                        ncsource=drone:host=localhost,port=2502

    BSD Capture Sources:

      Currently, the BSD packet capture sources do not support autodetection
      or channel detection.

      Capture on BSD should work with any driver which supports monitor mode
      and which uses the standard BSD IOCTLs to set the mode and channel.

      Patches/Additional BSD support welcome.

      radiotap_bsd      Generic BSD capture source, default 802.11b/g channels
      radiotap_bsd_g    Default 802.11b/g channels
      radiotap_bsd_a    Default 802.11a channels
      radiotap_bsd_ag   Default 802.11abg channels

      pcapfile          Pcap-formatted previously recorded file
      drone             Remote Kismet packet capture, source options
                        "host=..." and "port=..." are required.

    Windows Capture Sources:

      Currently ONLY THE AIRPCAP DEVICE, PCAP FILE, AND DRONES RUNNING ON A
      SUPPORTED PLATFORM are supported under Windows.  NO OTHER DEVICES CAN
      BE USED FOR PACKET CAPTURE.

      airpcap           Airpcap generic source.  Will autodetect the channel
                        ranges.  Interface 'airpcap' will detect the first
                        airpcap device (ncsource=airpcap), interface paths
                        may be used to specify specific devices
                        (ncsource=\\.\airpcap01)
      airpcap_ask       List available sources and ask which one to use.
                        Should NOT be used when launched by the Kismet UI.

      pcapfile          Pcap-formatted previously recorded file
      drone             Remote Kismet packet capture, source options
                        "host=..." and "port=..." are required.

    OSX/Macintosh Capture Sources:
      darwin            Any device controlled by the Airport IOKit drivers
                        under OSX.  Default 802.11b/g channels.

      pcapfile          Pcap-formatted previously recorded file
      drone             Remote Kismet packet capture, source options
                        "host=..." and "port=..." are required.
8.  Plugins

    Kismet plugins can do almost anything that the native Kismet process can
    do.  This includes extending the logging capability, adding IDS alerts,
    defining new capture sources (within some limitations), and adding new
    features to the Kismet UI.

    Plugins need access to the Kismet source (and configuration
    information) to compile, and should ALWAYS be recompiled when the 
    Kismet version changes (for those using Kismet-SVN development code, 
    this may require rebuilding plugins every time a checkout is done).

    Plugins bundled with Kismet (and third-party plugins extracted into the
    Kismet source dir) can be built with 'make plugins' and installed with
    'make plugins-install' or 'make plugins-userinstall'.  These commands
    will automatically configure the plugin to compile using the current
    Kismet source directory, for third-party plugins compiled outside of the
    tree (or for manually compiling plugins), the KIS_SRC_DIR variable must
    be set or the symlinks to the Kismet source must be set up properly (see
    the README for the plugin you are trying to compile for more
    information).

    Plugins for the Kismet server (capture and logging process) are loaded
    from the system-wide plugin directory (/usr/local/lib/kismet/ by
    default) or from the users Kismet settings directory
    (~/.kismet/plugins).

    When running Kismet with privilege separation enabled (installed
    kismet_capture as root), plugins are only loaded by the Kismet server
    process and not the root-level Kismet capture process, and plugins
    cannot perform tasks that require root privileges.

    When running Kismet without privilege separation (launching as root),
    plugins run with root privileges.  This is not recommended.

    Server plugins are only loaded when kismet.conf contains:
      allowplugins=true

    Client plugins are loaded from the system-wide plugin directory
    (/usr/local/lib/kismet_client by default) or from the users Kismet
    settings directory (~/.kismet/client_plugins).

    The Kismet UI provides mechanisms for loading plugins (and specifying
    plugins to be loaded automatically on startup) via the Plugins menu item.

    Once a Kismet UI plugin is loaded, it cannot be unloaded.  To unload a
    Kismet plugin, go to the Plugins window, configure the plugin to not
    load on start, and restart Kismet.  To configure plugin loading in the
    UI, select the plugin (the list is automatically generated from plugins
    installed in the system and user plugin directories) and press enter.
    Plugins will be loaded when the plugin window is closed.

    Kismet server plugins cannot currently be manipulated via the Kismet UI,
    but loaded plugins will be displayed.

    If a plugin causes startup problems (most likely because it was compiled
    for a different Kismet binary), Kismet will exit and explain which
    plugin caused the crash during startup.  Plugins may also cause
    instability during runtime; if runtime crashes occur while plugins are
    loaded, remove them and re-test.  Often, recompiling the plugins against
    the running Kismet source will help resolve these issues.

9.  GPS

    Kismet can integrate with a GPS device to provide coordinates for
    networks it has detected.  These can be logged to the pcap file when PPI
    logging is enabled, and to an XML file for processing with Kismap, included 
    with the Kismet source, as well as other third-party tools.

    Kismet can use the GPS network daemon 'gpsd', or can parse NMEA directly
    from the GPS unit.

    The GPS is controlled with the Kismet server config, kismet.conf.  For
    using gpsd with gpsd running on the local system:

      gps=true
      gpstype=gpsd
      gpshost=localhost:2947
      gpsmodelock=false
      gpsreconnect=true

    By specifying gpsreconnect, if gpsd crashes or Kismet otherwises looses
    its connection, it will be re-established.  Gpsmodelock compensates for
    certain broken GPS/GPSd combinations, where the GPS never reports a
    valid lock.  By forcing a gpsmodelock=true, Kismet assumes the GPS
    always has a 2d lock.

    For using a GPS device without gpsd:

      gps=true
      gpstype=serial
      gpsdevice=/dev/ttyS0
      gpsreconnect=true

    The gpsdevice parameter should be set to the proper serial device for
    your GPS.  For USB GPS devices this will typically be /dev/ttyUSB0, and 
    for bluetooth devices this will often by /dev/rfcomm0 or similar.  Check
    the output of "dmesg" after plugging in your device.

    Kismet cannot know the location of a network, it can only know the
    location where it saw a signal.   By circling the suspected location,
    you can provide more GPS data for processing the network center point.

    Kismet keeps running averages of the network location, however this is
    not incredibly accurate, due to averaging and imprecision in
    floating point math.  For plotting network locations, the GPSXML file
    should be used.

10. Logging

    By default Kismet will log the pcap file, gps log, alerts, and network
    log in XML and plaintext.

    Logs are controlled by the --log-types command-line option or the
    logtypes= config file line.  Logs are enabled by name (nettxt, gpsxml,
    etc) or by class (text, pcap, etc).  When enabled by class, Kismet will
    enable all logs of that class.  For example, enabling 'pcap' will turn
    on pcap logging for plugins which can save packets.

    Supported log classes:
        alert               IDS alerts
        gps                 GPS data (xml)
        text                Text-formatted records (nettxt, etc)
        xml                 XML-formatted records (netxml)
        pcap                Pcap-formatted packet logs
        string              Discovered strings

    By default, Kismet will try to log to pcapfiles using the PPI per-packet
    header.  The PPI header is a well-documented header supported by
    Wireshark and other tools, which can contain spectrum data, radio data
    such as signal and noise levels, and GPS data.

    PPI is only available with recent libpcap versions.  When it is not
    available, Kismet will fall back to standard 802.11 format with no extra
    headers.

    The pcap logging format is controlled by:
      pcapdumpformat=ppi
      or
      pcapdumpformat=80211

    The naming of logfiles is controlled by the "logtemplate" configuration
    option.  By default, Kismet logs in the directory it is started in
    (unless modified with the "--log-prefix" option).

    The following variables can be used in the logtemplate:
        %p      Prefix (as given by --log-prefix)
        %n      Logging name (as given by --log-title)
        %d      Starting date, Mmm-DD-YYYY
        %D      Starting date, YYYYMMDD
        %t      Starting time, HH-MM-SS
        %T      Starting time, HHMMSS
        %i      Incremental, in the case of multiple logs of the same name
        %I      Incremental, padded with zeroes (00001)
        %l      Log type (pcapdump, netxml, etc)
        %h      Home directory of the user Kismet was started as

    The log template with a --log-prefix of /tmp and a --log-title
    of Kismet would expand from:
      logtemplate=%p%n-%D-%t-%i.%l
    to (for example):
      /tmp/Kismet-20090428-12-45-33-1.pcapdump

    Nested directories may be used (for example, with a template of the form
    "%p/%l/%D-%t"), however they must be created prior to starting Kismet,
    Kismet will not create the directories itself.

    Most users should never need to change the logtemplate, however the
    option remains available.  When changing the template, be sure to
    include the "%p" prefix option in a logical location (ie, at the
    beginning of the template) or else the --log-prefix argument will not
    function as expected.

11. Filtering

    Kismet supports basic filtering; networks can be excluded from tracking,
    pcap logging, or general logging, based on BSSID, source, or destination
    MAC addresses.

    Filters, when enabled, are "positive-pass"; anything matched by the
    filter will be allowed, and all other matches are excluded.  To process
    ONLY packets to or from the network with the BSSID AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF:

        filter_tracker=BSSID(AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF)
    
    This behavior can be inverted by using the '!' operator.  To exclude
    packets to or from the BSSID AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF:

        filter_tracker=BSSID(!AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF)

    Multiple MAC addresses can be stacked on the same filter line, to filter 
    two all packets from AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF and 00:11:22:33:44:55:

        filter_tracker=BSSID(!AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF,!00:11:22:33:44:55)

    MAC addresses may also be masked in a fashion similar to IP netmasks; to
    process only networks of a single manufacturer:

        filter_tracker=BSSID(AA:BB:CC:00:00:00/FF:FF:FF:00:00:00)

    Similarly, SOURCE(...), DEST(...), and ANY(...) may be used to filter
    packets.  To process only packets FROM the MAC address
    11:22:33:44:55:66:

        filter_tracker=SOURCE(11:22:33:44:55:66)

12. Alerts & IDS

    Kismet includes IDS functionality, providing a stateless and stateful
    IDS for layer 2 and layer 3 wireless attacks.  Kismet can alert on
    fingerprints (specific single-packet attacks) and trends (unusual
    probes, disassociation floods, etc).

    Kismet can integrate with other tools using the tun/tap export to
    provide a virtual network interface of wireless traffic; tools such as
    Packet-o-Matic and Snort can use this exported data to perform
    additional IDS functions.

    Kismet as an IDS is most effective in a stationary (ie, non-wardriving)
    setup, and for best results, a non-hopping source should be available on
    the channels the primary networks are on.  Kismet IDS functions CAN be
    used in mobile or channel-hopping installations (and are turned on by
    default) but accuracy may suffer.

    Alerts are configured with the "alert=" configuration option in
    kismet.conf, and have two time parameters:  Throttle, and Burst.  The
    throttle option controls how many alerts are allowed total per time
    unit, while the burst option controls how many alerts are allowed in a
    row.  For example:

        alert=NETSTUMBLER,5/min,1/sec

    Will allow 1 alert per second, at a maximum of 5 per minute.

    Kismet supports the following alerts, where applicable the WVE (Wireless
    Vulnerability and Exploits, http://www.wve.org) ID is included:

        ADVCRYPTO           Trend/Stateful      802.11
            An 802.11 AP changed advertised encryption options.  This 
            may be a normal configuration change (though unlikely) or it 
            may indicate a spoofed AP which did not correctly clone the 
            original.

        AIRJACKSSID         Fingerprint         802.11      Deprecated
            The original 802.11 hacking tools, Airjack, set the initial SSID
            to 'airjack' when starting up.  This alert is no longer relevant
            as the Airjack tools have long since been discontinued.

        APSPOOF             Fingerprint         802.11
            A list of valid MAC addresses for a SSID may be given via the
            'apspoof=' configuration file option.  If a beacon or probe
            response for that SSID is seen from a MAC address not in that
            list, this alert will be raised.  This can be used to detect
            conflicting access points, spoofed access points, or attacks
            such as Karma/Airbase which respond to all probe requests.

            The 'apspoof=' configuration option can specific exact SSID
            matches, regular expressions (if Kismet is compiled with PCRE
            support), and single, multiple, or masked MAC addresses:
                apspoof=Foo1:ssidregex="(?i:foobar)",validmacs=00:11:22:33:44:55

                apspoof=Foo2:ssid="Foobar",
                    validmacs="00:11:22:33:44:55,AA:BB:CC:DD:EE:FF"

            When multiple MAC addresses are specified, they should be
            enclosed in quotes (as above).

            For more information about forming PCRE-compatible regular
            expressions, see the PCRE docs (man pcrepattern).

        BEACONRATE          Trend/Stateful      802.11
            An 802.11 AP changed advertised beacon rates.  This may be
            a normal configuration change (though unlikely) or it may
            indicate a spoofed AP which did not correctly clone the 
            original.

        BSSTIMESTAMP        Trend/Stateful      802.11
            Invalid/Out-of-sequence BSS Timestamps can indicate AP spoofing.
            APs with fluctuating BSS timestamps could be suffering an "evil
            twin" spoofing attack, as many tools do not attempt to sync the
            BSS timestamp at all, and the fine-grained nature of the BSS
            timestamp field makes it difficult to spoof accurately.  Some
            APs may reset the BSS timestamp regularly, leading to a
            false-positive.

            References:
                WVE-2005-0019

        CHANCHANGE          Trend/Stateful      802.11
            A previously detected access point changing channels may
            indicate a spoofing attack.  By spoofing a legitimate AP on a
            different channel, an attacker can lure clients to the spoofed
            access point.  An AP changing channel during normal operation
            may indicate such an attack is in process, however centrally
            managed networks may automatically change AP channels to
            less-used areas of the spectrum.

             References:
                WVE-2005-0019

        CRYPTODROP          Trend/Stateful      802.11
            Spoofing an AP with less-secure encryption options may fool
            clients into connecting with compromised credentials.  The only
            situation in which an access point should reduce encryption
            security is when the AP is reconfigured.

        DEAUTHFLOOD         Trend/Stateful      802.11
        BCASTDISCON         Trend/Stateful      802.11
            By spoofing disassociate and deauthenticate packets an attacker
            may disconnect clients from a network, causing a
            denial-of-service which lasts only as long as the attacker is
            able to send the packets.

            References:
                WVE-2005-0019, WVE-2005-0045, WVE-2005-0046, WVE-2005-0061
                http://802.11ninja.net
                http://home.jwu.edu/jwright/papers/l2-wlan-ids.pdf

        DHCPCLIENTID        Fingerprint         802.11
            A client which sends a DHCP DISCOVER packet containing a
            Client-ID tag (Tag 61) which doesn't match the source MAC of the
            packet may be doing a DHCP denial-of-service to exhaust the DHCP
            pool.

        DHCPCONFLICT        Trend/Stateful      802.11
            Clients which receive a DHCP address and continue to use a
            different IP address may indicate a misconfigured or spoofed
            client.

        DISASSOCTRAFFIC     Trend/Stateful      802.11
            A client which is disassociated from a network should not
            immediately continue exchanging data.  This can indicate a
            spoofed client attempting to incorrectly inject data into a
            network, or can indicate a client being the victim of a
            denial-of-service attack.

        DISCONCODEINVALID   Fingerprint         802.11
        DEAUTHCODEINVALID   Fingerprint         802.11
            The 802.11 specification defines valid reason codes for
            disconnect and deauthenticate events.  Various client and access
            point drivers have been reported to improperly handle
            invalid/undefined reason codes.

        DHCPNAMECHANGE      Trend/Stateful      802.11
        DHCPOSCHANGE        Trend/Stateful      802.11
            The DHCP configuration protocol allows clients to optionally put
            the hostname and DHCP client vendor/operating system in the DHCP
            Discover packet.  These values should only change if the client
            has changed drastically (such as a dual-boot system).  Changing
            values can often indicate a client spoofing/MAC cloning attack.

        DOT11D              Trend/Stateful      802.11
            An 802.11 AP changed advertised 802.11d settings.  This may be
            a normal configuration change (though unlikely) or it may
            indicate a spoofed AP which did not correctly clone the 
            original.
            802.11d changes may also be an active attack meant to confuse
            clients or alter their behavior.

        LONGSSID            Fingerprint         802.11
            The 802.11 specification allows a maximum of 32 bytes for the
            SSID.  Over-sized SSIDs are indicative of an attack attempting
            to exploit vulnerabilities in several drivers.

        LUCENTTEST          Fingerprint         802.11      Deprecated
            Old Lucent Orinoco cards in certain scanning test modes generate
            identifiable packets.

        MALFORMMGMT         Fingerprint         802.11
            Malformed management frames may indicate errors in the capture
            source (such as not discarding corrupted packets), but may also
            be indicative of an attack.

        MSFBCOMSSID         Fingerprint         802.11
            Some versions of the Windows Broadcom wireless drivers do not
            properly handle SSID fields longer than the 802.11
            specification, leading to system compromise and code execution.
            This vulnerability is exploited by the Metasploit framework.

            References:
                WVE-2006-0071

        MSFDLINKRATE        Fingerprint         802.11
            Some versions of the Windows D-Link wireless drivers do not
            properly handle extremely long 802.11 valid rate fields, leading
            to system compromise and code execution.  This vulnerability is
            exploited by the Metasploit framework.

            References:
                WVE-2006-0072

        MSFNETGEARBEACON    Fingerprint         802.11
            Some versions of the Windows netgear wireless drivers do not
            properly handle over-sized beacon frames, leading to system
            compromise and code execution.  This vulnerability is exploited
            by the Metasploit framework.

        NETSTUMBLER         Fingerprint         802.11      Deprecated
            Older versions of Netstumbler (3.22, 3.23, 3.30) generate, in
            certain conditions, specific packets.

        NULLPROBERESP       Fingerprint         802.11
            Probe-response packets with a SSID IE tag component of length 0
            can cause older cards (prism2, orinoco, airport-classic) to
            fail.

            References:
                WVE-2005-0019

        WPSBRUTE            Trend/Stateful      802.11
            WPS is vulnerable to a brute-force attack which can reveal the
            WPS key in a matter of hours.  An AP under attack will send an
            unusual number of WPS responses.  This vulnerability is 
            documented in the paper by Stefan Viehbock and implemented
            in his tool and the Reaver attack tool.

            References:
                http://sviehb.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/viehboeck_wps.pdf

13. Other Configuration

    Kismet is divided into two main processes:  kismet_server and
    kismet_client.  The server portion (responsible for capture, logging,
    and decoding) is controlled by kismet.conf (by default in
    /usr/local/etc) and the client is configured via preferences options.

    For the most part, Kismet can run with no additional configuration by
    adding capture sources runtime with the UI, however for
    standalone/headless operation or advanced configuration, users will want
    to edit the config file.

    The Kismet config is a plain text file with option=value pairs.  Lines
    beginning with # are considered comments and are ignored.

    Most configuration options are self-explanatory or documented in the
    config file itself.

    By default Kismet only listens to the loopback interface on port 2501.
    This may be changed:

    listen=tcp://ip:port     Define the IP and port Kismet listens on.  By 
                              default, for security reasons, Kismet will 
                              listen only on 127.0.0.1, the loopback interface.  
                              To listen on any interface, use the IP 0.0.0.0.
    allowedhosts=...         Comma-separated list of IP addresses allowed to 
                              connect to the Kismet server.  IP ranges may be 
                              specified with netmasks (ie 10.10.10.0/24)
    maxclients=N             Maximum number of clients allowed to simultaneously
                              connect to the Kismet server.
    maxbacklog=5000          Maximum number of backlogged "lines" the server
                              keeps for clients which are not keeping up
                              with the network protocol.  This also affects
                              the amount of RAM potentially used by the
                              Kismet server process, and may need to be
                              lowered on extremely RAM-limited systems.

    Kismet servers may also be configured to act as Kismet drones, exporting
    a TCP stream of live packets:

    dronelisten=..           Same as above, for drone capabilities
    droneallowedhosts=..     ...
    dronemaxclients=..       ...
    droneringlen=65535       Equivalent of maxbacklog for Kismet clients,
                              maximum amount of space used for backlogged
                              packets as a drone.  May be reduced on
                              extremely RAM-limited systems.

    Kismet can export packets directly to other tools by creating a virtual
    network interface (supported on Linux, minimal support on OSX and BSD
    due to limited tuntap driver implementations on these platforms):

    tuntap_export=true       Enable tuntap export
    tuntap_device=kistap0    Virtual network interface created

    Kismet can decrypt WEP networks for which the WEP key is already known:

    wepkey=bssid,hexkey

    Only the hex key can be given, since there is no consistent method to
    turn a pass-phrase into a hex key for WEP for different vendors.

    Sound and speech can be generated by the Kismet server, however
    typically this would be done by the Kismet UI instead.  Sound is
    disabled by default in the Kismet server:

        enablesound=true|false  Play sound
        soundbin=...            Path and options for sound player binary
        sound=xxx,true|false    Enable playing sound trigger xxx

        enablespeech=true|false Speak
        speechbin=...           Text-to-Speech player
        speechtype=raw|festival If using Festival (but NOT flite) speech
                                 type must be set to 'festival', all other
                                 tools should be set to 'raw'
        speechencoding=...      NATO, Spelling, Speech.  Encoding of speech
                                 fields for clarity, spell network SSIDs as
                                 NATO, spelled-out letters, or speak them
                                 normally.
        speech=xxx,"format"     Format of spoken strings, see the Kismet UI
                                 section for more information on formatting
                                 of speech strings.

    The OUI file (used by Kismet to determine the manufacturer of a device)
    can be shared with other tools (such as Wireshark), so long as they use 
    a compatible format.  By default, Kismet searches:
        /etc/manuf
        /usr/share/wireshark/wireshark/manuf
        /usr/share/wireshark/manuf
    Additional search paths can be added with the 'ouifile=' configuration
    option.

14. Kismet UI

    The default Kismet UI uses the text-based ncurses library.  Additional
    UIs may be available from the Links page on the Kismet website
    (http://www.kismetwireless.net/links.shtml)

    The Kismet UI functions much as any other curses application (such as
    Midnight Commander or Links) does.  The menu is activated with 'escape',
    '`' or '~'.  Navigation between elements of the UI is done with 'tab'.

    Use of a mouse is supported in much of the Kismet UI, although not all
    widgets fully support mouse operation.  Basic use of the UI with no
    keyboard should be reasonable, however.

    The main Kismet window consists of the network list, GPS information,
    a summary of the current server statistics and packet source status, and
    the status panel where errors and announcements are printed.  Additional
    components of the main window may be turned on with the 'View' menu.

    - Preferences

    Configuration of the Kismet UI is done entirely inside the UI via the
    'Kismet->Preferences->...' menus.  Preference changes are (for the most
    part) immediate and do not require restarting.

    By default, the Kismet UI will prompt on startup to launch the Kismet
    server, this behavior (as well as auto-connection and server setup) can 
    be changed via the Startup and Shutdown preferences
    (Kismet->Preferences->Startup and Shutdown):

        Open Kismet server launch window automatically
            - Kismet will open the server startup window when the UI is
              loaded, if the default server is not running.
        Ask about launching server on startup
            - Ask to start a server (instead of just opening the server
              window)
        Show Kismet server console by default
            - Automatically open the Kismet server console window after
              starting the server
        Shut down Kismet server on exit automatically
            - Kill locally started servers and issue a shutdown command to
              remote servers when the UI exits
        Prompt before shutting down Kismet server
            - Don't kill servers without confirming

    Kismet menus support shortcuts, for example '~Wl' is the same as
    navigating to the 'Windows->Client List' menu option.

    - Sound and Speech

    The Kismet UI handles sound and speech playing for most users.  Sound
    playing is straightforward (WAV files are installed, by default, to
    /usr/local/share/kismet/wav) and can be played with any sound player
    compatible with your install.

    Speech is supported on Festival and Flite.  Any other text-to-speech
    program should work as long as it accepts plain text on standard in.
    Speech text is encoded depending on the type of speech event, where %1, %2,
    etc are replaced with data by Kismet.  The supported events and
    replacements are:
        New network:
            1. Network SSID encoded to speech encoding setting (spell, nato,
               plain)
            2. Network channel
            3. Network BSSID
        Alert:
            1. Alert type
        GPS Lost, GPS Lock:
            No replacement options

    - Tagging networks

    Kismet can add custom data to a network in the form of tags.  In the
    Kismet UI, networks and clients can both have tags added to them.  These
    tags are displayed in the UI under network details, and logged to XML
    and TXT output.

    Tags can be set as permanent; By checking the "Remember note when
    restarting Kismet" checkbox in the Network and Client Note windows, the
    note is saved and will be re-applied to networks every time Kismet
    loads.

    Client tags are applied to a specific client in a specific network;
    Currently there is no mechanism for adding a note to every instance of
    the client.

    - Sorting

    Kismet defaults to "autofit" mode, where it tries to put as many of the
    currently active networks on the screen as possible.  Because autofit
    mode is so variable, it doesn't make sense to try to allow selecting
    networks in autofit.

    To select a network and view details, first sort by another method (such
    as channel, time, etc) via the Sort menu, then select a network.

15. Kismet Drones

    Kismet Drones are designed to turn Kismet into a distributed IDS system.
    Drones support all of the capture methods Kismet normally supports,
    including multiple capture devices per drone.  Drones capture wireless
    data and forward to a Kismet server over a secondary connection (ie,
    wired Ethernet).  Drones do not do any decoding of packets and have
    minimal hardware requirements.

    A Kismet server connects to the drones and will provide a single Kismet
    UI display, packet dump, and alert generation point.  Capture sources on
    remote Kismet drones are forwarded to the Kismet server and appear as
    independent capture devices which can be configured for channel hopping,
    locking, etc.

    Using the tun/tap export function, the central Kismet server can export
    the packets from all attached drones to a virtual network interface for
    use with external IDS/packet capture systems (such as Snort).

    To start using Drones, launch the kismet_drone process on a remote
    system (editing the kismet_drone.conf file to control what hosts are
    allowed to connect) or turn on drone capabilities in the Kismet server
    (by enabling the drone config options in kismet_server.conf).  When
    running a kismet_server instance as a drone, local logging will act as
    usual and Kismet clients can be connected to the server as normal; When
    running kismet_drone, Kismet clients cannot connect directly to it, and
    it will not log, a Kismet server instance must be started to provide
    packet decoding, logging, and Kismet UI connectivity.

16. Talking to Kismet

    The Kismet client/server protocol is basic text.  Communicating with
    Kismet can be as simple as using telnet or netcat, however writing a
    full protocol dissector is suggested for serious applications.

    This documents a simple case of the Kismet protocol and the basics of
    communicating with a Kismet server, however for detailed information the
    source should be consulted.  A more complete documentation of the
    protocol will be done at some point.

    The Kismet protocol consists of commands and response sentences.  A
    command is of the form:

        !ID COMMAND OPT1 OPT2 OPT3

        Where ID is a number (which for proper error detection should be
        unique) and the remainder of the arguments are the command and any
        options it may take.

        Options which contain spaces but should be treated as a single
        argument should wrap those options in "\001...\001"

    And a response sentence is of the form:
    
        *HEADER: f1 f2 f3 f4

        Where HEADER is the sentence type, and the remainder are fields
        requested by the client, in the order they were requested.

        Fields are expected to be plain ASCII text, however a client should
        take precautions to be sure that the value is sane for the terminal
        before printing it.

        Fields which may contain a space (used as the separator character)
        are buffered with \001...\001.  As this could be any field, any
        protocol parser should be able to handle fields so buffered.

    Basic Kismet commands include:

        !{#} SHUTDOWN
            Shutdown Kismet instance

        !{#} CAPABILITY {Sentence}
            Query the accept fields for a protocol.  Returns the *CAPABILITY
            sentence

        !{#} ENABLE {Sentence} {Fields}|{*}
            Enable a sentence, with either the provided fields and order, or
            all fields in the default order if * is specified.

        !{#} REMOVE {Sentence}
            Remove a sentence.  Stop sending a sentence.

        !{#} ADDNETTAG {BSSID} {Permanent} {Tag name} {Tag content}
            Add an arbitrary tag to a network.  If permanent, it will be
            cached in ~/.kismet/tags.conf

        !{#} DELNETTAG {BSSID} {Tag name}
            Remove a tag

        !{#} ADDCLITAG {BSSID} {MAC} {Permanent} {Tag} {Content}
            Add tag to specified client in network

        !{#} DELCLITAG {BSSID} {MAC} {Tag}
            Remove a tag

        !{#} ADDSOURCE {source line}
            Add a source dynamically.  Source line should be of the same
            format as a 'ncsource=' config line

    Protocol sentences:

        When a sentence is enabled, any existing sentence data is sent (at
        the discretion of the protocol handlers).  Additional data is sent
        in the form of deltas; To conserve bandwidth and processing time,
        only instances where the data has changed are sent.  For example,
        when the *BSSID sentence is sent, a block of *BSSID records are
        sent, for all networks previously detected by Kismet.  Until the
        sentence is disabled, a record is sent once per second for each
        network which has changed in some fashion (new packets).

    Mandatory sentences:

        Kismet expects a client to support AT LEAST the following mandatory
        protocols, which are enabled by default.  At the very least, any
        client should ignore these if it does not process them.  They may be
        disabled with the REMOVE command.  In general, any client should
        ignore protocols it does not understand.

            *KISMET
                Basic Kismet startup info
            *PROTOCOLS
                List of supported sentences
            *ACK
                Command response
            *ERROR
                Command failure
            *TIME
                Server timestamp

    Example:

        echo -e '\n!0 enable channel channel,networks' | nc localhost 2501

        Enable the *CHANNEL sentence with the fields 'channel' and
        'networks'.  The output could look something like:

            *ACK: 0 OK 
            *CHANNEL: 1 4 
            *CHANNEL: 3 1 
            *CHANNEL: 4 1 
            *TIME: 1245176426

17. Troubleshooting

    Congratulations!  You're actually reading the troubleshooting section of
    the README!  Many don't.

    If you are having trouble getting Kismet to capture packets at all,
    launch kismet_server independently of the client and watch the output,
    it may be easier to spot problems then.

    Some common problems with Kismet have easy solutions:

    PROBLEM:  Fatal errors about old configuration files/missing config
              values
              Kismet has evolved over time, and has recently had a
              significant rewrite of the entire application, rendering many
              of the old configuration values obsolete, and changing many
              others.
    FIX:      Update your config files.  If you are moving to the latest
              release of Kismet, it may be best to just remove your old
              config files, copy the new ones, and reconfigure.

    PROBLEM:  Kismet crashes immediately while starting up
    FIX:      If you are building Kismet from SVN routinely, it's possible
              that the build system has gotten screwed up with a recent
              change.  Run 'make distclean' then './configure' and 'make'
              again.  If the kismet_capture binary is out-of-sync with the
              kismet_server or kismet_drone binaries, things will behave
              oddly.

    PROBLEM:  Kismet shows FATAL errors about permission denied
    FIX:      Are you trying to capture from a network interface without
              root privileges?  Kismet must either be installed as suid-root
              (and the user starting it must be in the kismet group) or it
              must be started as root, see the "Suid Root & Security"
              section of the README.

    PROBLEM:  Kismet can not autodetect my card type or doesn't understand
              the "type=..." source option.
    FIX:      Some drivers do not register with the /sys filesystem and can
              not be properly autodetected.  Check the list of capture
              sources known to be problematic in this README.
              Secondly, check the output of './configure' when building
              Kismet and make sure that support for your capture type is
              present, most commonly support for pcap or wext is missing.

    PROBLEM:  Kismet warns about interfering processes while starting up.
              Many network services can interfere with Kismet (DHCP,
              networkmanager, etc) by reconfiguring or shutting down the
              network interface while Kismet is running.
    FIX:      Only necessary if Kismet is not behaving as expected, or
              encountering errors.  Shutdown or kill the offending
              processes.  This can often be most quickly accomplished by
              stopping the networking services for your interface ('ifdown
              wlan0' for example).  In some specific configurations, these
              alerts may be spurious (dhcp and wpa_supplicant alerts on a
              multi-vap mac80211 interface doing sta+rfmon with a
              wpa_supplicant scanning option, for example).

    PROBLEM:  Kismet complains about multiple VAPs under madwifi-ng
    FIX:      Destroy the other VAPs, or ignore this warning if there are no
              run-time failures.  Madwifi-ng has historically had
              significant problems with multi-vap and rfmon (for example, a
              STA VAP and a RFMON VAP).

    PROBLEM:  Shortly after starting on madwifi-ng, Kismet stops reporting
              packets.
    FIX:      There appears to be a race condition in madwifi-ng startup
              where an autocreated VAP causes errors in future VAPs.  A
              temporary fix is to reload the madwifi-ng driver before
              starting Kismet, with the 'autocreate=none' modparm ('rmmod
              ath_pci; modprobe ath_pci autocreate=none'), a more permanent
              fix is to put this in the default module parameters for
              ath_pci and make the necessary changes to your startup scripts
              to create a managed VAP on startup.

    PROBLEM:  './configure' is unable to find libpcap, wext, ncurses, pcre,
              or some other library when building from source.
    FIX:      Many distributions separate the runtime data from the data
              necessary to compile programs against a library.  Install the
              '-dev' or '-devel' or 'devel-' packages for each of the
              libraries ('apt-get install libpcap-dev' for example)

    PROBLEM:  Kismet exits immediately on Cygwin with no output.
    FIX:      Cygwin appears to have problems linking static libraries when
              they are not in a sub-directory of the build.  By default,
              './configure' will look in "Airpcap_Devpack" and
              "Winpcap_Devpack", you should probably just expand the devpack
              zips there.

    PROBLEM:  I can't capture on (some device that isn't an AirPCAP that I
              bought from CACE) on Windows!
    FIX:      Buy an AirPCAP and read the docs.

    PROBLEM:  I can't see some parts of the Kismet UI
    FIX:      Some terminals have bad default color assignments and render
              dark grey as black.  Go into the Kismet color preferences and
              change the items.

    PROBLEM:  A plugin crashes Kismet (server or UI)
    FIX:      Recompile the plugin and make sure it's build with the same
              code as the Kismet server/client.  This is especially
              problematic if you are following Kismet development in SVN.

    PROBLEM:  Kismet makes the mouse slow or crashes the whole system
    FIX:      This isn't actually Kismet.  Only the kernel layer should be
              able to cause the system to lockup or crash, or interfere with
              interrupts so badly that the mouse becomes unresponsive.
              Kismet may exacerbate this behavior by changing the card
              configuration and exposing flaws in the driver;  This most
              often can happen while changing channels, try disabling
              channel hopping (or slowing it down), and upgrade to the
              latest drivers for your device.

    PROBLEM:  Kismet cannot open a source, with the error:
              "can't get usb bus index"
    FIX:      Some versions of LibPcap interpret any interface with "USB"
              in the name as a USB device on Linux, and attempt to do USB
              bus capture instead of packet capture.
              Rename the interface (with ifrename or udev rules) to
              something that doesn't include 'usb'.  A newer version of
              libpcap may also resolve this problem.

    PROBLEM:  configure cannot find libnl on Ubuntu, but libnl-dev is
              installed
    FIX:      Some distributions (apparently, Ubuntu) require
              libnfnetlink-dev to be installed as well.  Currently there is
              no good way to autodetect this.

18. Frequently Asked Questions

    Q: Where did the name Kismet come from?
    A: 'Kismet' means 'Fate' or 'Destiny'; While I wish I could take credit
       for some plan about picking it for Kismets ability to uncover any
       network in the area, I really just needed a name and clicked through
       a thesaurus until I found a word that wasn't used in any other OSS
       projects.

    Q: Is there anything illegal about Kismet?
    A: In and of itself, there should be nothing illegal about Kismet (it's
       fundamentally no different than any other capture tool) but you
       should check your local laws first.  Note, however:
        - Recording data from networks that you do not have permission to
          may be considered an illegal wiretap.
        - Using networks you do not have permission to use may be considered
          'Theft of Service' and is illegal.
        - Don't be stupid.
        - If you are stupid, I'm not responsible.

    Q: Can Kismet crack WEP?
    A: Yes, but also, no.  The base Kismet code does not do any WEP
       cracking, however due to constant requests, there IS an Aircrack-PTW
       plugin which will do PASSIVE WEP cracking only.  It will NOT do
       arp-replay, fragmentation, or other active attacks, however if enough
       packets are gathered it will attempt to crack the WEP key and insert
       it into Kismet to decrypt that network.
       The PTW-WEP cracking plugin is in the Kismet source tree in the
       plugin-ptw/ directory.

    Q: What's the deal with Newcore, and where did it go?
    A: Newcore was a total rewrite of Kismet, which lasted years longer in a
       development state than planned.  If you're reading this, you've got
       the release that Newcore became already.

    Q: What happened to the version numbers?
    A: They stopped making sense.  3.0 to 3.1 was a 30,000 line change, but
       calling it 4.0 didn't make any sense either.  I hate project
       perpetually in 0.1, 0.9 status, but I also hate artificially
       expanding the version numbers.  So, now, it's versioned by the
       release date, YYYY-MM-RR.

    Q: Can I use the old Kismet UI still?
    A: No, sorry, too much has changed in the protocols, and the new UI is
       much more flexible anyhow

    Q: Can I use the old drones still?
    A: No, again, too much has changed (however from now on it should be 
       possible to mix versions since the drone protocol has been expanded
       to be expandable)

    Q: What is RFMON/Monitor mode?
    A: In the wired world, promiscuous mode turns off the filtering
       mechanism in the device and reports all packets on the Ethernet (or
       whatever) layer.
       With wireless drivers, this doesn't necessarily mean anything
       (sometimes it causes different results, sometimes it doesn't).
       Wireless drivers present a fake Ethernet device to the operating
       systems, which reports only 802.11 data frames.  When looking at WPA
       encrypted networks, this is even more limited, because packets are
       encrypted for each client and only multicast/broadcast packets or
       packets destined to the capture device could be reported as valid
       data frames anyhow.
       Monitor/RFMON mode is a special mode for wireless devices which
       reports all packets the card sees, with the 802.11 headers intact,
       including 802.11 management and control frames.

    Q: Does Kismet work differently than NetStumbler?
    A: Absolutely.  Netstumbler (and Ministumbler, InSSIDer, etc) work by
       instructing the card to probe for networks and report the networks
       the card sees responses from.  This method is obviously competent at
       detecting networks in the area, however it can't record data, find
       hidden networks, detect clients using networks, etc.

    Q: Why are some probe SSIDs full of strange nonsense characters?
    A: It appears with Windows Zero Config in many versions of Windows XP
       has an off-by-one error which leaks a little bit of memory into a
       probe request.  

    Q: Why is the range of a network sometimes totally bogus when using a
       GPS with Kismet?
    A: Doing real-time GPS averaging leads to increasingly bad data due to
       floating-point accuracy and averaging.  For more exact GPS data,
       process the gpsxml file.

    Q: What happened to gpsmap?
    A: gpsmap was the old mapper code for Kismet.  It stopped being useful a
       long time ago when the map sources it used went away.  It's being
       replaced with a tile-based mapper, the beginnings of which are in
       the kismap/ directory in the source code.  Kismap isn't quite
       finished for the RC1 release, but development continues on it and it
       will be available hopefully soon.

    Q: How can I merge multiple capture files?
    A: Use the 'mergecap' tool that comes with Wireshark.

    Q: How can I support device X with Kismet on operating system Y?
    A: Kismet is designed to be fairly modular (especially the newest
       versions based on Newcore).  So long as your environment is something
       like Posix and your device supports raw capture modes, it should be
       possible.  Swing by IRC (#kismet on freenode) and chat.

    Q: Why does Kismet make a new interface named foo-mon?
    A: When mac80211 is available, Kismet will use to create a new virtual
       interface, named after the existing interface (wlan0 for instance
       will cause a wlan0mon to be created).  Kismet will use this virtual
       interface for capture, so that it causes less disruption to the
       configuration of the existing interface.

    Q: How do I prevent Kismet from looking at data frames?
    A: Set 'hidedata' to 'true' in the Kismet config file.  This will cause
       Kismet to trim data frames as soon as they are identified.
       Statistics like retransmit rates, data size/bandwidth, and so on will
       continue, but the data contents will never be examined, even for
       non-logging purposes (such as DHCP/IP detection, etc).

       NOTICE FOR L.E.O. : Kismet WILL STILL CAPTURE the data into RAM.
       Because the length of the 802.11 (or other PHY type) headers is
       unknown until the packet is captured in many cases, it is not
       possible to set the packet capture length ahead of time to exclude
       data.  While Kismet will not examine in any way or log in any way the
       data captured while hidedata=true is set, it will technically exist
       as a capture in RAM until the next packet overwrites the buffer.

    Q: What happens when I ask a question already here?
    A: I'll probably be rude to you (or someone else will).  But that would
       never happen, because everyone reads the docs all the way to the end,
       right?  Right!?