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Capturing and viewing Viber message packets on WIFI network?

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Hi all.

As it says in the title.

I'm referring to a home WIFI network where the phone (Windows Phone, if it matters) is used on a daily basis to send and receive messages via Viber. I'm curious if I can use Wireshark and a linux distro (last time I read Windows doesn't allow to capture packets or did I misread?) to capture and view the packets or are they encrypted (the messages only, not interested in the images, etc)? I saw a video uploaded on Youtube demonstrating how to capture and view packets containing images,videos, location but not messages.

Anyone have any experience with the messages? I'm interested in testing this out on my home WIFI network but thought I'd ask first before giving it a try.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

asked 06 Nov '15, 15:56

riza's gravatar image

riza
6112
accept rate: 0%


One Answer:

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last time I read Windows doesn't allow to capture packets or did I misread?

On a Wi-Fi network, WinPcap on Windows should let you capture in non-promiscuous, non-monitor mode, meaning you see the traffic the machine running {WinDump, Wireshark, other WinPcap application}, but no other traffic. You'd need an AirPcap adapter to capture other hosts' traffic on a Wi-Fi network on Windows with Wireshark; some other sniffers have their own drivers for Wi-Fi adapters, or use a newer mechanism that WInPcap uses, and can capture in monitor mode on Windows.

to capture and view the packets or are they encrypted (the messages only, not interested in the images, etc)?

Well, one question to ask is whether Wireshark understands the protocols or would just display them as raw data. From some Web searching, it doesn't appear that Viber uses standard protocols; Wireshark has no dissectors for whatever protocols they use.

answered 06 Nov '15, 17:46

Guy%20Harris's gravatar image

Guy Harris ♦♦
17.4k335196
accept rate: 19%