Open source acknowledgements

Built with excellent open-source foundations

TCP Viewer stands on the work of packet-analysis, update, compression, parsing, and native macOS projects. This page lists the open-source libraries found in the current macOS app source and local staged build.

5 projects

Core libraries and frameworks

Direct dependencies

4 projects

Bundled through the packet engine

PcapPlusPlus components

15 projects

Wireshark runtime dependencies

Native runtime

Direct dependencies

Core libraries and frameworks

These projects are referenced directly by the TCP Viewer macOS app, Xcode project, or native bridge.

Wireshark

v4.6.4

Deep protocol dissection through libwireshark, wiretap, and wsutil.

GPL-2.0-or-later

Source: Vendor/Wireshark and THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md
Note: TCP Viewer is distributed as GPL-covered when bundled with Wireshark libraries.

Website Source code

PcapPlusPlus

v25.05

Packet capture, packet summaries, pcap/pcapng file I/O, and fallback packet details.

Unlicense

Source: Vendor/PcapPlusPlus and scripts/bootstrap-pcapplusplus.sh

Website Source code

Sparkle

2.9.1

Native macOS app updates through the Swift Package Manager dependency.

MIT

Source: TCPViewer.xcodeproj Package.resolved
Note: Sparkle also includes small external components with their own notices.

Website Source code

HexFiend

Embedded packet hex viewer framework used by the packet inspector.

BSD-2-Clause

Source: Vendor/HexFiend/README.md and Vendor/HexFiend/License.txt

Source code

libpcap

Low-level packet capture interface used through PcapPlusPlus and the native bridge.

BSD-3-Clause

Source: PcapPlusPlus pkg-config output and Xcode linker settings
Note: Linked from macOS system libraries in the local build.

Website Source code

PcapPlusPlus components

Bundled through the packet engine

These smaller components are included inside the vendored PcapPlusPlus source used by TCP Viewer.

LightPcapNg

pcapng read/write support compiled into PcapPlusPlus.

MIT

Source: Vendor/PcapPlusPlus/3rdParty/LightPcapNg

Source code

hash-library

MD5/hash helper code compiled into PcapPlusPlus Packet++.

zlib License

Source: Vendor/PcapPlusPlus/3rdParty/hash-library/LICENSE

Source code

EndianPortable

Portable endian conversion helpers used by PcapPlusPlus internals.

BSD-2-Clause

Source: Vendor/PcapPlusPlus/3rdParty/EndianPortable

Source code

nlohmann/json

Header-only JSON support included by PcapPlusPlus Common++.

MIT

Source: Vendor/PcapPlusPlus/3rdParty/json/include/json.hpp

Website Source code

Native runtime

Wireshark runtime dependencies

These non-Apple open-source libraries were discovered from the local staged Wireshark build and Homebrew metadata.

GLib

Core C utility library used by Wireshark and the native dissector bridge.

LGPL-2.1-or-later

Source: otool output for staged Wireshark libraries

Website Source code

Brotli

Compression support for protocol and file handling paths in Wireshark.

MIT

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib

Source code

c-ares

Asynchronous DNS resolver library linked by Wireshark.

MIT

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib

Website Source code

Libgcrypt

Cryptographic primitives used by Wireshark support code.

LGPL-2.1-or-later AND GPL-2.0-or-later

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib and libwsutil.17.dylib

Website Source code

Libgpg-error

Common GnuPG error handling library used by Libgcrypt.

LGPL-2.1-or-later

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib and libwsutil.17.dylib

Website Source code

GnuTLS

TLS-related protocol support used by Wireshark libraries.

LGPL-2.1-or-later AND GPL-3.0-only

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib and libwsutil.17.dylib

Website Source code

LZ4

Fast compression support used by Wireshark wiretap paths.

BSD-2-Clause

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib and libwiretap.16.dylib

Website Source code

nghttp2

HTTP/2 protocol support linked by Wireshark.

MIT

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib

Website Source code

nghttp3

HTTP/3 protocol support linked by Wireshark.

MIT

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib

Website Source code

Snappy

Compression support linked by Wireshark.

BSD-3-Clause

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib

Website Source code

xxHash

Fast hashing used by Wireshark runtime libraries.

BSD-2-Clause AND GPL-2.0-or-later

Source: otool output for libwireshark, libwiretap, and libwsutil

Website Source code

Zstandard

Compression support for capture and protocol data paths.

(BSD-3-Clause OR GPL-2.0-only) AND BSD-2-Clause AND MIT

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib and libwiretap.16.dylib

Website Source code

PCRE2

Regular expression engine used by GLib and Wireshark utilities.

BSD-3-Clause

Source: otool output for libwsutil.17.dylib

Website Source code

libxml2

XML parsing library linked from macOS system libraries by Wireshark.

MIT

Source: otool output for libwireshark.19.dylib and libwiretap.16.dylib
Note: Provided by macOS in the local build, not copied into the app bundle by the staging script.

Website Source code

zlib

Compression library linked from macOS system libraries by Wireshark.

zlib License

Source: otool output for libwireshark, libwiretap, and libwsutil
Note: Provided by macOS in the local build, not copied into the app bundle by the staging script.

Website Source code

Release note

Binary releases may include additional runtime notices

The macOS app staging script recursively copies non-system dynamic libraries required by the Wireshark runtime. Before publishing a release, the bundled app should include the generated runtime library notice file alongside the license texts required by each project.