owasp-amass/amass · error

error opening the file

Error message

error opening the file %s: %v

What it means

After resolving the absolute path, GetListFromFile opens the wordlist file; if os.Open fails (missing file, no permission, it's a directory), this error wraps the OS error together with the path. It is the standard 'couldn't open wordlist' failure.

Solutions

1. Verify the file exists at the exact path (ls the path)
2. Fix the path in your brute-force/alteration config or CLI flag
3. Check read permissions on the file and traverse permissions on parent dirs
4. Ensure the path is a file, not a directory

Example fix

// before
GetListFromFile("/usr/share/wordlists/commn.txt")
// after
GetListFromFile("/usr/share/wordlists/common.txt")

info, err := os.Stat(path)
if err != nil { return err }
if info.IsDir() { return errors.New("wordlist path is a directory") }
if info.Mode()&0o400 == 0 { return errors.New("wordlist not readable") }

words, err := GetListFromFile(p)
if err != nil {
  if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "error opening the file") {
    // surface the path and check existence/permissions
  }
  return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: os.Open returns an error: the file doesn't exist at absPath, permission is denied, the path points to a directory, or the path is empty/garbage.

Common situations: Typo in the wordlist path in brute-force or alteration settings; wordlist not mounted in a container; file present but unreadable by the running user.

Understand the failure class

Background: "open() failed", "failed to open file", "cannot create file" — what a file open error means and how to fix it — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

• error reading the first 512 bytes from
• error rewinding the file
• the file is empty
• unable to load the file in the bruteforce wordlist_file…
• error gz-reading the file

AI-assisted analysis of owasp-amass/amass@79299dce87 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b9b341c5eb4b100a. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at config/wordlist.go:92

			newWordlist = append(newWordlist, words...)
		}
	}

	return newWordlist, nil
}

// GetListFromFile reads a wordlist text or gzip file and returns the slice of words.
func GetListFromFile(path string) ([]string, error) {
	var reader io.Reader

	absPath, err := filepath.Abs(path)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to get absolute path: %v", err)
	}

	file, err := os.Open(absPath)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error opening the file %s: %v", absPath, err)
	}
	defer func() { _ = file.Close() }()
	reader = file

	if finfo, err := file.Stat(); err == nil && finfo.Size() == 0 {
		return nil, errors.New("the file is empty")
	}

	if gz, err := getGzipReader(file, absPath); err == nil {
		defer func() { _ = gz.Close() }()
		reader = gz
	}

	return GetWordList(reader)
}

func getGzipReader(file *os.File, absPath string) (*gzip.Reader, error) {
	finfo, err := file.Stat()

View on GitHub (pinned to 79299dce87)