projectdiscovery/nuclei · warning

tree listing exceeded max entries (%d)

Error message

tree listing exceeded max entries (%d)

What it means

Thrown by the recursive walk in listTree when the entry budget is reached: before listing any directory, walk() checks len(out) >= maxEntries and aborts once the accumulated entry count equals the cap. maxEntries defaults to DefaultMaxTreeEntries (1024) when the caller passes 0 or a negative value. Note that on this error listTree returns the entries collected so far alongside the error, so partial results are available.

Source

Thrown at pkg/js/libs/smbsession/session.go:277

	if maxDepth <= 0 {
		maxDepth = DefaultMaxTreeDepth
	}
	if maxEntries <= 0 {
		maxEntries = DefaultMaxTreeEntries
	}
	normalized, err := NormalizeSharePath(root)
	if err != nil {
		return nil, err
	}
	if err := ops.UseShare(share); err != nil {
		return nil, fmt.Errorf("mount share %q: %w", share, err)
	}

	var out []Entry
	var walk func(rel string, depth int) error
	walk = func(rel string, depth int) error {
		if len(out) >= maxEntries {
			return fmt.Errorf("tree listing exceeded max entries (%d)", maxEntries)
		}
		infos, err := ops.Ls(rel)
		if err != nil {
			return err
		}
		for _, fi := range infos {
			name := fi.Name()
			if name == "." || name == ".." {
				continue
			}
			childRel := name
			if rel != "." && rel != "" {
				childRel = path.Join(rel, name)
			}
			entry := fileInfoToEntry(fi)
			entry.Name = childRel
			out = append(out, entry)
			if len(out) >= maxEntries {

View on GitHub (pinned to 265b3a3dec)

Solutions

1. Pass a larger explicit maxEntries (fourth ListTree argument) sized to the target share
2. Narrow the root to a specific subdirectory instead of walking from '/'
3. Use the partial entries returned with the error when completeness is not required

Example fix

// before
const tree = client.ListTree('C$', '/', 4, 0); // default 1024 entries

// after
const tree = client.ListTree('C$', '/inetpub', 4, 10000);

// size the budget before walking: default cap is 1024 entries
client.ListTree('pub', '/', 8, 8192);

let tree; try { tree = client.ListTree(s, '/', d, cap); } catch (e) { if (String(e).includes('max entries')) { /* partial tree returned with error: use it */ } else { throw e; } }

When it happens

Trigger: Walking a deep/wide share root (e.g. '/') with defaults on a file server with thousands of entries; passing a small explicit maxEntries like 50 for a busy directory; recursive trees where breadth multiplies fast (maxDepth defaults to 8).

Common situations: Templates enumerating whole shares for keyword searches; CIFS shares with huge directory counts hitting the 1024 default cap mid-walk.

Related errors

• file %q exceeds max read size of %d bytes
• mount share %q: %w
• file path cannot be empty
• smb connect: %w
• dialers not initialized for %s

AI-assisted analysis of projectdiscovery/nuclei@265b3a3dec (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/202815aa4e90343a. Report an issue: GitHub.