Question

Is the below code correctly calculating the FCS value of wireless 802.11 frames?
Because the value produced by the below code does not match the value shown by wireshark.

const uint32_t crctable[] = {
   0x00000000L, 0x77073096L, 0xee0e612cL, 0x990951baL, 0x076dc419L, 0x706af48fL, 0xe963a535L, 0x9e6495a3L,
   0x0edb8832L, 0x79dcb8a4L, 0xe0d5e91eL, 0x97d2d988L, 0x09b64c2bL, 0x7eb17cbdL, 0xe7b82d07L, 0x90bf1d91L,
   0x1db71064L, 0x6ab020f2L, 0xf3b97148L, 0x84be41deL, 0x1adad47dL, 0x6ddde4ebL, 0xf4d4b551L, 0x83d385c7L,
   0x136c9856L, 0x646ba8c0L, 0xfd62f97aL, 0x8a65c9ecL, 0x14015c4fL, 0x63066cd9L, 0xfa0f3d63L, 0x8d080df5L,
   0x3b6e20c8L, 0x4c69105eL, 0xd56041e4L, 0xa2677172L, 0x3c03e4d1L, 0x4b04d447L, 0xd20d85fdL, 0xa50ab56bL,
   0x35b5a8faL, 0x42b2986cL, 0xdbbbc9d6L, 0xacbcf940L, 0x32d86ce3L, 0x45df5c75L, 0xdcd60dcfL, 0xabd13d59L,
   0x26d930acL, 0x51de003aL, 0xc8d75180L, 0xbfd06116L, 0x21b4f4b5L, 0x56b3c423L, 0xcfba9599L, 0xb8bda50fL,
   0x2802b89eL, 0x5f058808L, 0xc60cd9b2L, 0xb10be924L, 0x2f6f7c87L, 0x58684c11L, 0xc1611dabL, 0xb6662d3dL,
   0x76dc4190L, 0x01db7106L, 0x98d220bcL, 0xefd5102aL, 0x71b18589L, 0x06b6b51fL, 0x9fbfe4a5L, 0xe8b8d433L,
   0x7807c9a2L, 0x0f00f934L, 0x9609a88eL, 0xe10e9818L, 0x7f6a0dbbL, 0x086d3d2dL, 0x91646c97L, 0xe6635c01L,
   0x6b6b51f4L, 0x1c6c6162L, 0x856530d8L, 0xf262004eL, 0x6c0695edL, 0x1b01a57bL, 0x8208f4c1L, 0xf50fc457L,
   0x65b0d9c6L, 0x12b7e950L, 0x8bbeb8eaL, 0xfcb9887cL, 0x62dd1ddfL, 0x15da2d49L, 0x8cd37cf3L, 0xfbd44c65L,
   0x4db26158L, 0x3ab551ceL, 0xa3bc0074L, 0xd4bb30e2L, 0x4adfa541L, 0x3dd895d7L, 0xa4d1c46dL, 0xd3d6f4fbL,
   0x4369e96aL, 0x346ed9fcL, 0xad678846L, 0xda60b8d0L, 0x44042d73L, 0x33031de5L, 0xaa0a4c5fL, 0xdd0d7cc9L,
   0x5005713cL, 0x270241aaL, 0xbe0b1010L, 0xc90c2086L, 0x5768b525L, 0x206f85b3L, 0xb966d409L, 0xce61e49fL,
   0x5edef90eL, 0x29d9c998L, 0xb0d09822L, 0xc7d7a8b4L, 0x59b33d17L, 0x2eb40d81L, 0xb7bd5c3bL, 0xc0ba6cadL,
   0xedb88320L, 0x9abfb3b6L, 0x03b6e20cL, 0x74b1d29aL, 0xead54739L, 0x9dd277afL, 0x04db2615L, 0x73dc1683L,
   0xe3630b12L, 0x94643b84L, 0x0d6d6a3eL, 0x7a6a5aa8L, 0xe40ecf0bL, 0x9309ff9dL, 0x0a00ae27L, 0x7d079eb1L,
   0xf00f9344L, 0x8708a3d2L, 0x1e01f268L, 0x6906c2feL, 0xf762575dL, 0x806567cbL, 0x196c3671L, 0x6e6b06e7L,
   0xfed41b76L, 0x89d32be0L, 0x10da7a5aL, 0x67dd4accL, 0xf9b9df6fL, 0x8ebeeff9L, 0x17b7be43L, 0x60b08ed5L,
   0xd6d6a3e8L, 0xa1d1937eL, 0x38d8c2c4L, 0x4fdff252L, 0xd1bb67f1L, 0xa6bc5767L, 0x3fb506ddL, 0x48b2364bL,
   0xd80d2bdaL, 0xaf0a1b4cL, 0x36034af6L, 0x41047a60L, 0xdf60efc3L, 0xa867df55L, 0x316e8eefL, 0x4669be79L,
   0xcb61b38cL, 0xbc66831aL, 0x256fd2a0L, 0x5268e236L, 0xcc0c7795L, 0xbb0b4703L, 0x220216b9L, 0x5505262fL,
   0xc5ba3bbeL, 0xb2bd0b28L, 0x2bb45a92L, 0x5cb36a04L, 0xc2d7ffa7L, 0xb5d0cf31L, 0x2cd99e8bL, 0x5bdeae1dL,
   0x9b64c2b0L, 0xec63f226L, 0x756aa39cL, 0x026d930aL, 0x9c0906a9L, 0xeb0e363fL, 0x72076785L, 0x05005713L,
   0x95bf4a82L, 0xe2b87a14L, 0x7bb12baeL, 0x0cb61b38L, 0x92d28e9bL, 0xe5d5be0dL, 0x7cdcefb7L, 0x0bdbdf21L,
   0x86d3d2d4L, 0xf1d4e242L, 0x68ddb3f8L, 0x1fda836eL, 0x81be16cdL, 0xf6b9265bL, 0x6fb077e1L, 0x18b74777L,
   0x88085ae6L, 0xff0f6a70L, 0x66063bcaL, 0x11010b5cL, 0x8f659effL, 0xf862ae69L, 0x616bffd3L, 0x166ccf45L,
   0xa00ae278L, 0xd70dd2eeL, 0x4e048354L, 0x3903b3c2L, 0xa7672661L, 0xd06016f7L, 0x4969474dL, 0x3e6e77dbL,
   0xaed16a4aL, 0xd9d65adcL, 0x40df0b66L, 0x37d83bf0L, 0xa9bcae53L, 0xdebb9ec5L, 0x47b2cf7fL, 0x30b5ffe9L,
   0xbdbdf21cL, 0xcabac28aL, 0x53b39330L, 0x24b4a3a6L, 0xbad03605L, 0xcdd70693L, 0x54de5729L, 0x23d967bfL,
   0xb3667a2eL, 0xc4614ab8L, 0x5d681b02L, 0x2a6f2b94L, 0xb40bbe37L, 0xc30c8ea1L, 0x5a05df1bL, 0x2d02ef8dL
};

uint32_t crc32(uint32_t bytes_sz, const uint8_t *bytes)
{
   uint32_t crc = ~0;
   uint32_t i;
   for(i = 0; i < bytes_sz; ++i) {
      crc = crctable[(crc ^ bytes[i]) & 0xff] ^ (crc >> 8);
   }
   return ~crc;
}

I am calling the above function in the following manner:

uint32_t crc = crc32(header->len - 4, packet);

where header is of type:

struct pcap_pkthdr *header;

The header information is handled by pcap callback:

void my_callback(u_char *args, const struct pcap_pkthdr *header, const u_char *packet)

I got the code for crc32() and crctable[] from this link

An EDIT 2 years later:

The above code of crc32() does work; the line
printf("0x%x\n",crc32(sizeof(MSG)-16-4,MSG+16));
prints the right 802.11 CRC, where:

MSG is an array (unsigned char[]) of message bytes copied and pasted from Wireshark;

16 is the radiotap header size,

4 is the size of FCS (frame check sequence, crc32, little-endian=the x86 order).

Answer 1

What is the value returned by pcap_datalink() for the pcap_t on which you’re capturing or from which you’re reading a capture file?

Unless it’s DLT_IEEE802_11 (with a value of 105), the packet is either not an 802.11 packet or is not only an 802.11 packet.

If, for example, it’s DLT_EN10MB, it’s an Ethernet packet (which you might get from an 802.11 adapter, especially if you’re not capturing in monitor mode), and if it’s DLT_IEEE802_11_RADIO, it begins with a “radiotap” header as described at the radiotap.org Web site, and you need to skip past the radiotap header to get to the 802.11 frame, and checksum only the 802.11 frame.

(In addition, for some Atheros adapters, the 802.11 frame will have some padding added between the 802.11 header and the 802.11 payload, which you have to remove when checksumming; if you have radiotap headers, that’s indicated by the “frame has padding between 802.11 header and payload (to 32-bit boundary)” flag in the flags field.)