owasp-amass/amass · error

alterations wordlist_file item is not a string

Error message

alterations wordlist_file item is not a string

What it means

loadAlterationSettings reads the 'alterations.wordlist_file' option from the config, which must be a YAML array of file paths. Each element is type-asserted to a string; if any element is not a string (e.g. a number, boolean, or nested map), the library aborts config loading with this error. It exists to fail fast on malformed alteration wordlist configuration instead of silently skipping entries.

Source

Thrown at config/brute.go:94

	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")
			}

			absPath, err := c.AbsPathFromConfigDir(wordlistPath)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("failed to get absolute path for wordlist file: %w", err)
			}

			wordlist, err := GetListFromFile(absPath)
			if err != nil {
				return fmt.Errorf("unable to load the file in the alterations wordlist_file setting: %s: %v", absPath, err)
			}

			c.AltWordlist = append(c.AltWordlist, wordlist...)
		}
	}

	c.AltWordlist = stringset.Deduplicate(c.AltWordlist)
	return nil

View on GitHub (pinned to 79299dce87)

Solutions

1. Quote each wordlist path in the config so YAML parses it as a string: wordlist_file: ["2024.txt", "/usr/share/wordlists/common.txt"].
2. Validate the parsed config structure with a YAML tool or by printing the loaded options to confirm wordlist_file is an array of strings.
3. If paths are generated programmatically, convert them to strings before writing the config.

Example fix

// before (config.yaml)
alterations:
  wordlist_file:
    - 2024
// after
alterations:
  wordlist_file:
    - "2024.txt"

raw, _ := os.ReadFile(cfgPath)
var doc map[string]any
_ = yaml.Unmarshal(raw, &doc)
alt, _ := doc["alterations"].(map[string]any)
wlf, _ := alt["wordlist_file"].([]any)
for i, item := range wlf {
    if _, ok := item.(string); !ok {
        return fmt.Errorf("alterations.wordlist_file[%d] must be a string, got %T", i, item)
    }
}

func isStringList(v []any) bool {
    for _, item := range v {
        if _, ok := item.(string); !ok {
            return false
        }
    }
    return true
}

if err := cfg.LoadSettings(path); err != nil {
    if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "wordlist_file item is not a string") {
        // fix config or fall back to defaults
    }
    return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: A config file where 'alterations: wordlist_file:' contains a non-string item, e.g. wordlist_file: [123], [true], or a nested list. Produced by the type assertion wordlistPathRaw.(string) failing while iterating wordlistPaths.

Common situations: Hand-edited YAML without quotes where a value looks numeric (e.g. 2024.txt becomes a number); templated config generation injecting non-string values; copy-paste mistakes nesting a list inside the list.

Related errors

• datasources option is not a string
• resolvers section is not a list
• error mapping configuration settings to internal values: %v
• brute forcing cannot be performed without DNS resolution
• active enumeration cannot be performed without DNS resolutio

AI-assisted analysis of owasp-amass/amass@79299dce87 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/42a05c1bfaf3b8b7. Report an issue: GitHub.