Google Summer of Code 2023

[mhils]

 

Mitmproxy is participating under the umbrella of the Honeynet project in the Google Summer of Code 2023 (GSoC). We're looking for new contributors who join us for 12 weeks, contribute code, and receive an attractive stipend for it! The program typically is a lot of fun for everyone involved, and many of our GSoC students stick around longer and become key members in the community.

This issue is targeted at potential participants to help them getting started and write a strong proposal. 😃

Getting Started

1. Decide to apply for GSoC.
2. Start writing a project proposal for your application.
3. Reach out to @mhils on Slack to get feedback!

Project Ideas

mitmproxy is a large project with a huge number of interesting areas to explore, down from low-level protocol work up to UX improvements. You know best what you are interested in, so why not get in touch with us and map out a custom GSoC project? Here are some ideas for inspiration:

• Web UI (TypeScript/React.js): If you like to hack on front-end code, we have a vast array of ideas for mitmweb, our HTML frontend for mitmproxy. Just some ideas:
  • Add graphical editors for the map remote, map local, modify body, and modify headers settings.
  • mitmweb: Search or highlight by body contents. #3609
  • Improve the onboarding experience, e.g. by showing instructions on how to configure the proxy if no traffic has been captured yet.
  • Develop functionality to edit WebSocket/TCP messages before forwarding.
• Mitmproxy Core (Python):
  • Add Import/Export for HAR files #1477
  • Console: Make it easier to edit binary contents #5231
  • Add more commands to start applications with mitmproxy preconfigured #5247
  • Develop functionality to edit WebSocket/TCP messages before forwarding.
  • Add WebSocket Client Replay #5248
  • Improve DNS support (DNS over TCP, maybe even DoT/DoH/DoQ?)
  • Implement a prototype for WebSocket/TCP server replay.
  • Refactor the console flow table
• Mitmproxy Core (Rust):
  • Implement a transparent OS Proxy Mode for Linux/macOS
    (Add transparent mode for own outgoing traffic #1261)
  • Memory Leak in WireGuard Mode #5861
  • WireGuard Mode: Spoof ICMP echo replies #5910

Application Tips

Picking the right students for a Google Summer of Code is hard - we really want to encourage all students to get involved with open source, but how do we determine who's best suited for a particular project? Here comes your part: Show us that you're super enthusiastic, that you can work autonomously and that you are capable of completing your project! 🎉

Demonstrate that you are capable of fulfilling the project!

While many of you probably have a good theoretical background from your university, you should show us that you can code as well:

• Do you have a cool/interesting side project or university project? Show it to us! Even better if it's open source and we can read the code!
• Have you contributed to an open source project before? Show us what you did!
• No previous projects you could show? Add a feature and/or fix a small bug in mitmproxy!

As long as you have some code to show, please don't stress yourself about this part. We require a certain minimum level of technical proficiency so that GSoC is fun for everyone, but beyond that social components are way more important to us. 😃

Demonstrate that you want to contribute to mitmproxy specifically!

Google accepts a variety of mentoring organizations every year, each of them with multiple projects. Now, why do you want to work on mitmproxy specifically? We do not just want to hear a chorus of praise here ("mitmproxy is a great tool"). Instead, play around with it and tell us about your experiences:

• Use mitmproxy to analyze a popular Android or iOS app or anything else. There are many hidden treasures/security issues to be found [2]! Show us what you analyzed (screenshots), what you found, where mitmproxy was good/not good etc! :-)
• Write a nice script that does something cool with a webpage! For example, we have an example script that turns all webpages upside down (src). Try to come up with something creative :-)
• Again, a good way to show that you're a good candidate is to fix a bug, propose or implement a feature, add something that was unclear to you to the docs, etc.

Get in touch!

We hang out on Slack (https://gsoc-slack.honeynet.org/ or the mitmproxy Slack). Feel free to just get in touch! 😃

Make sure to have a plan!

For your GSoC proposal (please use the template), you need to write down a roadmap/timeline for your project. Think about which features you need to develop to accomplish your goal, split your project into subtasks and make sure that you'll end up with a viable timeline. Having at least one dedicated task per week would be a good way to track the progress of your project as well. If you already identified potential issues/caveats for your endeavour, make sure to discuss them in the proposal as well!

Last but not least: GSoC is fun. Enjoy it! 😃 🍰 🚀

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FAQ

1. There's a skilled and very motivated student already working hard on a proposal for the project I want to apply for. Should I even bother to apply?

Yes! First, if we get two convincing proposals for one project idea, we will try to just take both students¹. Second, if we cannot take you for some reason, we will actively introduce you to other projects at Honeynet that match your skills and interests after the application deadline². I can't stress this enough: Please do not worry about competition! If we see you cooperating with other contributors (students or not), this is a big plus.

¹) This requires that the project can be split (and extended) in a way that there are no critical interdependencies between the students. You will not get a project which depends on another student's work.
²) This is not just nice talk, we did this repeatedly with good outcomes. Some of those students are mentors now. 🙂

2. I want to implement $MAJOR_FEATURE_X to show that I'm a super capable student!

This is great, but please please do not send us a single giant pull request! Please try to show us that you can split major tasks into small, (mostly) isolated parts. A PR is never too small for first time contributors. ☺️

3. What is the team's preferred style of communication?

Answering every student's questions in a private conversation is often overwhelming for mentors during the peak GSoC application period. We therefore appreciate it if you ask your question publicly on GitHub or in #general on Slack so that others can help out as well. You are of course welcome to message us directly for feedback on your (already submitted) proposal, or if you feel umcomfortable discussing something in the open.

4. GSoC aside, how can I contribute to mitmproxy?

Check out https://github.com/mitmproxy/mitmproxy/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md!

[Ian-Wairimu]

Hey mhils, am new to open source contribution and i wanted to ask how does one review like the mitmproxy code base quicker to get to know how it works and how things are connected?

[mhils]

Hi @Ian-Wairimu! My general recommendation would be to not try to understand everything at once. It's perfectly fine to only understand one subsystem of the codebase. For example, if you plan on submitting a proposal that mostly targets our web ui, you probably want to look at https://github.com/mitmproxy/mitmproxy/tree/main/web and https://github.com/mitmproxy/mitmproxy/blob/main/mitmproxy/tools/web/app.py first. A lot of mitmproxy functionality is written as addons, which are relatively self-contained python files in https://github.com/mitmproxy/mitmproxy/tree/main/mitmproxy/addons and don't require you to understand a lot of context. Finally, often times it can be helpful to read tests to see how things are supposed to work. :)

[Ian-Wairimu]

Thank you well understood, if there is something i don't understand can i be asking you a question once in a while

…

On Wed, Mar 8, 2023 at 1:24 PM Maximilian Hils ***@***.***> wrote: Hi @Ian-Wairimu <https://github.com/Ian-Wairimu>! My general recommendation would be to not try to understand everything at once. It's perfectly fine to only understand one subsystem of the codebase. For example, if you plan on submitting a proposal that mostly targets our web ui, you probably want to look at https://github.com/mitmproxy/mitmproxy/tree/main/web and https://github.com/mitmproxy/mitmproxy/blob/main/mitmproxy/tools/web/app.py first. A lot of mitmproxy functionality is written as addons, which are relatively self-contained python files in https://github.com/mitmproxy/mitmproxy/tree/main/mitmproxy/addons and don't require you to understand a lot of context. Finally, often times it can be helpful to read tests to see how things are supposed to work. :) — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#5850 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AVI3LJT7YXQDP4TWXKUHYETW3BM4LANCNFSM6AAAAAATSAV27Q> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[alexgershberg]

Hi, this looks very interesting (GSOC), and I would love to participate, but I was wondering, what kind of commitments are expected over these 12 weeks? I work full-time, just wondering if I would be able to balance something like that.

[mhils]

See https://developers.google.com/open-source/gsoc/faq#how_much_time_does_gsoc_participation_take - the minimum project size is 175 hours. Balancing that with a full time job seems optimistic at best.

[NabilsCodes]

Hi everyone,

first of all, I want to thank the whole community and teams that maintain this project.

I'm new to open source contribution and GSOC. I want to ask how to start from the beginning and how can I be helpful. I'll appreciate your guidance. It's will be a great chance and a very exciting journey for me to go with you on this path.

Thank you all.
Best regards

[jonhoa]

Hey @mhils , I'm fairly new into opensource but invested in contributing to mitmproxy. What language/frameworks do you use for the backend? Also, how do you recommend getting familiar with the project for newbies interesting in sending a strong proposal?