Linux
Installing from package
Packages for many popular distributions are available on the Kismet packages page.
Make sure you’re installing a modern version when installing from packages! Some distributions still include the very old 2016 version of Kismet which predates the web UI and modern device support.
Installing suid-root
Kismet has the option to be installed as a suid-root tool.
To configure network interfaces, the Kismet capture process needs root privileges. These can be granted by running all of Kismet as root (sudo kismet), or by installing the capture tools as suid-root.
It is more secure to install the capture tools as suid-root than to run all of Kismet as root; this way only the capture process has root privileges. The Kismet capture processes will self-revoke all but the necessary aspects of root access to minimize any attack surfaces.
Installing from source
Uninstall any previous Kismet installs
If you installed Kismet using a package from your distribution, uninstall it using your package management tools. Typically packages are installed into /usr/ while compiling from source defaults to /usr/local; leaving the package installed will interfere.
If you compiled Kismet from source, the safest course is to remove it manually, however if you did not change the install prefix, a new compile and install will overwrite it.
Install dependencies
Kismet needs a number of libraries and development headers to compile; these should be available in nearly all distributions. Some distributions use a single package for the libraries and development headers, while others split them into -devel packages.
- Linux Ubuntu/Debian/Kali/Mint and other deb-based distributions
Core dependencies
sudo apt install build-essential git libwebsockets-dev pkg-config \
zlib1g-dev libnl-3-dev libnl-genl-3-dev libcap-dev libpcap-dev \
libnm-dev libdw-dev libsqlite3-dev libprotobuf-dev libprotobuf-c-dev \
protobuf-compiler protobuf-c-compiler libsensors4-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev \
python3 python3-setuptools python3-protobuf python3-requests \
python3-numpy python3-serial python3-usb python3-dev python3-websockets \
librtlsdr0 libubertooth-dev libbtbb-dev libmosquitto-dev
On some older distributions, libprotobuf-c-dev may be called libprotobuf-c0-dev.
RTL-433 SDR
For rtl-433 SDR support, you will need the rtl_433 tool. On more modern distributions this is available as a package:
sudo apt install rtl-433
If it is not available as a package on your distribution, you will need to compile it from source.
Libwebsockets
On some older distributions, libwebsockets may not be available as a modern version. Kismet uses the libwebsockets async API which was introduced a year ago, but some distributions still may not provide it. You can try to compile libwebsockets yourself, or you can disable libwebsockets in the Kismet build with --disable-libwebsockets in the configure stage below.
Libwebsockets is used by the remote capture code; compiling without it will not remove websockets from the Kismet server, or prevent using websockets, but any remote capture code compiled without libwebsockets will only be able to use the legacy TCP connection mode. If you’re not planning to use remote capture nodes, none of this matters to you, and you can get more info about remote capture here.
- Linux Fedora (and related)
sudo dnf install make automake gcc gcc-c++ kernel-devel git \
libwebsockets-devel pkg-config zlib-devel libnl3-devel \
libcap-devel libpcap-devel NetworkManager-libnm-devel \
libdwarf libdwarf-devel elfutils-devel libsqlite3x-devel \
protobuf-devel protobuf-c-devel protobuf-compiler \
protobuf-c-compiler lm_sensors-devel libusb-devel fftw-devel \
libmosquitto-devel
You will also need the related python3, rtlsdr, and ubertooth packages.
- Other Linux distributions
Most distributions will have equivalent packages. If your distribution splits binary and development packages, make sure to install both if you’re compiling.
Clone git
Clone Kismet from git. If you haven’t cloned Kismet before:
git clone https://www.kismetwireless.net/git/kismet.git
If you have a Kismet repo already:
cd kismet
git pull
Configure
This will find all the specifics about your system and prepare Kismet for compiling. If you have any missing dependencies or incompatible library versions, they will show up here.
cd kismet
./configure
Pay attention to the summary at the end and look out for any warnings! The summary will show key features and raise warnings for missing dependencies which will drastically affect the compiled Kismet.
If you’re compiling for a remote capture platform only, check the remote capture docs for more information.
Compile
make
You can accelerate the process by adding -j #, depending on how many CPUs you have. To automatically compile on all the available cores:
make -j$(nproc)
Compiling modern C++ (such as the Kismet codebase) can require a significant amount of RAM. You may need to limit the number of parallel compile processes if you encounter memory errors during compiling.
Compile-time dependency errors
Sometimes, when updating the git repository, files have changed significantly enough that the Makefile system does not automatically recover fully. If you encounter errors about missing header files (foo.h not found for example), try removing all .d files and running make again:
rm *.d
These files are used to identify which parts of the code need to be recompiled; rarely, when code is moved around, they get confused.
If this still does not fix the problem, you can try a clean git checkout (remove the kismet directory and re-run the git clone and configure steps.)
Installing
Generally, you should install Kismet as suid-root; Kismet will automatically add a group and install the capture binaries accordingly.
When installed suid-root, Kismet will launch the binaries which control the channels and interfaces with the needed privileges, but will keep the packet decoding and web interface running without root privileges.
sudo make suidinstall
Setting up the group
make suidinstall will automatically create a kismet group. To run Kismet, your user needs to be part of this group.
sudo usermod -aG kismet your-user-here
This will add your current logged in user to the kismet group.
Reload your groups
Groups are not updated automatically; you will need to reload the groups for your user.
Either log back out and log in, or in some cases, reboot.
Check that you are in the Kismet group with:
groups
If you are not in the kismet group, you should log out and log back in, or reboot - some session and desktop managers don’t reload the groups on logout, either.