[Yang Luo <hsluoyb@xxxxxxxxx>]

The first reason is causing more efforts for apps. Nearly all apps I know have hard-coded the DLL file name, wpcap.dll by implicitly linking the .lib or LoadLibrary call. If I changed this name, all apps will need modification for NPcap. LoadLibrary is easy to change, just add another file name for its argument, but changing the implicit linking to NPcap will be much more pain, needs changing the SDK, changing the SDK means to give up WinPcap, and even NPcap don't have a SDK yet, he has to compile with NPcap from source. I don't see any softwares except Wireshark and nmap would like to do this for NPcap. Because as you said, WinPcap can still work under Win10, there's no indispensable reason for other apps to do that much for NPcap.

Second reason is that from what I see, most apps use the Windows DLL search order, while I didn't test much, but at least nmap and WinDump does. Only Wireshark has hard-coded DLL folder for now. Perhaps system32 is a "standard" way we know to put DLLs, however using another DLL path and adding it to Environment Variable %PATH% is also a "standard" way, it's not less secure than system32 way because a user needs Administrator right to modify machine-wide options in Environment Variable. You may think that a malicious user can mess with his own user-wide options, adding some malicious path to his own %PATH%, but in that condition Wireshark will probably also run under that user (Non-administrator right). So still no harm to the Administrator-protected resources. Of course, if the malicious user is an Administrator, he can do whatever he wants, including modifying Environment Variable and messing with system32.

BTW, I found that apps all like to hard-coded some names in WinPcap. Nmap and Wireshark hard-coded the "npf.sys" driver name, Wireshark even hard-coded the adapter binding name (like "\Device\NPF_{XXXX}", but we have changed it to "\Device\NPCAP_{XXXX}"). I have changed this adapter binding name back to "NPF" for compatibility, but the driver name NPcap uses is "npcap.sys" and cannot be changed back to "npf.sys", because driver names are system-global. So I think the logic checking "npf.sys" in Wireshark also needs some change.

Cheers,

Yang

 

On Mon, Jul 6, 2015 at 3:15 AM, Graham Bloice <graham.bloice@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

As WinPcap and NPcap seem to be diverging, in the short-term at least, should the dll's be named differently?

The following is just an observation, not intended as any criticism.

As NPCap has chosen to co-exist with WinPCap by using a (non-standard) Windows directory, although that (currently) doesn't seem to have any ill-effects, a similar co-existence choice would be to name the binaries differently and then use the standard directories.  This would also enable using apps to not to have to hard-code the non-standard directory in any LoadLibrary() call to check at runtime for either version.

On 5 July 2015 at 18:06, Yang Luo <hsluoyb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Good question, Graham. This is simply because WinPcap has taken the System32\SysWow64 dirs and NPcap wants to coexist with WinPcap. As NPcap has the same file names (wpcap.dll and packet.dll) for compatibility, we just can't put the the-same-name files in the same folder with WinPcap. Though I personally prefer the way to "Make NPcap and WinPcap mutually exclusive" (this needs user softwares like Wireshark and Nmap nothing to change),  coexisting way has also its benefits, and finally we chose the latter.

Cheers,

Yang

On Sun, Jul 5, 2015 at 1:28 AM, Graham Bloice <graham.bloice@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Out of interest why does NPcap not place its DLL's in System32\SysWow64 as that is on the standard DLL search path?

On 4 July 2015 at 17:28, Yang Luo <hsluoyb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Pascal, I hold the same opinion with you, because a user installing NPcap implies that he wants to use it, I think I will make it this way:)

Cheers,

Yang

On Sat, Jul 4, 2015 at 6:07 PM, Pascal Quantin <pascal.quantin@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Le 4 juil. 2015 4:26 AM, "Yang Luo" <hsluoyb@xxxxxxxxx> a écrit :
>
> Hi list,
>
> Given that current Wireshark can't make use of NPcap because of the DLL search path problem mentioned in https://www.wireshark.org/lists/wireshark-dev/201506/msg00030.html, I'd like to make a patch for Wireshark. As it is a security consideration that Wireshark don't want to search the DLLs in the Windows way. My plan is to explicitly add the NPcap path to Wireshark's DLL search logic. NPcap uses the "C:\Windows\System32\NPcap" and "C:\Windows\SysWow64\NPcap" to store its DLLs (WinPcap uses "C:\Windows\System32" and "C:\Windows\SysWow64" directly). As it is a sub directory of System32 folder. Its access control policy is the same with System32, and there should be no security problem I think. The second question is if WinPcap and NPcap are both available in a system, which will be loaded first? I'd like to hear your opinions:)
>
> Cheers,
> Yang
>

Hi Yang,

As WinPcap is older and could be installed for other programs, on my side I would consider NPcap has having higher precedence and be loaded first.

Best regards,
Pascal.

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