Does Wireshark store any data anywhere else but locally?

asked 2025-11-18 20:26:29 +0000

Hello! The company I work for is hesitant to allow me to install Wireshark on my device as they are worried any captured data may be stored somewhere else but locally, as in an external server, etc. Since we deal with lots of PII, we are quite strict when it comes to where data is stored. I believe Wireshark stores its data only locally, but I don't see anywhere in the website privacy policy anything pertaining to this. Any help would be greatly appreciated and thank you for your time.

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answered 2025-11-19 22:18:57 +0000

Guy Harris
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Wireshark does not include code to, for example, upload captures to a Web server.

However as Chuckc notes, it stores capture files without regard to whether the file system to which it's writing is on the local machine or on a file server.

The same is, of course, true of most if not all software running on Un*xes or on Windows; that's not unique to Wireshark.

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Note that the Wireshark project itself does not include code to upload captures anywhere; however there is at least one 3rd party plugin that does, namely the Cloudshark Plugin for Wireshark.

cmaynard ( 2025-11-20 05:05:45 +0000 )edit

Awesome, thank you for the heads up, I'll make sure to avoid that plugin. Thanks again for ya'lls time!

ascendantdesign ( 2025-11-20 14:40:54 +0000 )edit

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answered 2025-11-18 21:22:53 +0000

Chuckc
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If your device has a network mount or file share mapped, files can be saved there.
Do you run a Data loss prevention (DLP) client on your systems that would prevent this?

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Yes, I believe we do. I'm running this info by a senior infosec peer now and think we have enough info to approve the usage. Thank you!

ascendantdesign ( 2025-11-20 14:40:26 +0000 )edit

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