Sniffnet: a cross-platform network monitoring tool developed in Rust.

One of the peculiar facets of the modern world is to be characterized by the constant and ubiquitous presence of Internet connectivity. In such a context, the activity of network traffic monitoring is assuming increasing relevance and is at the foundation of different processes: from detecting potential cybersecurity attacks to troubleshooting usability issues or performing lawful interception. During the Master’s degree at the Polytechnic University of Turin, I had the chance to be involved in an academic project to develop a network analyzer, namely software to gather incoming and outgoing data from a computer device and able to help inspect the nature of the exchanged traffic. The tool went much further than the initial plans, as I fell in love with the development process to the point of working on the application full-time for almost a year straight. What was born as a toy project is today called Sniffnet and is one of the most popular network monitoring tools on GitHub, the renowned code hosting platform for version control and collaboration. Sniffnet is a cross-platform application, compatible with all the major operating systems, that stands out for its ease of use in allowing whoever to grasp a comprehensive, high-level view of their network activity. A further distinctive feature of the tool is to be entirely written in Rust, a modern programming language to build efficient and reliable software. The dissertation aims at describing not only the development process of the application but also the management activities behind proper software documentation, maintenance, and distribution. Last but not least, the disquisition includes the main lessons learned during the GitHub Accelerator, a program to pioneer new ways for developers to sustainably work on open-source, which Sniffnet had the luck of being part of.