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Tool

Blackbox Protobuf

NCC Group's tools for decoding and re-encoding Protocol Buffers messages without the matching .proto definition. The decoder returns the message data with an editable type definition built from best-effort guesses based on wire types; analysts can name fields, correct types and re-encode edited messages, which protoc --decode_raw cannot do. It ships as a Python library with a bbpb CLI, a Jython Burp Suite extension and a mitmproxy addon, and its README traces it to modifying messages during mobile penetration tests.

Targets
App · Protocol
Category
Protocol analysis tools
Relationship
Foundation tool
Sources reviewed

Requirements & limits

  • The library and CLI install from PyPI as bbpb (1.4.2, Python >=3.8,<4.0); the README calls the blackboxprotobuf PyPI package an older fork. The mitmproxy addon loads mitmproxy/bbpb.py with bbpb installed in the same environment; edited types survive restarts only with the bbpb_project_file option, and editing commands are unavailable in mitmweb.
  • The Burp extension needs Burp Suite configured with Jython 2.7+ and a clone with git submodule update --init. gRPC needs Burp's HTTP/2 support, and only uncompressed gRPC payloads are handled.
  • Field types are guessed from wire types and occasionally field content, so type definitions may need analyst correction; field names and meanings are not recovered, and a type-discovery tool is listed only as future work. .proto import and export use a partial parser that does not resolve import statements.
  • MIT. The default branch was last committed on 2025-03-14, the day of release v1.4.2.

About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.

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Primary sources

  1. README.md GitHub · nccgroup/blackboxprotobuf · Revision b98861e
  2. lib/README.md GitHub · nccgroup/blackboxprotobuf · Revision b98861e
  3. burp/README.md GitHub · nccgroup/blackboxprotobuf · Revision b98861e
  4. mitmproxy/README.md GitHub · nccgroup/blackboxprotobuf · Revision b98861e
  5. lib/pyproject.toml GitHub · nccgroup/blackboxprotobuf · Revision b98861e
  6. LICENSE GitHub · nccgroup/blackboxprotobuf · Revision b98861e
  7. https://github.com/nccgroup/blackboxprotobuf/releases/tag/v1.4.2
  8. https://pypi.org/project/bbpb/1.4.2/

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