owasp-amass/amass · error

alterations enabled is not a bool

Error message

alterations enabled is not a bool

What it means

In loadAlterationSettings, once the alterations map is decoded, the "enabled" sub-key is asserted to be a bool via `alterations["enabled"].(bool)`. The assertion failed because the value is a string, number, or nil. The library requires a strict boolean to set Config.Alterations.

Source

Thrown at config/brute.go:77

	c.Wordlist = stringset.Deduplicate(c.Wordlist)
	return nil
}

func (c *Config) loadAlterationSettings(cfg *Config) error {
	alterationsRaw, ok := c.Options["alterations"]
	if !ok {
		return nil
	}

	alterations, ok := alterationsRaw.(map[string]interface{})
	if !ok {
		return fmt.Errorf("alterations is not a map[string]interface{}")
	}

	enabled, ok := alterations["enabled"].(bool)
	if !ok {
		return fmt.Errorf("alterations enabled is not a bool")
	}

	c.Alterations = enabled
	if !c.Alterations {
		return nil
	}

	if wordlistPathRaw, ok := alterations["wordlists"]; ok {
		wordlistPaths, ok := wordlistPathRaw.([]interface{})
		if !ok {
			return fmt.Errorf("alterations wordlist_file is not an array")
		}

		for _, wordlistPathRaw := range wordlistPaths {
			wordlistPath, ok := wordlistPathRaw.(string)
			if !ok {
				return fmt.Errorf("alterations wordlist_file item is not a string")
			}

View on GitHub (pinned to 79299dce87)

Solutions

1. Set alterations.enabled to a plain boolean: alterations:\n enabled: true
2. Replace string/number/yes-no values with true or false
3. Delete the key if you want it omitted rather than malformed
4. Add a config schema validation step that verifies enabled is bool before load

Example fix

# before
alterations:
  enabled: 1

# after
alterations:
  enabled: true

func validateAltEnabled(alterations map[string]interface{}) error {
	v, ok := alterations["enabled"]
	if !ok {
		return fmt.Errorf("alterations.enabled is required")
	}
	if _, ok := v.(bool); !ok {
		return fmt.Errorf("alterations.enabled must be true/false, got %T", v)
	}
	return nil
}

func isBool(v interface{}) bool { _, ok := v.(bool); return ok }

if err := cfg.LoadSettings(); err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "alterations enabled is not a bool") {
		// set enabled to unquoted true/false and reload
	}
	log.Fatal(err)
}

When it happens

Trigger: A config where alterations is a map but alterations.enabled is not a bool, e.g. enabled: "true", enabled: 1, or enabled: (null/empty).

Common situations: Quoted booleans from hand-edited configs; yes/on values from other tools' conventions; an empty key left behind after deleting a value.

Related errors

• failed to parse active setting, value is not a boolean
• bruteforce enabled is not a bool
• bruteforce is not a map[string]interface{}
• bruteforce wordlist_file is not an array
• bruteforce wordlist_file item is not a string

AI-assisted analysis of owasp-amass/amass@79299dce87 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8b95c9ec517f3eab. Report an issue: GitHub.