github BC-SECURITY/Empire v7.0.2
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3 hours ago

[7.0.2] - 2026-09-08

  • Updated Starkiller to v4.0.3

Changed

  • Updated Empire Compiler to v2.0.2: Sharpire now uses a CSPRNG for AES-GCM nonces and AES-CBC IVs, and fixes JSON backslash parsing, cd persistence, and network drive visibility. Certify submodule switched to BC-SECURITY fork with null-safety fixes, and adds BouncyCastle.Crypto.dll and updated CommandLine.dll/System.Net.Http.dll for Certify 2.0.

Removed

  • Dropped Debian 11 (bullseye) support. It reached end of security support on 2026-08-31 and its bullseye-security release file expired on 2026-09-07, so apt-get update now fails and the installer cannot complete. Removed from the install script, the CI install-test matrix, and the docs.

Fixed

  • Updated the credentials/Certify module to the Certify 2.0 command format, building as Net47 with merged references and passing arguments straight through.
  • Fixed cd in the Gopire agent not persisting: shell cd is now routed to os.Chdir instead of a throwaway subprocess, and the missing TASK_CHDIR handler was added.

[7.0.1] - 2026-08-25

Security

  • Stopped logging the staging key: get_staging_key() no longer logs it at INFO, and Config.__repr__ no longer renders it in plaintext.
  • Made Ed25519 agent-certificate verification mandatory in the PowerShell and C# staging branches, which previously skipped it for an all-zero certificate.

Added

  • Added an Inveigh credential parser (situational_awareness/host/inveigh) that ingests NetNTLMv1/v2 hashes from task output, tagging machine accounts inveigh machine_account.
  • Added a per-option format_string override and a {{ VALUE_ARRAY }} token that renders a value as double-quoted, comma-joined elements for PowerShell [Array] parameters.
  • Added a krb_session_key credential type storing the Rubeus session key as <keytype>:<base64key>, for both dump and asktgt/asktgs output.

Fixed

  • Fixed Inveigh's six [Array] options binding as a single joined element; they now render per-element via {{ VALUE_ARRAY }}.
  • Fixed Inveigh's Proxy (now optional) and mDNSTypes (now suggestion-based, not a closed set) options failing validation.
  • Fixed the Rubeus credential parser not ingesting dump output; dump tickets now carry their UserSID and are tagged rubeus:dump.
  • Rubeus credential notes now carry the ticket's service name (e.g. rubeus:dump krbtgt/ASGARD.CORP) so a session key can be paired with its ticket.
  • Fixed chat/message broadcasts dying with DetachedInstanceError on MySQL, so chat messages now reach everyone in the room instead of only reappearing via chat/history.
  • Fixed C# obfuscation on a stock install: the Docker image and install.sh now install mono-complete instead of mono-runtime (needed for modules like SharpHound).
  • Fixed C# obfuscation of Net47 modules (e.g. SharpHound) by adding a net47 probePath to confuser.crproj so ConfuserEx resolves System.ValueTuple.

[7.0.0] - 2026-08-12

Security

  • BREAKING: Replaced bcrypt password hashing with PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256 (600K iterations) for FIPS SP 800-132 compliance. Existing hashes are incompatible — reset passwords or recreate the database.
  • BREAKING: Replaced MD5 with SHA-256 for staging key normalization (non-32-char keys) per FIPS. Agents staged under the old algorithm must be re-staged.
  • BREAKING: Replaced random with secrets (server) and random.SystemRandom() (agent) for CSPRNG generation per FIPS SP 800-90A, covering staging keys, keyword obfuscation, session IDs, and nonces across listeners, stagers, agents, and utilities. Deployed agents must be re-staged.
  • Hardened TLS for FIPS SP 800-52r2: enforce TLS 1.2 minimum, drop non-GCM/non-ECDHE cipher suites from the JA3 evasion pool, and use RSA 4096-bit keys for self-signed certificates.
  • Added filter='data' to tar.extractall() in compiler download to prevent path traversal from untrusted archives.
  • Malleable profile header directives now reject CRLF in the name or value at both parse and deserialize time (dropping the directive with a warning), closing a header-injection vector through the Flask after_request merge.
  • Replaced MySQL MD5() with SHA2(..., 256) for the hosts.unique_check generated column.
  • The generated TLS private key is now written with mode 0600 rather than inheriting the process umask, which under sudo -E left a root-owned world-readable key.
  • The generated TLS private key and staged certificate are written with O_NOFOLLOW, so a symlink planted at either path during a sudo -E (root) run can no longer redirect the write and truncate an arbitrary root-owned file.

Added

  • Added an AFTER_CHAT_MESSAGE_HOOK core hook, fired after a chat message is persisted with (db, message: ChatMessage), so plugins can observe chat traffic. Refactored the chat/message Socket.IO handler onto a testable persist_and_fire_chat helper (behavior-preserving).
  • BREAKING: Added a ./ps-empire update subcommand that moves the checkout to the latest release tag, refreshes config.yaml, and fast-forwards Starkiller, the plugin registry, and the Empire Compiler binary (skips source on dev branches). The base config.yaml is overwritten on every update — move local customizations to config.user.yaml.
  • ./ps-empire update now applies pending Alembic migrations during the upgrade (prompts to back up first, -y to auto-confirm), so a schema mismatch no longer crashes the server on next start.
  • Smoothed the bcrypt → PBKDF2 upgrade: a bcrypt-shaped default-user hash is auto-reset to PBKDF2 on startup (logged with recovery steps) and non-default bcrypt users are left untouched. Manual recovery: an admin PUT /api/v2/users/{id}/password (or Starkiller) stores a PBKDF2 hash.
  • Added starkiller.directory config option to serve an already-built Starkiller instead of cloning one from GitHub at startup, enabling air-gapped and distro-packaged installs.
  • Added wdtoggle, psx, psm, psk, psw, psc, and winver BOF modules from the Outflank C2-Tool-Collection:
    • wdtoggle — patch WDigest/Credential Guard in LSASS to re-enable plaintext credential caching
    • psx — process list annotated with detected security products (AV/EDR/logging tools)
    • psm — detailed single-process info by PID (loaded modules, TCP connections, RDP sessions)
    • psk — loaded kernel modules/drivers annotated with security-product driver detection
    • psw — enumerate window titles across running processes
    • psc — process list with active TCP connections and RDP session details
    • winver — Windows version, build number, and patch revision of the target host
  • Added netuse_add, netuse_list, and netuse_delete BOF modules splitting the TrustedSec netuse BOF into three focused modes (map a share, enumerate connections, disconnect).
  • Added sc_enum BOF module to bulk-enumerate all services on a local or remote host via SCM (config, query, failure, and trigger data in one call).
  • Added sc_qc BOF module to query a Windows service's configuration (binary path, start type, account, dependencies) via SCM.
  • Added sc_qdescription BOF module to query a Windows service's description via SCM.
  • Added sc_qfailure BOF module to query a Windows service's failure actions (restart, run command, reboot) via SCM.
  • Added sc_qtriggerinfo BOF module to query the trigger events that start or stop a Windows service.
  • Added netuserenum BOF module to enumerate local or domain user accounts via NetUserEnum with a configurable filter.
  • Added nslookup BOF module for DNS lookups via the Windows DNS client API, with optional custom server and record type.
  • Added notepad BOF module to enumerate open Notepad/Notepad++ windows and extract the displayed file path or in-memory text.
  • Added sprayad BOF module (credentials).
  • Added findLoadedModule BOF module to enumerate processes that have a given module (DLL substring) loaded — useful for locating injection targets and fingerprinting EDR.
  • Added vssenum BOF module to enumerate Volume Shadow Copies exposed on a host's SMB share — useful for locating offline SAM/SYSTEM/NTDS hives.
  • Added an InjectSelf option (default true) to inject_amsi_bypass and inject_etw_bypass so the server injects the bypass into the agent's own process; set false to target a remote PID.
  • Added addmachineaccount BOF module (lateral movement).
  • Added nonpaged_ldapsearch BOF module for synchronous non-paged LDAP queries against a domain controller, useful when paged queries are throttled; refreshed the in-repo .o files.
  • Added ldapsearch BOF module for LDAP/LDAPS queries against a domain controller with configurable scope.
  • Added 5 ajpc500 BOF modules for syscall-based injection and defense evasion:
    • etw_patching — patch or revert EtwEventWrite in ntdll to degrade ETW logging in-process
    • static_syscalls_dump — dump a target process's memory via static syscall numbers, bypassing ntdll hooks
    • static_syscalls_inject — inject shellcode into a remote process via static syscalls
    • static_syscalls_apc_spawn — spawn a temporary process and inject shellcode via APC queue using static syscalls
    • syscalls_shellcode_injection — inject shellcode into a remote process via direct syscalls
  • Added 7 Outflank C2-Tool-Collection BOF modules:
    • reconad — ADSI-based Active Directory reconnaissance
    • domaininfo — AD domain membership and Azure AD join status of the host
    • smbinfo — SMB server info via NetServerGetInfo
    • findmodule — find processes with a given module (DLL) loaded
    • findprochandle — find processes holding a handle to a named object
    • startwebclient — start the WebClient service via ETW trigger registration
    • lapsdump — dump LAPS passwords (ms-Mcs-AdmPwd) from AD via LDAP
  • Added a downloadable chatlog report (report=chat, included in report=all) exporting chatlog.csv. Operator chat is now persisted to a new chat_messages table (alembic 0003) instead of an in-memory list, and chat/history now returns the most recent 20 messages.
  • Added TASK_CHDIR (opcode 44) and POST /api/v2/agents/{id}/tasks/chdir to persistently change the agent's working directory (PowerShell, Python, IronPython).
  • Added situational-awareness modules replacing the removed in-agent aliases: powershell/situational_awareness/host/{processes,ipconfig,route,dir_list} and python/situational_awareness/host/processes (PowerShell variants emit JSON for the existing server-side filters).
  • Added chunked file uploads to agents, removing the 1MB limit — files split into 512KB chunks drip-fed across checkins. Supports all agent languages with backward-compatible protocol detection.
  • Added reg_query BOF module for in-agent Windows registry queries (key enumeration, value lookup, recursive traversal) on local or remote systems; refreshed the in-repo .o.
  • Added SharpHound C# module for BloodHound Active Directory enumeration with ILRepack assembly merging.
  • Added MergeReferences option to the C# module YAML schema, enabling ILRepack dependency merging via the Empire Compiler --merge-references flag.
  • Added AES-256-GCM across the stack: an AES256GCM AEAD class in encryption.py (server), a pure-Python version (agent/stagers/common/aesgcm.py) for Python/IronPython stagers, and a .NET 4.x C# AesGcmHelper for PowerShell stagers.
  • Added SafeChecksPS / SafeChecksPython bypass YAMLs consolidating the snippets the removed SafeChecks option used to inject. Opt in via a stager's Bypasses parameter.
  • Added parser support for the Cobalt Strike http-config block. The malleable HTTP listener wires trust_x_forwarded_for (default False), block_useragents (fnmatch globs returning the shared IIS 7.5 404), and header (merged into every response); set headers ordering is parsed but not yet enforced.
  • Added parser support for the Cobalt Strike https-certificate block (CN, O, OU, C, L, ST, validity, keystore, password). Parse-only — Empire still loads the cert from CertPath and logs a startup warning; runtime cert generation is deferred.
  • Added a language query parameter to the bypasses list endpoint to filter bypasses to a single execution language.
  • Added a computed bypass_language_map to stager-template options, exposing per payload Language which execution language its bypasses run in so Starkiller's bypass picker can filter correctly (declared via BypassLanguage plus sparse BypassLanguageOverrides).
  • Added port_forward_pivot support for all agent types: a backgrounded userspace TCP relay replaces the netsh redirector (adding Sharpire, Gopire, and Python alongside PowerShell), and the listener manages its own inbound firewall rule so the relay binds without a Windows Firewall prompt.
  • Added a register_listener_template plugin hook so plugins can contribute listener templates from on_load (with matching unregister_listener_template and a BasePlugin.register_listener convenience).
  • Added credential-parser hooks for non-agent ingestion paths: the CredentialParser protocol now accepts agent=None for sources not tied to an Empire agent, plus a new NETNTLMV2 credential type (hashcat mode 5600).
  • Added Gopire (Go agent) support for backgrounding long-running PowerShell jobs and the TASK_STOPJOB stop-job task.
  • Added a malleable host_stage gate to disable the stager URI, plus a Gopire malleable schema version guard.
  • Added api.cors_origins config field (default ["*"]) to make CORS allowed origins operator-configurable for both the REST API and Socket.IO server. Override via config.yaml or EMPIRE_API__CORS_ORIGINS (JSON-encoded list).
  • Global tag registry API at /api/v2/tags: list (with usage_count), get, create, rename/recolor/edit-description, and delete-everywhere.
  • Added a standalone C# module compilation test (tests/test_compile_csharp.py) compiling every C# module against the real EmpireCompiler, parametrized per-module. Marked @pytest.mark.slow.
  • Added AES-GCM interoperability and routing-packet tests: cross-implementation server/agent parity, plus wrong-key rejection, tampered packets, AAD mismatch, empty/non-block-aligned plaintexts, and concatenated packets.
  • Migration 0006: widens agent_files.session_id to String(255) and adds ON DELETE CASCADE FK to agents.session_id.
  • Added an empire-server console script so an installed Empire has a working entry point.
  • Added click and werkzeug as explicit dependencies; both were imported directly but supplied only transitively by Flask.

Changed

  • BREAKING: Base directories now use platformdirs, making config, data, and cache paths XDG-compliant. Defaults are unchanged unless $XDG_*_HOME is set; the Go build cache moves to ~/.cache/empire and rebuilds on first use.
  • BREAKING: Replaced raw SHA-256 with HKDF-SHA256 (RFC 5869) for DH session key derivation per FIPS SP 800-56C across all agent languages, normalizing the shared secret to 768 bytes (NIST SP 800-56A). All deployed agents must be re-staged.
  • BREAKING: Tags are now a shared registry: a flat unique name with a single shared color and description, applied many-to-many to entities. The old key:value model (per-entity tag rows, value field, name:value label) is removed.
  • BREAKING: Per-entity tag endpoints now ATTACH/DETACH a shared tag by id: POST {entity}/{id}/tags takes {tag_id} (attach existing, 200; 404 if unknown) — create tags first via POST /api/v2/tags; DELETE detaches but the tag persists. Tag list filters use exact ?tags=name (no colon).
  • BREAKING: Tag hook contract changed: new AFTER_TAG_ATTACHED_HOOK (db, tag, taggable) fires on every attach; AFTER_TAG_CREATED_HOOK and AFTER_TAG_UPDATED_HOOK are now pure registry signals (db, tag, no taggable).
  • BREAKING: Typed module-option metadata in GET responses. Boolean options moved to native value: false in YAML, so options now report a real value_type (BOOLEAN/INTEGER/FLOAT instead of STRING) and a populated type. POST bodies are unaffected — native JSON bool/int/float are accepted and re-typed per option by safe_cast.
  • BREAKING: Listeners and stagers now raise ListenerValidationException / StagerGenerationException instead of returning error strings or (False, "msg") tuples. Plugin and module execution paths no longer return tuples; errors are raised.
  • BREAKING: Removed unused listener and external_ip parameters from update_agent_sysinfo() in AgentCommunicationService.
  • Pointed the plugin registry at the 7.x branch of Empire-Plugin-Registry-Sponsors. Each major line reads its own <major>.x branch; main stays pinned for 6.x installs.
  • The persisted plugin registry row is now reconciled from the on-disk clone on every boot instead of written once at first load, so a ref change reaches an already-installed server. A sync or parse failure keeps the last-good row instead of aborting startup.
  • The plugin marketplace now serves only registries named in the config, so a renamed or removed registry's leftover row can't list plugins or resolve installs against an older major line.
  • Extended typed boolean options to stager and listener templates, which now report value_type: BOOLEAN (e.g. Obfuscate, Base64, JA3_Evasion) instead of string "True"/"False" defaults — also fixing JA3_Evasion's 'False' default always being truthy. POST bodies are unaffected.
  • Migrated server-side module generate() methods to read native typed options (if params["X"]:) and removed the normalize_legacy_params shim. API clients are unaffected; only direct non-API callers of validate_options passing a native bool against a stringly depends_on/suggested_values list see a change.
  • Replaced ChaCha20-Poly1305 with AES-256-GCM for routing-packet encryption across all agent languages (FIPS compliance). The C# agent (Sharpire) must be updated separately.
  • Increased HMAC-SHA256 truncation from 10 to 16 bytes (128 bits) for AES-CBC payload encryption per FIPS SP 800-107, across all agent languages. The C# agent (Sharpire) must be updated separately.
  • Updated Empire Compiler to v2.0.0 (FIPS-compliant Sharpire with 16-byte HMAC, HKDF-SHA256, AES-GCM) and migrated C# module YAMLs to its new format.
  • Fixed Go CheckPublicKey to use the Legendre symbol (prime-1)/2 exponent instead of Fermat's (prime-1), which always returned true.
  • Set all C# modules to background: true so compiled tasks run without blocking the agent.
  • Renamed VNC module Username option to ServerName to reflect its purpose (session display name, not a credential).
  • Removed the redundant Agent option from PatchETW and PatchlessAMSI modules (auto-injected by the framework).
  • Replaced AESCipher.generate_key() (sampled printables, ~207-bit entropy) with os.urandom(32).hex() for full 256-bit CSPRNG entropy, returned as hex to match the DH session-key format.
  • Unexpected (non-Module*Exception) errors in a custom-generate module's generate() now return HTTP 500 ("Error generating script.") instead of 400; ModuleValidationException/ModuleExecutionException still map to 400/500 and the legacy tuple path still returns 400.
  • BypassService.load_bypasses runs ps_convert_to_oneliner only on language: powershell scripts, so multi-line Python/Bash bodies are persisted verbatim.
  • Python launcher branches in the http, http_malleable, http_foreign, http_hop, port_forward_pivot, and smb listeners now concatenate matching-language bypass scripts (previously Python-targeted bypasses never reached the agent).
  • Changed AES256GCM / ChaCha20Poly1305 decrypt/open to catch InvalidTag specifically instead of bare Exception.
  • Changed AESCipher.verify_hmac() to use hmac.compare_digest for constant-time comparison.
  • Downgraded the compiler-args log message from INFO to DEBUG to reduce server log noise.
  • Demoted the malleable "accepting set <key> but not acting on it" log from INFO to DEBUG (the allow-list spans 60+ keys and flooded consoles); unknown directives still WARN.
  • Parallelized the test suite with pytest-xdist and preserved the cached empire-compiler / Starkiller / Go-build dirs across runs instead of re-downloading them each time (developer/CI change).
  • The two heaviest C# compile tests (SharpHound, Rubeus) now run only on release branches / the run-all-versions label instead of every PR; the other C# modules still compile per-PR (developer/CI change).
  • Download responses now carry an explicit Content-Type from an Empire-owned extension map, so a file no longer serves as a different type depending on the operator's distro; anything unmapped serves as application/octet-stream.
  • The self-signed server certificate is now generated in process with cryptography instead of shelling out to setup/cert.sh, which removes Empire's runtime dependency on bash and an openssl binary.
  • Vendored the Malleable C2 profiles directly into the repository instead of shipping them as a git submodule, so installs that do not clone with submodules -- release tarballs, "Download ZIP", and the sdist and wheel -- now receive all 75 profiles instead of silently receiving none.
    Upgrading an existing clone: run rm -rf empire/server/data/profiles before checking out or merging this change, or git will abort with "untracked working tree files would be overwritten".

Removed

  • BREAKING: Removed the deprecated handle_error_message helper. Callers should let exceptions propagate.
  • BREAKING: Removed deprecated installPath string attribute from MainMenu. Use install_path (a Path); third-party plugins and stagers referencing self.main_menu.installPath or self.mainMenu.installPath must switch.
  • BREAKING: Removed in-agent shell command aliases (ls, cd, pwd, ps, ipconfig, etc.) from the PowerShell, Python, and IronPython agents; shell <cmd> now passes straight to the system shell (matching C#/Go). Use the new situational_awareness/host/* modules for structured output and TASK_CHDIR for directory changes.
  • BREAKING: Removed unused stager_retries parameter from generate_launcher() across all listeners and stagers, and the corresponding StagerRetries stager option.
  • BREAKING: Removed the per-entity PUT {entity}/{id}/tags/{tag_id} endpoint and the value / label fields on the tag DTO. Tags are now a flat global registry — edit a tag once via PUT /api/v2/tags/{id}; entities only attach and detach.
  • BREAKING: Removed the SafeChecks option from all stagers, modules, listeners, and the stager API DTO (including the PowerShell version-guard, Expect: 100-Continue, and python_safe_checks() helpers). Behavior is now opt-in via the SafeChecksPS/SafeChecksPython bypasses; callers that hardcoded SafeChecks=True must add the matching bypass to Bypasses.
  • Removed ChaCha20-Poly1305 classes from encryption.py and the agent-side chacha.py stager — not FIPS-approved; routing packets already use AES-256-GCM.
  • Removed the Seatbelt module (superseded by updated Empire Compiler modules).
  • Removed legacy PowerShell BloodHound/SharpHound modules, replaced by the native C# SharpHound module.
  • Removed the powershell/management/switch_listener module and all switch-listener infrastructure (API endpoint, packet types, task service, response handlers).
  • Removed dead getIV() function from agent stager AES code (bypassed by inline os.urandom()).
  • Removed a byte-identical duplicate definition of Profile._apply_set_directive in malleable/profile.py (dead code from a merge artifact).
  • Removed setup/cert.sh; certificate generation happens automatically on first server start.
  • Removed the submodules.auto_update config key and the startup submodule check/fetch; existing configs carrying the key still load and the key is ignored.
  • The startup submodule check used to abort the server with sys.exit(1) on an unpopulated submodule, though it returned early when no .git directory was present and so never fired for the archive installs this release fixes; with the submodule gone, a missing profiles directory is now logged rather than fatal.

Fixed

  • Fixed one plugin raising in on_stop/on_unload aborting the whole shutdown teardown, leaving every plugin after it running. Each teardown now runs in its own session.
  • Fixed a plugin raising during load taking down startup and every plugin behind it. Each load now runs in its own savepoint, a malformed plugin.yaml is skipped instead of aborting the boot, and a plugin that fails after on_load is unloaded rather than left with its hooks and listener templates registered.
  • Fixed plugin.enabled being set only after on_start/on_stop returned, so a while self.enabled worker raced the flag — exiting at boot, or never stopping on disable or shutdown. It is now set before the hook on every path.
  • Fixed hooks.unregister_hook(name) / unregister_filter(name) raising KeyError when called without an event, unless the name was registered under every event. An unregistered name is still tolerated, but now warns.
  • Fixed registry-supplied authors never reaching a plugin installed from the marketplace: _merge_plugin_config indexed a single registry entry as if it were a whole registry document, so the lookup always missed.
  • Fixed custom_generate PowerShell modules emitting -Option False for an unset boolean [switch], producing a malformed command (find_fruit, WireTap, runas, inveigh_relay, deaduser, get_subnet_ranges, and the powershell_template.py they derive from). A set switch now emits a bare flag and an unset one emits nothing. Closes #1518.
  • Fixed bof/credentials/nanodump boolean flags (valid, fork, snapshot, etc.) being silently ignored — the module compared against lowercase "true" while option values render as "True", so every flag resolved to 0. They now read the native bool.
  • Fixed bof/management/static_syscalls_inject and syscalls_shellcode_injection reporting success but never delivering a callback: BeaconDataLength() includes the 4-byte length prefix, so the shellcode size was 4 bytes too large and the page-rounded value clobbered the write length. Shellcode is now page-aligned.
  • Fixed agent listener name not updating in the database on rename, causing Starkiller to show the old name.
  • Fixed the csharp/ironpython/go EXE-oneliner stagers silently dropping the operator's Bypasses selection; the PowerShell downloader they emit now prepends the selected PowerShell bypasses.
  • Fixed windows/launcher_bat ignoring the operator's Bypasses for PowerShell payloads on non-HTTP listeners, and silently emitting a do-nothing .bat for csharp/ironpython/go on non-HTTP listeners; bypasses now apply and unsupported language/listener combinations raise StagerGenerationException.
  • Fixed a race in concurrent stager generation where generate_powershell_exe and generate_python_exe shared a single Data/EmbeddedResources/common/launcher.txt, cross-contaminating launcher content when two compilations overlapped. Each call now writes to a unique per-compilation subdirectory.
  • Fixed the dead length < 0 bounds check in routing-packet parsing (unreachable for unsigned lengths), replaced with proper end-of-buffer validation in both the Python server parse_routing_packet and the Go agent.
  • Fixed Go agent ParseRoutingPacket to use the offset when reading the nonce from multi-packet payloads.
  • Fixed silent error swallowing in agent aesgcm.py process_tasking/process_job_tasking — bare except Exception: pass replaced with specific handling and error reporting to C2.
  • Fixed the VNC module using copy-pasted ThreadlessInject code instead of the NVNC library (non-functional since introduction); now uses NVNC.VncServer with the module's Password/Port/ServerName options.
  • Fixed bare except: clauses in agent parse_task_packet, narrowed to UnicodeDecodeError.
  • Fixed bypass concatenation being silently skipped in the http_foreign, http_hop, port_forward_pivot, and template listeners when SafeChecks=False (the loop was nested in the safe_checks block); bypasses now always apply.
  • Fixed the pre-existing typo safe_checks = params["UserAgent"] in python/privesc/multi/sudo_spawn.py by removing the line with the rest of the SafeChecks plumbing.
  • Fixed Profile._deserialize/HttpsCertificate._deserialize using raw bool(...) for host_stage/trust_x_forwarded_for, mapping "false" back to True — which could silently re-enable a disabled stager URI. A malformed validity is now log-dropped instead of killing listener startup.
  • Fixed the malleable HTTP listener returning a Flask 500 (AttributeError on extract_client) for a request URI matching none of the configured http-get/http-post/http-stager URIs; it now returns the shared IIS 7.5 404, preserving the uniform fingerprint.
  • Fixed taskUri vs taskURI variable name mismatch in HTTP malleable listener generated agent code that would cause a NameError on target.
  • Fixed BOF argument packing in generate_script_bof/generate_go_bof: empty optional z-format options became a " " sentinel that BOFs misread as a value (e.g. reg_query → ERROR_BAD_NETPATH), and POSIX-mode shlex stripped backslashes from registry paths. Arguments are now passed as a pre-built list.
  • Fixed C#/IronPython/Go stagers being blocked against the malleable HTTP listener despite Sharpire/Gopire support. The 15 hardcoded allow-list gates (multi/launcher, the windows/* wrappers, invoke_psexec) now route via listener.stager_url(), and http_malleable.generate_stager serves the binary instead of an empty stage, so launcher/wrapper flows get an executable payload at stage 0.
  • Fixed boolean module options forwarded straight to a truthy check (if obfuscate:) being effectively always-on; native False now reaches custom-generate modules. Most notably csharp/management/ThreadlessInject's Obfuscate always obfuscated regardless of the toggle; the same applies to CheckAll/NoDefaults/Debug in several SQL and macOS modules.
  • Fixed powershell/privesc/powerup/service_stager and service_exe_stager raising KeyError on every invocation by setting UserAgent / Proxy / ProxyCreds on the windows_launcher_bat template, which defines no such options; removed the dead proxy plumbing from both modules and their YAMLs.
  • Fixed ExtFile mode being non-functional in seven PowerShell persistence modules (persistence/userland/{registry,schtasks,backdoor_lnk}, persistence/elevated/{registry,schtasks,wmi,wmi_updater}): enc_powershell() returns bytes, so six raised TypeError (shown to the operator as the generic Error generating script.) and backdoor_lnk silently embedded the b'...' repr. Each call site now decodes to str.
  • Fixed several long-standing module option read-mismatches surfaced during the typed-options review, where an option's name or type didn't line up with how generate() read it — leaving a toggle dead, always-on, or crashing the module. None were introduced by the boolean migration; all predate it.
    • bof/situational_awareness/windowlist — the "list every window" flag read params.get("all") (lowercase), which never matched the All option, so it was hard-wired off regardless of the toggle.
    • powershell/lateral_movement/invoke_sqloscmd — was entirely non-functional: its script_path pointed at Invoke-SQLOSCmd.ps (the source file is .ps1), so loading failed on every run, and generate() read Obfuscate / ObfuscateCommand options the YAML never declared (a KeyError). The path is corrected and the two launcher-obfuscation options added.
    • powershell/credentials/mimikatz/dcsync_hashdump — Forest, Computers, and Active are booleans but were compared against "", so -DumpForest / -GetComputers were always appended and -OnlyActive:$false never was. They now read as native bools; Active defaults to true (only-active) to match its description and the $OnlyActive = $true default in Invoke-DCSync.ps1.
    • python/collection/osx/prompt — ListApps / SandboxMode are booleans compared against "", so the ListApps branch was always taken and the sandbox / app-prompt branches were dead.
    • powershell/credentials/credential_injection — the "either NewWinLogon or ExistingWinLogon must be specified" guard compared both booleans against "", so it never raised and the module ran with neither option selected. The module's bespoke option loop also emitted every option as -Name Value, so a normal NewWinLogon run still appended the unset -ExistingWinLogon False; because the two are [Switch] parameters in mutually-exclusive parameter sets, that command failed to bind on the agent. The loop now keys on each option's native type — boolean switches emit a bare flag only when set, while value options (including a literal "True"/"False", e.g. a password) pass through unchanged.
    • powershell/persistence/elevated/schtasks — the OnLogon boolean was compared against "", so the ONLOGON trigger was always selected and the IdleTime / DailyTime trigger branches were unreachable.
    • powershell/situational_awareness/host/packet_capture — the Persistent boolean was compared against "", so persistent=yes was always appended to netsh trace start regardless of the toggle.
    • powershell/privesc/bypassuac_fodhelper — generate() reads a Command option (a custom launcher command used instead of a Listener) that the YAML never declared, so that path was dead; and Listener was required: true, so the custom-command branch was unreachable anyway. Command is now declared and Listener made optional, matching the module's "either Listener or Command" logic.
  • Fixed the csharp_exe stager ignoring the global obfuscation config — csharp/ironpython payloads (where the per-stager Obfuscate option is hidden) now fall back to the csharp ObfuscationConfig, so ConfuserEx runs on the produced .exe.
  • Fixed dynamic PowerShell script generation not resolving aliased, mis-cased, or long-form PowerView function names.
  • Fixed create_download requiring a user, which blocked downloads from autorun tasks that have no associated operator.
  • Fixed 25 module YAMLs carrying ATT&CK technique IDs that no longer resolve under v19, remapping the T1562 Impair Defenses family to T1685/T1686/etc. and T1070.001 to T1685.005.
  • Fixed Python 3.13/3.14 and library deprecation warnings across the server (datetime.utcnow() → now(UTC), asyncio.iscoroutinefunction → inspect, pyparsing escChar/searchString, Pydantic v1 class Config/Field(env=), Starlette HTTP_422_*).
  • Fixed _generate_script firing a spurious DeprecationWarning on every successful module execution; it now returns data directly (or raises Module*Exception). The tuple-return warning in execute_module now fires only for legacy (None, msg) custom-generate modules.
  • Fixed ShellPostRequest.literal firing a spurious DeprecationWarning on every shell POST; the handler no longer reads the field and literal was dropped from create_task_shell, though the DTO keeps it deprecated= for clients.
  • Fixed is_option_required raising KeyError on a depends_on entry that omits a values list; a valueless dependency now imposes no value constraint, matching evaluate_dependencies. No shipped module triggers this, but it crashed validation for any valueless depends_on.
  • Fixed a missing x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc in the Windows C stager returning an opaque 500 instead of a 400 naming the toolchain and its install command.
  • The built wheel now ships modules, listeners, stagers, profiles, agent sources and configs, so an installed Empire is no longer left with zero of them.
  • The server no longer resolves its seeded config, ConfuserEx project file or certificate script against the current working directory, so it can be started from any directory.
  • git submodule and commit-SHA lookups now run against Empire's own repository instead of whatever directory the server was launched from.
  • The install subcommand now exits with an error where it is unavailable instead of silently succeeding.
  • Running the server with no subcommand now prints usage and exits 2, instead of importing the whole server and exiting 0 for what is a usage error.
  • The server now regenerates its self-signed certificate when either half of the pair is missing, so a key written without its certificate is no longer left mismatched on every subsequent start.
  • An HTTPS http_malleable listener with no CertPath now falls back to the generated pair in the data directory instead of a CWD-relative setup/, which never contained one.
  • Removed a startup network fetch (git submodule update --init --recursive) that ran by default on git checkouts and blocked air-gapped installs.
  • The profile loader now logs an error when it finds no profiles at all instead of starting up silently, so an empty profiles directory is visible at boot rather than when a malleable listener has nothing to select.
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