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goldeneye

open-source

GoldenEye Layer 7 (KeepAlive+NoCache) DoS Test Tool - jseidl/GoldenEye

Summary

goldeneye is an open-source command-line tool, licensed under GPLv3, that generates HTTP-layer denial-of-service load against a target URL by exploiting HTTP Keep Alive and NoCache to hold connections open. It runs as a Python 3 script with worker and socket counts, HTTP method, user-agent list and SSLSSLA cryptographic protocol for encrypting network connections, now deprecated in favor of TLS but whose name persists colloquially. Cyber tools reference it when handling HTTPS or other encrypted-channel inspection and termination.-check options set as flags, which makes it a stress-testing utility for penetration testers and red teamers checking whether a web server or application survives a layer-7 flood rather than a network-layer one. The README itself states the project is no longer maintained, and our records confirm that: first committed in 2012, seven contributors, one tracked release, and no commits in the past year, so treat it as a fixed historical tool rather than an actively developed one.

GoldenEye Layer 7 (KeepAlive+NoCache) DoS Test Tool - jseidl/GoldenEye

How goldeneye helps

Does a target web server stay responsive under a sustained layer-7 connection flood?

opens many concurrent HTTP connections against the URL and holds them open using Keep Alive and NoCache so the server must keep resources allocated, revealing whether it degrades or falls over under load rather than a raw bandwidth flood

Can a target be overwhelmed using ordinary-looking GET or POST traffic instead of malformed packets?

issues real GET, POST, or randomly-chosen HTTP requests through many workers and sockets, so the load looks like legitimate application traffic rather than a network-layer attack

Would varying client fingerprints slip past request filtering aimed at a single user-agent or referer?

draws from a supplied or randomly generated user-agent list so each connection presents a different client identity, showing whether simple user-agent-based filtering would catch or miss the flood

Can an HTTPS endpoint be load-tested without a valid or trusted certificate getting in the way?

offers a flag-free description in practice: an SSL-check option lets connections proceed against a target whose certificate would otherwise block the test, so certificate issues do not stop the assessment

How much concurrent load is actually needed to strain a given server?

exposes the worker and socket counts driving the flood, so a tester can raise or lower concurrency and observe at what level the target's response time or availability starts to suffer

Languages

Not documented

Release-note detail over time

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Releases

Nothing shipped since we started watching. Releases and docs updates land here as they happen.

last release Oct 15, 2014 · watching since Jun 24, 2026

Project health

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

  1. Contributors 0 ±0 vs prior 12 months
  2. Maintainers 0 +0 joined · −0 left, last 12 months
  3. Bus factor 0 committers behind half the commits
  4. Community-filed not measured of issues opened, last 12 months
  5. Median time to close not measured issues closed, last 12 months
  6. Open backlog not measured open issues today
  1. Issues opened / month not measured
  2. Open backlog not measured
  3. Contributors / month 0
  4. Commits / month 0
  5. Stars 1,471
Issue themes, last 12 months not measured

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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