Which packet capture library is commonly used on Linux?

Which packet capture library is commonly used on Linux?

• A. WinPcap
• B. Npcap
• C. Libpcap
• D. PcapPlusPlus

Answer: (C)

The library commonly used for packet capture on Linux is libpcap. It provides a standard, portable API to capture live traffic from network interfaces and to read pcap files. Tools like tcpdump and Wireshark on Linux rely on libpcap to access the network, making it the de facto capture engine on Unix-like systems. WinPcap and Npcap are Windows-focused, so they aren’t used on Linux. PcapPlusPlus is a C++ wrapper around libpcap, not the underlying capture library itself, so the core capture work on Linux still goes through libpcap.

The library commonly used for packet capture on Linux is libpcap. It provides a standard, portable API to capture live traffic from network interfaces and to read pcap files. Tools like tcpdump and Wireshark on Linux rely on libpcap to access the network, making it the de facto capture engine on Unix-like systems. WinPcap and Npcap are Windows-focused, so they aren’t used on Linux. PcapPlusPlus is a C++ wrapper around libpcap, not the underlying capture library itself, so the core capture work on Linux still goes through libpcap.