peass-ng/PEASS-ng · error · RuntimeError

Invalid URL, too many HTTP redirects

Error message

Invalid URL, too many HTTP redirects

What it means

peass.rb's fetch() follows HTTP redirects recursively with a limit of 10; when the limit hits 0 it raises this error. It means the PEASS URL caused too many (or infinite) redirects, so a valid response could never be retrieved.

Source

Thrown at metasploit/peass.rb:252

      print_good("PEASS output saved to: #{command_log}")
    
    rescue ::Exception => e
      print_bad("Error Running PEASS: #{e.class} #{e}")
    end
    
    # Close and delete the temporary file
    file.close
    file.unlink
  end

  def on_request_uri(cli, request)
    print_status("HTTP request received")
    send_response(cli, File.read(@temp_file_path), {'Content-Type'=>'text/plain'})
    print_good("PEASS script sent")
  end

  def fetch(uri_str, limit = 10)
    raise 'Invalid URL, too many HTTP redirects' if limit == 0
    response = Net::HTTP.get_response(URI(uri_str))
    case response
    when Net::HTTPSuccess then
      response
    when Net::HTTPRedirection then
      location = response['location']
      fetch(location, limit - 1)
    else
      response.value
    end
  end
 
  def load_peass
    # Load the PEASS script from a local file or from Internet
    peass_script = ""
    url_peass = ""
    # If no URL is set, use the default one
    if datastore['CUSTOM_URL'] != ""

View on GitHub (pinned to 53fb989abc)

Solutions

1. Fix the target URL so it points directly at the PEASS release (avoid redirect loops)
2. Use the canonical GitHub release URL (https://github.com/peass-ng/PEASS-ng/releases/latest/download/linpeas.sh)
3. Increase the limit argument if the chain is legitimately long: fetch(uri, 20)
4. Test the URL with curl -IL to inspect the redirect chain

Example fix

# before
res = fetch('http://my-mirror.local/peass')
# after
res = fetch('https://github.com/peass-ng/PEASS-ng/releases/latest/download/linpeas.sh')

# inspect redirect chain before fetching
curl -sIL --max-redirs 10 https://github.com/peass-ng/PEASS-ng/releases/latest/download/linpeas.sh > /dev/null && echo OK

begin
  res = fetch(target)
rescue RuntimeError => e
  raise unless e.message.include?('too many HTTP redirects')
  print_warning("Redirect loop at #{uri_str}; trying canonical release URL")
  res = fetch('https://github.com/peass-ng/PEASS-ng/releases/latest/download/linpeas.sh', 15)
end

When it happens

Trigger: Calling fetch(uri) (directly or via load_peass) with a URI that redirects more than 10 times, e.g. a redirect loop or a misconfigured custom WINPEASS/PEASS URL.

Common situations: Self-hosted mirror with a redirect loop (http->https->http), shortener services chaining many hops, stale DNS/proxy setups.

Related errors

• Something failed downloading PEASS script from #{url_peass}
• Neither curl nor wget were found in victim, unset the SRVHOS
• Invalid URL
• Network path is not allowed for directory junction: [{0}]
• MoveOptions.DelayUntilReboot is not allowed when using a net

AI-assisted analysis of peass-ng/PEASS-ng@53fb989abc (2026-09-02). Data as JSON: /api/errors/fe07cb6827570762. Report an issue: GitHub.