geedge.lantern.io
detection confidence: low public

A 'feature_extract_plugin' repo built for MESA Lab's sapp platform (using the same '*_entry.cpp' plugin-registration pattern seen elsewhere in sapp's plugin family) implements dedicated SSL/TLS parsing and statistics entry points (sslparse_entry.cpp, sslstat_entry.cpp) alongside a generic stream-statistics entry (stmstat_entry.cpp), indicating sapp has an extensible plugin architecture specifically for extracting TLS-connection features -- consistent with TLS fingerprinting / classifier feature extraction -- beyond the base DPI engine.

entry/src/ssl_utils.cpp ; entry/src/sslparse_entry.cpp ; entry/src/sslstat_entry.cpp ; entry/src/stmstat_entry.cpp
techniquestls-fingerprint
productssapp
capabilitydpi-signature

extracted_by: claude-sonnet-5 · added 2026-08-26 · id: 2026-sapp-ssl-feature-plugin-227a05

Related findings

detection

The same 224-column TSG per-session log schema carries a full TLS- interception field set — proxy_pinning_status, proxy_intercept_status, proxy_passthrough_reason, proxy_cert_verify, proxy_intercept_error, sc_rsp_raw and sc_rsp_decrypted (raw vs. decrypted server response content) — plus ssl_esni_flag and ssl_ech_flag (explicit ECH/ESNI-usage flags), ssl_ja3_hash/ssl_ja3s_hash, and ssh_hassh (SSH client fingerprinting), confirming certstore-style MITM interception, ECH/ESNI detection, and TLS/SSH fingerprinting are all first-class fields logged on every session, not experimental add-ons.

detection

A 2020 MESA Lab monthly report describes building a sapp plugin that extracts packet-sequence features specifically "for DoH (DNS-over-HTTPS) service discovery," alongside a broader CSTNET DoH measurement-report effort and configuring a DNS-to-DoH gateway -- confirming sapp is used to fingerprint DoH traffic via statistical sequence features rather than plaintext DNS content.

detection

MESA Lab researcher notes on an encrypted-video-identification project describe adding SSL-layer information output to more precisely trace a flow's true source/identity, and considering reinforcement learning so the identification model adapts as network conditions change, working within/around sapp's plugin limitations.

detection

A raw TSG session-log export shows the full production log schema: per-flow fields include subscriber_id, imei, imsi, phone_number and apn alongside ssl_ja3_hash/ja3s_hash, ssl_esni_flag, ssl_ech_flag, quic_sni, dtls_ja3_fingerprint, and proxy_pinning_status/proxy_intercept_status/ proxy_cert_verify fields for the MITM proxy path. This confirms TSG's session logging natively joins network-flow identity to subscriber identity and captures TLS fingerprint/ESNI-ECH state and MITM-interception outcome in the same record.

detection

A raw production SSL/TLS session log from sapp's monitoring pipeline (timestamps dated 2021-08-23, client IPs in domestic Chinese carrier ranges) shows the per-connection logging schema includes dedicated fields for a captured certificate chain (INDIVIDUAL_CERT_FILE, MIDDLE_CERT_FILE, ROOT_CERT_FILE, CHAIN_CERT_FILE) and for any injected packet (INJECTED_PKT_FILE), alongside SNI and TLS version -- confirming sapp's live SNI-logging and MITM-cert-capture instrumentation was operating against real user traffic to services including huobi.com, steamcommunity.com, and dropbox.com.

detection

The same SSL plugin added explicit detection of the Encrypted Client Hello extension (type 0xFE0D) with test cases in June 2023, and separately implements JA3/JA3S (2020) and JA4/JA4S (2024) TLS client/server fingerprint calculation as first-class features -- so TSG-class DPI can flag 'ECH is in use' even without decrypting it, and independently fingerprints TLS stacks via JA3/JA4.