What causes "dialers not initialized for %s" in projectdiscovery/nuclei?

Ensure the code runs inside a nuclei execution with protocolstate initialized

dialers not initialized for %s

Error message

dialers not initialized for %s

What it means

detectSMBGhost (CVE-2020-0796 SMBv3.1.1 compression check) opens a raw TCP connection via protocolstate.GetDialersWithId(executionId). A nil dialer for the execution ID — engine state missing or disposed — produces this error before any packet is sent. Note the host allow-list check runs first, so policy denials surface as ErrHostDenied, not this.

Source

Thrown at pkg/js/libs/smb/smbghost.go:43

// ```javascript
// const smb = require('nuclei/smb');
// const isSMBGhost = smb.DetectSMBGhost('acme.com', 445);
// ```
func (c *SMBClient) DetectSMBGhost(ctx context.Context, host string, port int) (bool, error) {
	executionId := ctx.Value("executionId").(string)
	return memoizeddetectSMBGhost(ctx, executionId, host, port)
}

// @memo
func detectSMBGhost(ctx context.Context, executionId string, host string, port int) (bool, error) {
	if !protocolstate.IsHostAllowed(executionId, host) {
		// host is not valid according to network policy
		return false, protocolstate.ErrHostDenied.Msgf(host)
	}
	addr := net.JoinHostPort(host, strconv.Itoa(port))
	dialer := protocolstate.GetDialersWithId(executionId)
	if dialer == nil {
		return false, fmt.Errorf("dialers not initialized for %s", executionId)
	}
	conn, err := dialer.Fastdialer.Dial(ctx, "tcp", addr)
	if err != nil {
		return false, err

	}
	defer func() {
		_ = conn.Close()
	}()

	_, err = conn.Write([]byte(pkt))
	if err != nil {
		return false, err
	}
	buff, _ := reader.ConnReadNWithTimeout(conn, 4, time.Duration(5)*time.Second)
	args, err := structs.Unpack(">I", buff)
	if err != nil {
		return false, err

View on GitHub (pinned to 265b3a3dec)

Solutions

Ensure the code runs inside a nuclei execution with protocolstate initialized
Call protocolstate.InitProtocolState(ctx, options) before scanning in library mode
Set up dialers in test fixtures before invoking detectSMBGhost

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

if protocolstate.GetDialersWithId(executionId) == nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("engine not initialized; skip SMBGhost check")
}

Type guard

func dialersReady(executionId string) bool {
    return protocolstate.GetDialersWithId(executionId) != nil
}

Try / catch

vuln, err := client.DetectSMBGhost(ctx, host, 445)
if err != nil && strings.Contains(err.Error(), "dialers not initialized") {
    return err // state bug — distinguish from host-level detection errors
}

Prevention

Guarantee protocolstate initialization precedes any SMB detection call
Run detections inside the standard nuclei scan lifecycle only
Set up engine state in test fixtures before probing detection helpers

When it happens

Trigger: SMBGhost detection invoked in a runtime whose executionId has no registered dialers: uninitialized protocolstate, post-teardown execution, or a hand-rolled runtime outside the nuclei engine.

Common situations: Same family as the other dialer errors: SDK misuse, unit tests without engine fixtures, execution IDs from previous process runs.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of projectdiscovery/nuclei@265b3a3dec (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5daea1324e0cdf4c. Report an issue: GitHub.