goimpacket

goimpacket

A complete Go implementation of Impacket - 63 tools and 24 library packages for Windows network protocol interaction, Active Directory enumeration, and attack execution. Built as a native Go framework so you can compile once and run anywhere without Python dependencies.

This is a fork of mandiant/gopacket that swaps the upstream github.com/google/gopacket dependency for the cgo-free fork at github.com/Mzack9999/gopacket, which loads libpcap dynamically at runtime via purego instead of cgo. This removes the libpcap development headers from the build-time toolchain.

Beta Release - Highly Experimental. goimpacket is under active development. Core tools have been tested against Active Directory lab environments, but edge cases and protocol quirks are expected. If something isn't working, please test the same operation with Impacket side-by-side and include both outputs in your bug report. This helps us quickly identify whether it's a goimpacket-specific issue or a shared protocol limitation.

Installation

git clone https://github.com/Mzack9999/goimpacket
cd goimpacket

# Build and install all tools as goimpacket-<toolname> on your PATH
./install.sh

# Or just build without installing
./install.sh --build-only

# Or build with make
make build

Requires Go 1.24.13+ and GCC (install with apt install build-essential on Debian/Ubuntu/Kali, or yum install gcc on RHEL/CentOS; GCC ships with the Xcode Command Line Tools on macOS).

GCC is needed for the proxychains hooks in pkg/transport (see below). The sniff and split tools no longer require libpcap-dev at build time - the cgo-free gopacket fork loads libpcap dynamically with purego - but you still need a libpcap shared library installed at runtime to use those two tools (apt install libpcap0.8, yum install libpcap, or brew install libpcap).

Platform Support

Linux and macOS only. Native Windows builds (MSYS2/MINGW64, plain go build on Windows) are not supported - pkg/transport uses libc's connect() via cgo so that LD_PRELOAD-based proxies like proxychains can hook it, which has no Windows equivalent. On Windows, use WSL and build from inside the Linux environment.

To uninstall:

./install.sh --uninstall

Proxychains Support

All goimpacket tools work through proxychains. Go binaries normally bypass proxychains because Go's runtime handles DNS and networking internally, skipping the LD_PRELOAD hooks that proxychains relies on. goimpacket works around this by linking against the system C library for network operations, allowing proxychains to intercept connections normally.

proxychains goimpacket-secretsdump 'domain/user:password@target'
proxychains goimpacket-smbclient -k -no-pass 'domain/user@dc.domain.local'

Documentation

See the Library Developer Guide for full API documentation, code examples, and architecture overview for building custom tools on top of goimpacket's 24 protocol packages.

Tools (63)

Remote Execution

Credential Dumping & DPAPI

Kerberos

Active Directory Enumeration

Active Directory Attacks

SMB Tools

NTLM Relay

ntlmrelayx supports:

• Capture servers: SMB, HTTP/HTTPS, WCF (ADWS), RAW, RPC, WinRM
• Relay clients: SMB, LDAP/LDAPS, HTTP/HTTPS, MSSQL, WinRM, RPC
• Attacks: secretsdump, smbexec, ldapdump, RBCD delegation, ACL abuse, shadow credentials, ADCS ESC8, addcomputer, DNS manipulation, and more
• Infrastructure: SOCKS5 proxy with protocol-aware plugins, interactive console, REST API, multi-target round-robin, WPAD serving

SQL Server

WMI

Terminal Services

Other Protocols

Utilities

Authentication

All network tools support three authentication methods:

# Password
goimpacket-secretsdump 'domain/user:password@target'

# NTLM hash (pass-the-hash)
goimpacket-secretsdump -hashes ':nthash' 'domain/user@target'

# Kerberos (pass-the-ticket)
KRB5CCNAME=ticket.ccache goimpacket-secretsdump -k -no-pass 'domain/user@target'

Common Flags

Quick Examples

# Dump domain hashes via DCSync
goimpacket-secretsdump 'corp.local/admin:Password1@dc01.corp.local'

# Interactive SMB shell
goimpacket-smbclient -hashes ':aabbccdd...' 'corp.local/admin@fileserver'

# Kerberoast
goimpacket-getuserspns 'corp.local/user:pass@dc01.corp.local'

# Golden ticket
goimpacket-ticketer -nthash <krbtgt_hash> -domain-sid S-1-5-21-... -domain corp.local admin

# NTLM relay with SOCKS proxy
sudo goimpacket-ntlmrelayx -t smb://target -socks

# LDAP relay for RBCD
sudo goimpacket-ntlmrelayx -t ldaps://dc01.corp.local --delegate-access

Library

The pkg/ directory contains 24 reusable protocol packages that can be imported independently.

Missing Features (vs Impacket)

goimpacket aims for full Impacket parity. The following are not yet implemented:

Relay protocol clients:

• IMAP relay client + attack (requires Exchange/IMAP server)
• SMTP relay client (requires SMTP server)

Relay attack modules:

• SCCM policies/DP attacks (requires SCCM infrastructure)

Standalone tools:

• ifmap.py (DCOM interface mapping)
• mimikatz.py (limited Mimikatz over RPC)
• goldenPac.py (MS14-068 - obsolete on patched systems)
• smbrelayx.py (superseded by ntlmrelayx)
• kintercept.py (Kerberos interception)

These gaps are low priority - most require niche infrastructure to test or are obsoleted by newer techniques.

Known Limitations

These are protocol-level limitations shared with Impacket, not goimpacket bugs:

• SMB to LDAPS relay fails on patched DCs due to NTLM MIC validation (post-CVE-2019-1040). Use HTTP coercion instead.
• WinRM relay blocked by EPA (Extended Protection for Authentication) on patched Server 2019+.
• RPC relay attacks (tschexec, enum-local-admins) require PKT_INTEGRITY which is unavailable in relay sessions.
• LDAP relay to port 389 fails on DCs requiring LDAP signing. Always relay to LDAPS (port 636).

See KNOWN_ISSUES.md for detailed information on each issue and workarounds.

Reporting Issues & Contributing

This is a beta release. Bugs are expected, and contributions are welcome.

Why we ask you to test with Impacket first

Because goimpacket implements the same wire protocols as Impacket, a large fraction of "bugs" turn out to be environmental, not goimpacket-specific - patched DCs, LDAP signing requirements, EPA, PKT_INTEGRITY, SMB signing, NTLM MIC validation post-CVE-2019-1040, missing SPNs, time skew, DNS quirks, firewall rules, and so on. Running the same operation with Impacket side by side removes the environment from the equation:

• If Impacket fails the same way, the issue is almost always environmental and is likely already documented in KNOWN_ISSUES.md. No bug report needed.
• If Impacket succeeds where goimpacket fails, that's a real goimpacket bug and exactly what we want to hear about.

This single triage step saves a lot of round-trips, so please don't skip it.

Filing a bug report

1. Run the same operation with Impacket and note whether it succeeds or fails
2. Re-run goimpacket with -debug and capture the full output
3. Anonymize anything sensitive before posting. GitHub issues are public. Strip or replace real hostnames, IP addresses, usernames, password hashes, Kerberos tickets, domain names, SIDs, and any output line that could be tied back to a real engagement. Replacing corp.internal → example.local and dc01.corp.internal → dc01.example.local is fine - keep the structure of the data, just not the identifying values. If in doubt, redact it.
4. Open a GitHub issue and include:
   • Both outputs (goimpacket and Impacket), as text not screenshots, anonymized
   • The exact command line you ran (anonymized)
   • Target OS, AD functional level, and any relevant hardening (signing, EPA, channel binding, patch level)
   • goimpacket version / commit hash

Feature requests

Open a GitHub issue describing the use case and the Impacket equivalent (if any). If the feature is on the "Missing Features" list above, mention which one - it helps us prioritize.

Pull requests

PRs are welcome. Before opening one:

• Run go build ./..., go vet ./..., gofmt -l ., and go test ./... and make sure they all pass cleanly
• Match the existing code style in the package you're touching
• Keep changes focused - separate refactors from feature work
• For non-trivial changes, open an issue first to discuss the approach

Why This Matters for Defenders

Threat actors are moving away from Python. Compiled Go and Rust tooling (Sliver, BRC4, Geacon, and bespoke loaders) is increasingly replacing Impacket in real-world intrusions. Most defensive tooling and detection logic was built around Impacket's Python-based network behavior, and that coverage is eroding as the attacker ecosystem shifts to compiled languages.

goimpacket exists in part to help the security community get ahead of this shift. By providing an open-source, readable Go implementation of the same protocols and techniques, defenders and detection engineers can:

• Study how Go-based tooling behaves on the wire rather than waiting to encounter it during an incident
• Understand the protocol-level differences between Go and Python implementations that make existing signatures less effective
• Run realistic purple team exercises using the same compiled, single-binary tooling that threat actors are adopting, rather than testing exclusively against Python scripts that behave differently at the network layer

The gap between attacker tooling and defender visibility is widest when new tooling stays private. Open-sourcing goimpacket narrows that gap.

Notes

• Kerberos authentication requires a valid ccache file (TGT or service ticket)
• For Kerberos, use the FQDN hostname - not an IP address
• If KRB5CCNAME is not set, tools will look for <username>.ccache in the current directory
• All tools work through proxychains
• This project is for authorized security testing and research purposes only

License

Released under the Apache License 2.0.

goimpacket is a clean Go reimplementation of Impacket; see NOTICE for full third-party acknowledgments.