The CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) at Carnegie Mellon University this week announced the launch of a new version of the network traffic analysis tool CERT Tapioca.
CERT Tapioca was first released in 2014 as a network-layer man-in-the-middle (MITM) proxy virtual machine designed for identifying apps that fail to validate certificates and investigating the content of HTTP and HTTPS traffic.
CERT Tapioca has been used to identify Android applications that fail to properly validate SSL certificates and expose users to MitM attacks. More than one million apps have been checked and over 23,000 of them failed dynamic testing.
The tool can be used to analyze network traffic not only on smartphones, but also on IoT devices, computers and VMs.
Will Dormann, vulnerability analyst at CERT/CC and developer of CERT Tapioca, on Thursday announced the release of version 2.0, which introduces a graphical user interface and can be installed on multiple Linux distributions, including Red Hat, CentOS, Fedora, Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, and Raspbian.
CERT Tapioca 2.0 also allows users to set up a HOSTAP-compatible Wi-Fi adapter for wireless connectivity, and it can save results from multiple tested systems.
In addition to checking HTTPS validation, verifying an application’s use of modern cryptography standards, and observing the hosts contacted by an application, Tapioca now allows users to search network traffic for specified strings, such as passwords.
The CERT Tapioca 2.0 source code, along with additional details and usage instructions, are available on GitHub.
Related: Kaspersky Releases Open Source Digital Forensics Tool
Related: Secureworks Releases Open Source IDS Tools
Related: UK’s GCHQ Spy Agency Launches Open Source Data Analysis Tool

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
More from Eduard Kovacs
- Industrial Giant ABB Confirms Ransomware Attack, Data Theft
- Zyxel Firewalls Hacked by Mirai Botnet
- New Russia-Linked CosmicEnergy ICS Malware Could Disrupt Electric Grids
- Drop in Insider Breaches Drives Decline in Intrusions at OT Organizations
- Zero-Day Vulnerability Exploited to Hack Barracuda Email Security Gateway Appliances
- OAuth Vulnerabilities in Widely Used Expo Framework Allowed Account Takeovers
- New Honeywell OT Cybersecurity Solution Helps Identify Vulnerabilities, Threats
- Rheinmetall Says Military Business Not Impacted by Ransomware Attack
Latest News
- Industrial Giant ABB Confirms Ransomware Attack, Data Theft
- Organizations Worldwide Targeted in Rapidly Evolving Buhti Ransomware Operation
- Google Cloud Users Can Now Automate TLS Certificate Lifecycle
- Zyxel Firewalls Hacked by Mirai Botnet
- Watch Now: Threat Detection and Incident Response Virtual Summit
- NCC Group Releases Open Source Tools for Developers, Pentesters
- Memcyco Raises $10 Million in Seed Funding to Prevent Website Impersonation
- New Russia-Linked CosmicEnergy ICS Malware Could Disrupt Electric Grids
