owasp-amass/amass · error

failed to extract the IPAddress asset

Error message

failed to extract the IPAddress asset

What it means

Thrown by the ipaddrEndpoint service-discovery HTTP probe's check method when the event's Entity.Asset is not a *network.IPAddress. This probe discovers service endpoints on IP addresses; other asset types fail the type assertion. It signals a routing/type mismatch in the event pipeline, not a network problem.

Source

Thrown at engine/plugins/service_discovery/http_probes/ipaddr_endpoint.go:34

	dbt "github.com/owasp-amass/asset-db/types"
	oam "github.com/owasp-amass/open-asset-model"
	"github.com/owasp-amass/open-asset-model/general"
	"github.com/owasp-amass/open-asset-model/network"
)

type ipaddrEndpoint struct {
	name   string
	plugin *httpProbing
}

func (r *ipaddrEndpoint) Name() string {
	return r.name
}

func (r *ipaddrEndpoint) check(e *et.Event) error {
	ip, ok := e.Entity.Asset.(*network.IPAddress)
	if !ok {
		return errors.New("failed to extract the IPAddress asset")
	}

	if !e.Session.Config().Active {
		return nil
	}

	addrstr := ip.Address.String()
	if reserved, _ := amassnet.IsReservedAddress(addrstr); reserved {
		return nil
	}

	// only perform the probe if the address is in scope
	if _, conf := e.Session.Scope().IsAssetInScope(ip, 0); conf <= 0 {
		return nil
	}

	since, err := support.TTLStartTime(e.Session.Config(), string(oam.IPAddress), string(oam.Service), r.name)
	if err != nil || since.IsZero() {

View on GitHub (pinned to 79299dce87)

Solutions

1. Route FQDN events to fqdnEndpoint and IP events to ipaddrEndpoint respectively
2. Confirm the upstream producer emits *network.IPAddress assets to this probe
3. Return nil for non-IP assets to skip silently
4. Log the asset's concrete type when the assertion fails to identify the source

Example fix

// before
ip, ok := e.Entity.Asset.(*network.IPAddress)
if !ok {
	return errors.New("failed to extract the IPAddress asset")
}
// after
ip, ok := e.Entity.Asset.(*network.IPAddress)
if !ok {
	return nil // skip non-IP assets
}

if ip, ok := e.Entity.Asset.(*network.IPAddress); !ok {
	return nil
}

func isIPAddress(a asset.Asset) (*network.IPAddress, bool) {
	ip, ok := a.(*network.IPAddress)
	return ip, ok
}

if err := probe.Check(e); err != nil {
	if strings.Contains(err.Error(), "failed to extract the IPAddress asset") {
		continue
	}
	return err
}

When it happens

Trigger: check receives an event whose asset is not *network.IPAddress (e.g. an FQDN asset), making ip, ok := e.Entity.Asset.(*network.IPAddress) fail.

Common situations: DNS resolution events being sent to the IP probe instead of the FQDN probe; custom pipelines forwarding FQDN events to ipaddrEndpoint; broad event subscriptions.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is not a compatible type" / "cannot merge" errors: when a value's type doesn't match what the library requires — this error's family across 65 libraries.

Related errors

• failed to extract the FQDN asset
• failed to cast the DomainRecord
• failed to cast the IPNetRecord
• failed to cast the TLSCertificate asset
• failed to extract the IPAddress asset

AI-assisted analysis of owasp-amass/amass@79299dce87 (2026-09-06). Data as JSON: /api/errors/68d2de25efe88eb8. Report an issue: GitHub.