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coercer

2.4-blackhat-edition open-source

Coercer is a Python script that automatically coerces a Windows server to authenticate on an arbitrary machine through many methods.

Summary

coercer is an open-source command-line tool, written in Python, that automates coercing a Windows server into authenticating to an arbitrary machine by calling vulnerable RPCRPCRemote Procedure Call, a protocol that lets a program execute a function on another machine as if it were local, giving cyber tools a structured way to communicate across processes or hosts without managing raw sockets. functions over SMBSMBA network file-sharing protocol developed by Microsoft that lets systems share files, printers, and named pipes over a network; cyber tools target or speak it because it is ubiquitous in Windows environments. pipes through many known methods. It is free to use. It runs as a script (or a compiled Windows binary via the included installer) with scan, fuzz and coerce modes, letting an operator enumerate open pipes, test exploit paths, or trigger authentication directly, with results filterable by method, protocol or pipe name and exportable to SQLite or JSON. Its tags mark it as a lateral-movement tool for red teamers and penetration testers working against Active DirectoryActive DirectoryMicrosoft's directory service for Windows networks that centralises authentication and authorisation; cyber tools target or integrate with it because it controls identity and access across most enterprise environments. environments, sitting in the NTLMNTLMA Windows authentication protocol that proves knowledge of a password through a challenge and response. Captured authentication exchanges can be abused in relay attacks when protections are absent.-coercion category alongside other post-exploitation tooling. First committed in 2022, it has drawn 19 contributors and, with 7 commits and 10 releases in the past year, remains actively maintained.

Coercer is a Python script that automatically coerces a Windows server to authenticate on an arbitrary machine through many methods.

How coercer helps

Which SMB pipes are actually open and reachable on this host?

connects to the known list of pipes both authenticated and unauthenticated, and lists which ones respond on the remote machine

Can this server be coerced without valid credentials first?

the unauthenticated scan and fuzz modes connect to pipes and attempt coercion methods before any credentials are supplied, showing which paths succeed pre-auth

Is this server still vulnerable after being patched or reconfigured, compared to last time?

results export to SQLite or JSON, so a fresh run against the same target can be diffed against an earlier export to see which methods stopped working

all 6 features, with the evidence for each →

Languages

Not documented

Features

6 capabilities · 4 backed by code, an API document or a real run

Built from coercer's releases, docs, README and our own runs. “Seen” marks the month we first spotted a release the vendor didn't date. Group names and tags are our labels.

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What coercer offers you

  • Command-line interface1
  • JSON data export1
All capabilities 6 capabilities
DCERPC transport configuration verified Allows configuration of DCERPC ports and transport filters used during coercion and scanning operations. 7 releases · 4 other sources · first seen Nov 2022

release 7 total

  • Adds new operational surface --filter-method-name to filter by method name in all modes. 2.4-blackhat-edition · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Enables filtering by method or protocol using --filter-method-name and --filter-protocol-name flags 2.3 · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Adds new operational surface --filter-pipe-name to filter by pipe name in all modes. 2.4-blackhat-edition · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Adds new operational surface --filter-protocol-name to filter by protocol name in all modes. 2.4-blackhat-edition · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Adds --filter-protocol-name to filter by protocol name 2.2 · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Adds --filter-method-name to filter by RPC method name 2.2 · Dec 2022 · source · release history

command line

example

  • Filter RPC coercion attempts to only test the MS-RPRN protocol using specific method filtering. coercer coerce --target 192.168.1.10 --filter-protocol-name 'MS-RPRN' 2.3 · Dec 2022 · source
Result export shipped Exports operational results to SQLite, JSON, and XLSX formats for integration with external analysis pipelines. 5 releases · first seen Nov 2022

Also counts toward: JSON data export

release

  • Adds new export format SQLite for results in scan and fuzz modes. 2.4-blackhat-edition · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Supports exporting results to SQLite, JSON, and XLSX formats via new export capabilities in scan and fuzz modes 2.3 · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Adds new export format XLSX for results in scan and fuzz modes. 2.4-blackhat-edition · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Adds new export format JSON for results in scan and fuzz modes. 2.4-blackhat-edition · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Supports exporting results in SQLite, JSON, and XLSX formats to integrate with external analysis pipelines. 2.1 · Nov 2022 · source · release history
Authentication coercion verified Triggers authentication attempts from a target by invoking known coercion methods with known working paths. 2 releases · 2 other sources · first seen Nov 2022

release

  • Introduces new scan, coerce, and fuzz modes replacing the previous structure 2.2 · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Introduces three new operational modes: scan, coerce, and fuzz for targeted authentication coercion and pipe enumeration. 2.1 · Nov 2022 · source · release history

docs

  • Python script that coerces Windows servers to authenticate on an arbitrary machine by calling vulnerable RPC functions via multiple methods.

command line

  • coerce — Trigger authentications through all known methods with known working paths 2.1 · Dec 2022 · command-line history
Coercion method scanning verified Tests known coercion methods with known working paths and reports when an authentication is received. 3 releases · 1 other source · first seen Nov 2022

release

  • Adds new mode scan for authenticated and unauthenticated SMB pipe scanning. 2.4-blackhat-edition · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Introduces new scan, coerce, and fuzz modes replacing the previous structure 2.2 · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Introduces three new operational modes: scan, coerce, and fuzz for targeted authentication coercion and pipe enumeration. 2.1 · Nov 2022 · source · release history

command line

  • scan — Tests known methods with known working paths on all methods, and report when an authentication is received. 2.1 · Dec 2022 · command-line history
Attempt timing control shipped Configures the delay between authentication or scan attempts to control timing pressure and reduce detection risk. 3 releases · first seen Nov 2022

Also counts toward: Command-line interface

release

  • Adds scan, coerce, and fuzz subcommands with configurable delay via the --delay flag to control attempt intervals 2.3 · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Adds --delay config for configurable delay between attempts 2.2 · Dec 2022 · source · release history
  • Adds configurable delay between attempts via the --delay flag to control timing pressure on targets. 2.1 · Nov 2022 · source · release history
Coercion path fuzzing verified Tests every known coercion method against a user-supplied list of exploit paths and reports when an authentication is received. 1 release · 1 other source · first seen Dec 2022

release

  • Adds new mode fuzz for authenticated and unauthenticated SMB pipe fuzzing. 2.4-blackhat-edition · Dec 2022 · source · release history

command line

  • fuzz — Tests every method with a list of exploit paths, and report when an authentication is received. 2.1 · Dec 2022 · command-line history

Lines in monospace are the tool's own words: help text parsed from its source, or an endpoint from its API document. Under release, a line is our summary of a dated release. Under docs, it is quoted from the tool's own documentation or website. Each links back to the source it came from.

Score card

  1. Shipping velocity releases a month, last 12 months
  2. Documentation quality release-notes rubric, 0–100
  3. Breaking-change discipline how rarely a release breaks users, and notice given
  4. Maintenance risk quiet time against its own cadence, maintainers
  5. Innovation & surface new capabilities, API and MCP surface
  6. Community health
  7. Contributor trend distinct committers, this year against last
  8. Maintainer concentration bus factor now against a year ago
  9. Issue backlog trend issues closed per issue opened, 12 months
  10. Responsiveness median time to a maintainer’s first reply

Nine scores for coercer, each built from the releases, notes and API history this site tracks — and, on Researcher and Business, where it stands among every measured tool in its category and how that has moved.

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Each score is 0–100 on a published rubric, derived from data this site already shows. A dimension we cannot measure says so — it is never scored 0 and never enters a rank.

How this is scored
  • Shipping velocity — releases a month over the last 12 months, on a log scale where 16 a month scores 100. Needs 3 releases in the window.
  • Documentation quality — the release-notes rubric published on the analytics page, unchanged.
  • Breaking-change discipline — the share of releases carrying a breaking change (none scores 100, half or more scores 0). Only projects that label breaking changes are measured: a clean record cannot be told from an unlabelled one.
  • Maintenance risk — quiet time measured against the tool's own release cadence (quiet longer than 90 days and three typical gaps scores 0), plus the number of active maintainers and whether contributors are growing, where known. Higher is lower risk.
  • Innovation & surface — new capabilities in the feature ledger this year, API and MCP operations added, and the share of commits that are features: the mean of whichever we hold.
  • Community health (open-source tools only) — each is a direction, not a size: contributors this year against last, the bus factor now against a year ago, and issues closed per issue opened, where steady scores 50, doubled 100 and halved 0; plus the median time to a maintainer's first reply (an hour scores about 100, a month or more 0). A commercial card has no repository and carries none of the four.
  • Documented delivery (commercial tools) — when a vendor's documented new capabilities have slowed against its own baseline, that counts against the overall standing as heavily as two low dimensions. Steady delivery, or too little history to judge, leaves the standing alone; it is never a sixth score.
  • Open-source tools are scored on repository signals; commercial tools on their published changelog. Ranks compare tools within one category and one profile and need at least five measured peers; the overall standing needs three ranked dimensions. Best-in-breed or consolidator is a shape, not a quality, and is never scored.

Release-note detail over time

See how much detail coercer puts in its release notes, quarter by quarter, and compare it with tracked tools in the same category. This history uses up to ten retained, reviewed notes per tool; sparse or blank older quarters may reflect that limit.

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Releases

4 entries

  1. December 20223
  2. November 20221

    4 entries

    Project health

    Issue, contributor and maintainer activity in p0dalirius/Coercer, 2023-10 – 2026-09, as of 2026-09-25. Twelve-month figures first; the trend lines run the whole window.

    1. Contributors 3 −6 vs prior 12 months
    2. Maintainers 0 +0 joined · −2 left, last 12 months
    3. Bus factor 0 committers behind half the commits
    4. Community-filed 100% of issues opened, last 12 months
    5. Median time to close 94 days first maintainer reply 14 hours
    6. Open backlog 9 of 68 issues ever filed
    1. Issues opened / month 0 · 0 communitymaintainers
    2. Open backlog 9
    3. Contributors / month 0
    4. Commits / month 0
    5. Stars 2,319
    Issue themes, last 12 months
    • bugs 60%
    • features 20%
    • other 20%

    Counts from the project's public repository and git history; no individuals are identified. Maintainers are the committers covering 80% of the last year's commits. how we measure this

    Libraries its release ships

    What its latest release locks, checked against known advisories.

    None of its release's images build from a lockfile we can read.

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