Wireshark 4.6.2 stands as the definitive standard for deep packet analysis, giving network administrators and security professionals granular visibility into traffic moving across their infrastructure. By capturing data packets in real-time and displaying them in a human-readable format, this open-source tool eliminates guesswork when diagnosing connectivity issues or investigating suspicious activity. Whether you are tracking down latency spikes or auditing unencrypted communications, Wireshark transforms raw binary data into actionable intelligence for maintaining a healthy and secure network.
Key Features
- Deep Protocol Inspection: Decrypts and analyzes hundreds of network protocols at the finest level, allowing users to drill down into headers and payloads for thorough investigation.
- Advanced Display Filters: Utilizes a powerful filtering engine that supports regular expressions and logical operators to isolate specific traffic of interest from millions of captured packets.
- Enhanced I/O Graphing: Visualizes network trends with updated graphing tools that support 1-microsecond intervals and drag-and-drop reordering for tracking throughput and errors over time.
- Automatic Profile Switching: Switches configuration profiles dynamically based on detected traffic patterns or display filters, streamlining the workflow for analysts managing diverse environments.
- Custom Column Expressions: Enables users to create custom data columns using arithmetic calculations, raw byte displays, or logical tests to tailor the packet list view to specific analysis needs.
- Multi-Format Support: Reads and writes a vast array of capture file formats, including tcpdump (pcap), Pcap NG, and others, ensuring compatibility with virtually any other network tool.
Use Cases Network Troubleshooting is the primary scenario, where administrators identify the root cause of slow performance, dropped connections, or high latency by examining TCP retransmissions and handshake failures. Security Analysis serves as another critical application, enabling forensic experts to reconstruct data streams, detect unauthorized data exfiltration, and hunt for malware signatures hidden within valid protocol traffic.
With its unmatched ability to dissect network layers and a community-driven development model that keeps protocol support current, Wireshark remains the essential choice for professionals who demand absolute precision in network analysis.
Version 4.6.2 — December 2025
- Resolved a critical compatibility regression introduced in version 4.6.1 that prevented plugins built for 4.6.0 from loading correctly.
- Fixed a security vulnerability in the HTTP3 dissector that caused a crash when decrypting certain traffic.
- Addressed a denial-of-service issue in the MEGACO dissector where specific packets could trigger an infinite loop.
- Restored the ability to properly read and process Omnipeek capture files, which was broken in the previous release.
- Corrected a stack buffer overflow error within the BER file reading module (wiretap).
- Updated protocol support for HTTP3, GTP, IEEE 802.15.4, MEGACO, and several others to ensure accurate dissection.
- Upgraded the bundled Visual C++ Redistributable in Windows installers to version 14.44.35112.
