With the introduction of the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), it’s now possible to run the Kismet server on a Win10 system.
There is one major caveat: Kismet will not be able to capture packets from your local Wi-Fi interface. You must use a remote Kismet capture source - this could be a Linux system, or an embedded capture device like a Wi-Fi Pineapple Tetra or another simple OpenWRT or LEDE device.
The main advantage of running Kismet in the WSL is to leverage the full capabilities of your Win10 device, while capturing from a super-lightweight capture device like a Tetra, other OpenWRT, or even Raspberry Pi class device.
The WSL only exists for Windows 10; this is not possible under Windows 8 or 9.
You will need to activate the WSL system, and then install a Linux distribution, as per the instructions at:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
The choice of distribution to install is up to you; Ubuntu is the most logical choice as it is known to have compatibility with Kismet.
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, along with other versions (Kali, for example), is available directly from the Windows Store: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/ubuntu-1804-lts/9n9tngvndl3q
You’ll need many of the dependencies Kismet needs to compile; you could install them all, but at a minimum you need to update the Ubuntu systems package lists and install:
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install build-essential libmicrohttpd-dev git libpcap-dev libsqlite3-dev
As you would on Linux:
$ git clone https://www.kismetwireless.net/git/kismet.git
$ cd kismet
$ ./configure
$ make
Install - there’s no reason to install as suidroot here since we will not be locally managing interfaces.
$ sudo make install
Check the Kismet main README file for more information on configuring remote capture; you can configure it to allow connections from remote sources, OR you can use a tool like ssh
to tunnel a remote capture secure.
Run Kismet like you would on Linux:
$ kismet
or, without logging,
$ kismet -n
Open your browser and go to http://localhost:2501
to reach the Kismet server.
The password to the server will be automatically generated the first time Kismet starts. You can find the password in the WSL filesystem under ~/.kismet/kismet_httpd.conf
.
Fire up some remote captures (consult the main Kismet README for more info) and point them at your new server, and watch the packets come in!