News : the xonsh shell language and command prompt.

Xonsh is a modern, full-featured and cross-platform python shell. The language is a superset of Python 3.6+ with additional shell primitives that you are used to from Bash and IPython. It works on all major systems including Linux, OSX, and Windows. Xonsh is meant for the daily use of experts and novices.

The install is easy with pip tool:

python -m pip install 'xonsh[full]'

News : mitmproxy - part 001.

Mitmproxy is an interactive, open‑source proxy tool that lets you intercept, inspect, and modify HTTP and HTTPS traffic in real time. It acts as a "man‑in‑the‑middle" between your computer and the internet, making it possible to debug, test, or analyze how applications communicate online.

Why Python?

• Mitmproxy is built in Python and exposes a powerful addon API
• You can write custom scripts to automate tasks and traffic manipulation
• Block or rewrite requests and responses with flexible logic
• Inject headers or simulate server responses for testing
• Integrate with other Python tools for advanced automation

• Intercept and inspect HTTP and HTTPS traffic in real time
• Modify requests and responses dynamically with Python scripts
• Block specific hosts or URLs to prevent unwanted connections
• Inject custom headers into outgoing requests for debugging or control
• Rewrite response bodies (HTML, JSON, text) using regex or custom logic
• Log and save traffic flows for later analysis and replay
• Simulate server responses to test client behavior offline
• Automate testing of web applications and APIs with scripted rules
• Monitor performance metrics such as latency and payload size
• Integrate with other Python tools for advanced automation and analysis
• Use a trusted root certificate to decrypt and modify HTTPS traffic securely

Let's install:

pip install mitmproxy

Let's see the python script:

# addon.py
from mitmproxy import http
from mitmproxy import ctx
import re

BLOCKED_HOSTS = {
    "hyte.com",
    "ads.example.org",
}

REWRITE_RULES = [
    # Each rule: (pattern, replacement, content_type_substring)
    (re.compile(rb"Hello World"), b"Salut lume", "text/html"),
    (re.compile(rb"tracking", re.IGNORECASE), b"observare", "text"),
]

ADD_HEADERS = {
    "X-Debug-Proxy": "mitm",
    "X-George-Tool": "true",
}

class GeorgeProxy:
    def __init__(self):
        self.rewrite_count = 0

    def load(self, loader):
        ctx.log.info("GeorgeProxy addon loaded.")

    def request(self, flow: http.HTTPFlow):
        # Block specific hosts early
        host = flow.request.host
        if host in BLOCKED_HOSTS:
            flow.response = http.Response.make(
                403,
                b"Blocked by GeorgeProxy",
                {"Content-Type": "text/plain"}
            )
            ctx.log.warn(f"Blocked request to {host}")
            return

        # Add custom headers to outgoing requests
        for k, v in ADD_HEADERS.items():
            flow.request.headers[k] = v

        ctx.log.info(f"REQ {flow.request.method} {flow.request.url}")

    def response(self, flow: http.HTTPFlow):
        # Only process text-like contents
        ctype = flow.response.headers.get("Content-Type", "").lower()
        raw = flow.response.raw_content

        if raw and any(t in ctype for t in ["text", "html", "json"]):
            new_content = raw
            for pattern, repl, t in REWRITE_RULES:
                if t in ctype:
                    new_content, n = pattern.subn(repl, new_content)
                    self.rewrite_count += n

            if new_content != raw:
                flow.response.raw_content = new_content
                # Update Content-Length only if present
                if "Content-Length" in flow.response.headers:
                    flow.response.headers["Content-Length"] = str(len(new_content))
                ctx.log.info(f"Rewrote content ({ctype}); total matches: {self.rewrite_count}")

        ctx.log.info(f"RESP {flow.response.status_code} {flow.request.url}")

addons = [GeorgeProxy()]

Let's run it:

mitmdump -s addon.py
[21:46:04.435] Loading script addon.py
[21:46:04.504] GeorgeProxy addon loaded.
[21:46:04.506] HTTP(S) proxy listening at *:8080.
[21:46:18.547][127.0.0.1:52128] client connect
[21:46:18.593] REQ GET http://httpbin.org/get
[21:46:18.768][127.0.0.1:52128] server connect httpbin.org:80 (52.44.182.178:80)
[21:46:18.910] RESP 200 http://httpbin.org/get
127.0.0.1:52128: GET http://httpbin.org/get
              << 200 OK 353b
[21:46:19.019][127.0.0.1:52128] client disconnect
[21:46:19.021][127.0.0.1:52128] server disconnect httpbin.org:80 (52.44.182.178:80)

Let's see the result:

curl -x http://127.0.0.1:8080 http://httpbin.org/get
{
  "args": {},
  "headers": {
    "Accept": "*/*",
    "Host": "httpbin.org",
    "Proxy-Connection": "Keep-Alive",
    "User-Agent": "curl/8.13.0",
    "X-Amzn-Trace-Id": "Root=1-692c9f0b-7eaf43e61f276ee62b089933",
    "X-Debug-Proxy": "mitm",
    "X-George-Tool": "true"
  },
  "origin": "84.117.220.94",
  "url": "http://httpbin.org/get"
}

This means

The request successfully went through mitmproxy running on 127.0.0.1:8080. Your addon worked: it injected the custom headers (X-Debug-Proxy, X-George-Tool). The httpbin.org echoed back the request details, showing exactly what the server received.

Python Tornado - part 001.

Python Tornado is a high‑performance web framework and asynchronous networking library designed for extreme scalability and real‑time applications. Its standout capability is handling tens of thousands of simultaneous connections efficiently, thanks to non‑blocking I/O.

This is an open source project actively maintained and available on tornadoweb.org.

Python Tornado – Key Capabilities

• Massive Concurrency: Tornado can scale to tens of thousands of open connections without requiring huge numbers of threads.
• Non‑blocking I/O: Its asynchronous design makes it ideal for apps that need to stay responsive under heavy load.
• WebSockets Support: Built‑in support for WebSockets enables real‑time communication between clients and servers.
• Long‑lived Connections: Perfect for long polling, streaming, or chat applications where connections remain open for extended periods.
• Coroutines & Async/Await: Tornado integrates tightly with Python’s asyncio, allowing developers to write clean asynchronous code using coroutines.
• Versatile Use Cases: Beyond web apps, Tornado can act as an HTTP client/server, handle background tasks, or integrate with other services.

Tornado setup: The script creates a web server using the Tornado framework, listening on port 8888.

Route definition: A single route /form is registered, handled by the FormHandler class.

GET request: When you visit http://localhost:8888/form, the server responds with an HTML page (form.html) that contains a simple input form.

POST request: When the form is submitted, the post() method retrieves the value of the name field using self.get_argument("name").

Response: The server then sends back a personalized message

Let's see the script:

import tornado.ioloop
import tornado.web
import os

class FormHandler(tornado.web.RequestHandler):
    def get(self):
        self.render("form.html")  # Render an HTML form

    def post(self):
        name = self.get_argument("name")
        self.write(f"Hello, {name}!")

def make_app():
    return tornado.web.Application([
        (r"/form", FormHandler),
    ],
    template_path=os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "templates")  # <-- aici
    )

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = make_app()
    app.listen(8888)
    print("Server pornit pe http://localhost:8888/form")
    tornado.ioloop.IOLoop.current().start()