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Avoid "Unable to read from network interfaces. Requires read permissions"?

Jose M., AWAR3
Posted 6 years ago

Hello Wolfram Community,

I'm trying to use WL NetworkPacketCapture functions in a Mathematica Notebook and in this particular case I'm getting an error for which I'm required to "elevate permissions" on my Mac. The problem is I can't find any documentation on how to do so. Any ideas?

Unlike, say Cloud permissions, this is low level system permissions. Any links to documentation would be highly appreciated.

"Unable to read from network interfaces. Requires read permissions for devices /dev/bpf"

Thanks
POSTED BY: Jose M.
2 Replies
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Hi Jose, if you are on OS X then fire up a terminal and enter

sudo chmod o+r /dev/bpf*

which gives you (BUT also everybody else with an account on the machine the necessary permission). There are more elaborate schemes with permission just for your account and persistent between logins which you can google e.g. by combining the search string above in combination with your OS and wireshark.
POSTED BY: Fabian Wenger
Tom Lieber
Tom Lieber
Posted 1 year ago

Part of installing Wireshark on macOS is installing "ChmodBPF", a program that changes /dev/bpf* from being owned by root:wheel to being owned by root:access_bpf, and adds your user account to the access_bpf group. This seems a little less error-prone than editing those files' permissions yourself.

ChmodBPF's installer is included separately in the DMG you get from the Wireshark download page.
POSTED BY: Tom Lieber
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