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Get "Malformed Packet" for 802.11 Beacon frames on Windows


From: Yang Luo <hsluoyb () gmail com>
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:
https://github.com/nmap/npcap/releases/download/v0.06-r15/npcap_beacon_error.pcapng.gz

You can test this feature using this release:
https://github.com/nmap/npcap/releases

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
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