Let it Glow: Illuminating Middleboxes with NoPASARAN

Network middleboxes are ubiquitous, enhancing security, performance, and interoperability. However, their extensive use introduces challenges that can impede the adoption of new protocols and open up additional attack surfaces. To address these challenges, we introduced NoPASARAN [1], a framework for middlebox detection and conformance checking against policies and network protocol standards. This paper contributes to the literature by presenting an overview of NoPASARAN after two years of development, showcasing the automation of the orchestration of the distributed testing framework as a complete, end-to-end solution—an element missing from our previous work. We also provide a simple use case from the end-user perspective to demonstrate the framework's value and encourage adoption.