Launching Kismet

Kismet is launched from the command line, and can run headless (with no UI), but the typical way to interact with it is via the integrated web UI.

Starting Kismet

The simplest way to start Kismet is to open a terminal and simply run it:

kismet

This will launch Kismet with the default configuration, and no pre-defined capture sources.

Assuming you have installed Kismet with suid-root (the recommended, more secure method) and your user is in the kismet group, you can now add sources via the web interface.

If you did not install Kismet suid-root, you will need to launch it as root with the sudo command, or it will not be able to control capture sources:

sudo kismet

Kismet will display information about the startup process, and any errors.

A typical startup from Kismet would look like:

dragorn@boron ~ % kismet -n --no-ncurses
INFO: Including sub-config file: /usr/local/etc/kismet_httpd.conf
INFO: Including sub-config file: /usr/local/etc/kismet_memory.conf
INFO: Including sub-config file: /usr/local/etc/kismet_alerts.conf
INFO: Including sub-config file: /usr/local/etc/kismet_80211.conf
INFO: Including sub-config file: /usr/local/etc/kismet_logging.conf
INFO: Including sub-config file: /usr/local/etc/kismet_filter.conf
INFO: Including sub-config file: /usr/local/etc/kismet_uav.conf
INFO: Loading config override file '/usr/local/etc/kismet_package.conf'
INFO: Optional sub-config file not present: /usr/local/etc/kismet_package.conf
INFO: Loading config override file '/usr/local/etc/kismet_site.conf'
INFO: Optional sub-config file not present: /usr/local/etc/kismet_site.conf
INFO: Setting server UUID DBC402AE-9B3E-11EC-88C2-4B49534D4554
INFO: Starting Beast webserver on 0.0.0.0:2501
INFO: Opened OUI file '/usr/local/share/kismet/kismet_manuf.txt.gz
INFO: Indexing manufacturer db
INFO: Completed indexing manufacturer db, 31466 lines 630 indexes
INFO: Saving devices to the Kismet database log every 30 seconds.
INFO: Using default rates of 10/min, 1/sec for alert 'DEVICEFOUND'
INFO: Using default rates of 10/min, 1/sec for alert 'DEVICELOST'
INFO: Registering support for DLT_PPI packet header decoding
INFO: Registering support for DLT_RADIOTAP packet header decoding
INFO: Registering support for DLT_BTLE_RADIO packet header decoding
INFO: Using default rates of 10/min, 1/sec for alert 'BADFIXLENIE'
INFO: PHY80211 will only process AP signal levels from beacons
INFO: Allowing Kismet clients to view WEP keys
INFO: Keeping EAPOL packets in memory for easy download and WIDS functionality; this can use more RAM.
INFO: Registered PHY handler 'IEEE802.11' as ID 0
INFO: Registered PHY handler 'RTL433' as ID 1
INFO: Registered PHY handler 'Z-Wave' as ID 2
INFO: Registered PHY handler 'Bluetooth' as ID 3
INFO: Registered PHY handler 'UAV' as ID 4
INFO: Registered PHY handler 'NrfMousejack' as ID 5
INFO: Using default rates of 10/min, 1/sec for alert 'BLEEDINGTOOTH'
INFO: Registered PHY handler 'BTLE' as ID 6
INFO: Registered PHY handler 'METER' as ID 7
INFO: Indexing ADSB ICAO db
INFO: Completed indexing ADSB ICAO db, 322278 lines 6446 indexes
INFO: Registered PHY handler 'ADSB' as ID 8
INFO: Registered PHY handler '802.15.4' as ID 9
INFO: Registered PHY handler 'RADIATION' as ID 10
INFO: Serving static file content from /usr/local/share/kismet/httpd/
INFO: Enabling channel hopping by default on sources which support channel control.
INFO: Setting default channel hop rate to 5/sec
INFO: Enabling channel list splitting on sources which share the same list of channels
INFO: Enabling channel list shuffling to optimize overlaps
INFO: Sources will be re-opened if they encounter an error
INFO: Saving datasources to the Kismet database log every 30 seconds.
INFO: Launching remote capture server on 127.0.0.1 3501
INFO: No data sources defined; Kismet will not capture anything until a source is added.
ALERT: LOGDISABLED Logging has been disabled via the Kismet config files or the command line.  Pcap, database, and related logs will not be saved.
INFO: Logging disabled, not enabling any log drivers.
INFO: GPS track will be logged to the Kismet logfile
INFO: Starting Kismet web server...
INFO: HTTP server listening on 0.0.0.0:2501
INFO: Could not open system plugin directory (/usr/local/lib/kismet/), skipping: No such file or directory
INFO: Did not find a user plugin directory (/home/user/plugins/), skipping: No such file or directory

Kismet will be verbose during startup; lines starting with INFO are meant to communicate configuration options and general state. Lines which prevent Kismet from starting will be prefixed with FATAL and repeated as Kismet exits.