Fix Wireshark Permissions Error on Macbook BPF Devices

CloudScale SEO — AI Article Summary

What it is	Describes how to fix a Wireshark permission error that prevents packet capture on macOS devices, specifically when users can't initiate capture sessions due to insufficient device permissions.
Why it matters	This error blocks network troubleshooting and analysis work, preventing users from capturing network traffic needed for debugging connectivity issues or analyzing network performance.
Key takeaway	The standard ChmodBPF installation may not solve this permission error, requiring additional manual configuration steps.

If you see the error “The capture session could not be initiated on the device “en0″ (You don’t have permission to capture on that device)” when trying to start a pcap on wireshare you can try installing ChmodBPF; but I suspect you will need to follow the steps below:

$ whoami
superman
$ cd /dev
/dev $ sudo chown superman:admin bp*
Password:
$ ls -la | grep bp
crw-------   1 cp363412  admin     0x17000000 Jan 13 21:48 bpf0
crw-------   1 cp363412  admin     0x17000001 Jan 14 09:56 bpf1
crw-------   1 cp363412  admin     0x17000002 Jan 13 20:57 bpf2
crw-------   1 cp363412  admin     0x17000003 Jan 13 20:57 bpf3
crw-------   1 cp363412  admin     0x17000004 Jan 13 20:57 bpf4
/dev $

4 thoughts on “
👁22views
Macbook: Fixing the Wireshark Permissions bug “You don’t have permission to capture on that device””

andreas says:

18/Feb/2023 at 23:57

Fantastic, worked for me on the first try. Thank you very much.

Dave Blackbourn says:

19/Mar/2023 at 06:15

I do not use WireShark regularly but whe I do I NEED it!
Thank you Andrew for your fix of my ‘The capture session could not be initiated on capture device “en0” (You don’t have permission to capture on that device)’
Regards, Dave

Tony B. says:

13/Nov/2023 at 19:51

This really should be top of the list in Google results!
Fixed my issue in a jiffy.
Thanks.

Joost says:

26/Mar/2024 at 11:21

It didn’t work for me. (MacOS 14.1.2)

I did the following to fix it:
– uninstall the package ChmodBPF by running Uninstall ChmodBPF.pkg
– Goto users and groups under settings (on your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, then click Users & Groups in the sidebar. (You may need to scroll down.) Click the Add Group button. (You may need to scroll down.) and create a group: “access_bpf”, click on the information “i” and flip the switch next to your username.
– Install ChmodBPF by running ChmodBPF.pkg