network-ops 2.0: multi-agent pipeline + tool gap fills by mkultraWasHere · Pull Request #78 · dreadnode/capabilities

mkultraWasHere · 2026-07-08T16:03:15Z

Restructure network-ops from a single monolithic agent into a coordinated multi-agent pipeline following the ASM pattern, then fill critical tool gaps.

Added

Worker-coordinated pipeline with 6 stages: scope normalization → network discovery → AD enumeration → exploitation → credential harvesting → report synthesis (workers/coordinator.py)
6 pipeline agents in agents/pipeline/ — each scoped to a single phase with explicit stage boundaries
network-ops-agent updated with pipeline-vs-direct decision criteria, skill references, and specific tool names
run_netops_pipeline tool for programmatic pipeline invocation (tools/pipeline.py)
3 skills: network-ops-methodology (hard rules, confidence levels, anti-patterns), ad-enumeration-playbook (decision tree, tool mapping), ad-attack-patterns (attack chain sequences, coercion/relay/lateral movement method selection)
5 lateral movement tools wrapping existing impacket scripts: impacket_wmiexec, impacket_psexec, impacket_smbexec, impacket_atexec, impacket_dcomexec
Coercion toolset (tools/coercion.py) wrapping PetitPotam (MS-EFSRPC), DFSCoerce (MS-DFSNM), ShadowCoerce (MS-FSRVP)
smb_upload_file on SmbClient for staging files to remote shares
20 coordinator unit tests covering scope validation, finding extraction, prompt data threading, and naming conventions

Changed

capability.yaml bumped to 2.0.0 with agents/, skills/, tools/, workers/ auto-load sections and loguru dependency
_extract_findings in coordinator filters to credentials, hashes, and weaknesses only — drops enumeration noise
Agent turn timeout raised from 45s to 300s; stage budget caps raised to realistic levels (6/30/40/50/30/10)
Timeout detection uses a [NETOPS_STAGE_TIMEOUT] sentinel instead of substring matching

Fixed

smbclient methods now check binary existence before executing, returning an install hint instead of a raw traceback
Coercion tool wrappers validate script paths via _resolve_script() with clear FileNotFoundError messages
Pipeline tool (tools/pipeline.py) stubs loguru when loading coordinator in-process, preventing ModuleNotFoundError

Notes

network-ops-agent name preserved for backwards compatibility — existing TUI selections and configs continue to work
Agent stage boundaries are documented but not runtime-enforced — agents see all 118 tools
Coercion and lateral movement tools require their underlying binaries/scripts installed (impacket, PetitPotam, DFSCoerce, ShadowCoerce, smbclient)
No integration tests against live AD — coordinator unit tests cover pure logic only

Decompose the monolithic network-ops-agent into a 6-stage coordinated pipeline following the attack-surface-management pattern. Adds worker coordinator, pipeline launcher tool, methodology and tactical skills, and specialized pipeline agents for each phase of AD exploitation. - Replace single agent with netops-operator (standalone) + 6 pipeline agents (scope-normalizer, discovery-operator, ad-enumerator, exploit-operator, credential-harvester, report-synthesizer) - Add coordinator worker with event-driven orchestration, stage budgets, timeout handling, and deterministic synthesis fallback - Add run_netops_pipeline tool for programmatic pipeline invocation - Add 3 skills: network-ops-methodology (hard rules, confidence levels, anti-patterns), ad-enumeration-playbook (decision tree, tool mapping), ad-attack-patterns (attack chain sequences) - Add coordinator unit tests (20 tests covering scope validation, finding extraction, prompt threading, naming conventions) - Bump to 2.0.0 (breaking: new pipeline architecture) Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

Wrap five impacket remote execution scripts that were available but not exposed as tool methods: wmiexec, psexec, smbexec, atexec, and dcomexec. These fill the critical gap where the agent could recover credentials and confirm admin access but had no way to execute commands on remote hosts. Update exploit-operator and credential-harvester stage boundaries and add lateral movement method selection guidance to the ad-attack-patterns skill. Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

Add Coercion toolset wrapping PetitPotam (MS-EFSRPC), DFSCoerce (MS-DFSNM), and ShadowCoerce (MS-FSRVP) for authentication coercion in relay attack chains. Add smb_upload_file to SmbClient for staging files on remote shares. Update ad-attack-patterns skill with NTLM relay chain, coercion method selection table, and exploit-operator stage boundaries. Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

All three SmbClient methods now verify smbclient is on PATH before executing, returning a clear install hint instead of a raw traceback. Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

This PR upgrades the network-ops capability to a 2.0 multi-agent “ASM-style” pipeline coordinated by a worker, adds an agent-facing launcher tool, and fills key AD attack tooling gaps (lateral movement + coercion), along with methodology/playbook skills.

Changes:

Added a 6-stage worker-coordinated pipeline (netops.engagement.* events) with per-stage agents and unit tests for coordinator logic.
Added an agent tool to launch/monitor the pipeline (run_netops_pipeline) and introduced a new netops-operator agent (replacing network-ops-agent).
Expanded tooling for real engagements: SMB upload support, new Impacket lateral-movement wrappers, and RPC coercion wrappers.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 18 out of 18 changed files in this pull request and generated 5 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
capabilities/network-ops/workers/coordinator.py	New worker coordinating the staged multi-agent pipeline and report synthesis.
capabilities/network-ops/tools/smbclient.py	Adds smbclient binary checks and introduces SMB upload support.
capabilities/network-ops/tools/pipeline.py	Adds `run_netops_pipeline` launcher + runtime monitoring + direct coordinator fallback import.
capabilities/network-ops/tools/impacket.py	Adds lateral movement wrappers (wmiexec/psexec/smbexec/atexec/dcomexec).
capabilities/network-ops/tools/coercion.py	Adds coercion wrappers for PetitPotam/DFSCoerce/ShadowCoerce.
capabilities/network-ops/tests/test_worker_coordinator.py	Adds unit tests for coordinator scope handling, prompt threading, findings extraction, and utilities.
capabilities/network-ops/skills/network-ops-methodology/SKILL.md	Adds methodology “hard rules” + confidence/severity standards for netops.
capabilities/network-ops/skills/ad-enumeration-playbook/SKILL.md	Adds AD enumeration decision tree and tool mapping.
capabilities/network-ops/skills/ad-attack-patterns/SKILL.md	Adds AD attack-chain reference with coercion/lateral movement guidance.
capabilities/network-ops/capability.yaml	Bumps to 2.0.0 and enables auto-loading for agents/skills/tools/workers + adds loguru dep.
capabilities/network-ops/agents/pipeline/scope-normalizer.md	New dedicated scope normalization pipeline agent.
capabilities/network-ops/agents/pipeline/discovery-operator.md	New dedicated discovery/scanning pipeline agent.
capabilities/network-ops/agents/pipeline/ad-enumerator.md	New dedicated AD enumeration pipeline agent.
capabilities/network-ops/agents/pipeline/exploit-operator.md	New dedicated exploitation pipeline agent (pre-harvest).
capabilities/network-ops/agents/pipeline/credential-harvester.md	New dedicated credential dumping/cracking/verification pipeline agent.
capabilities/network-ops/agents/pipeline/report-synthesizer.md	New dedicated report synthesis pipeline agent.
capabilities/network-ops/agents/network-ops-agent.md	Removes the legacy monolithic agent (breaking change).
capabilities/network-ops/agents/netops-operator.md	Adds replacement operator agent with pipeline-vs-direct decision criteria + skill references.

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

Keep the user-facing agent name as network-ops-agent to avoid breaking existing TUI selections and saved configurations. Pipeline agents use the netops-* prefix internally but the standalone agent name stays the same as 1.x. Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

- Restore loguru stub in sys.modules after coordinator import (pipeline.py) - Fix max_steps docstring: per-stage clamp, not total budget (pipeline.py) - Sanitize SMB paths to prevent smbclient command injection via ; and ! - Guard local_path against UnboundLocalError in smb_upload_file finally - Include real repo URLs in coercion _resolve_script error messages Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 17 out of 17 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

mkultraWasHere · 2026-07-08T17:30:35Z

+
+    # --- Stage 2: Network Discovery ---
+    await _publish_progress(client, run_id, "discovery_started")
+    discovery_report, _ = await _run_agent_turn(


Partially confirmed. Discovery tool_calls intentionally stay discarded — discovery only reports Targets/Services/DCs which _extract_findings filters out anyway. Fixed enumeration in 3f50678 since it can report Weakness items (unconstrained delegation, writable ACLs).

mkultraWasHere · 2026-07-08T17:30:38Z

+    # --- Stage 6: Report Synthesis ---
+    await _publish_progress(client, run_id, "report_synthesis_started")
+
+    all_tool_calls = exploit_tool_calls + harvest_tool_calls


Fixed in 3f50678 — all_tool_calls now includes enumeration_tool_calls + exploit_tool_calls + harvest_tool_calls. Discovery stays excluded since it only produces Target/Service/DC items that _extract_findings filters out.

Enumeration stage can report Weakness items via report_item (e.g., unconstrained delegation, writable ACLs). These were discarded with `_` and not included in the structured findings for synthesis. Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

Copilot

Pull request overview

Copilot reviewed 17 out of 17 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

mkultraWasHere · 2026-07-08T18:06:18Z

+@worker.on_event(REQUEST_EVENT)
+async def run_engagement(event: EventEnvelope, client: RuntimeClient) -> None:
+    """Run one network operations engagement pipeline end to end."""
+    payload = event.payload or {}


Refuted. EventEnvelope.payload is typed dict | None in the dreadnode framework — the runtime never delivers non-dict payloads. The or {} handles the None case. ASM's coordinator uses the identical pattern at line 69.

mkultraWasHere · 2026-07-08T18:06:20Z

+        args.extend(
+            self._build_auth_flags(
+                hashes=hashes, kerberos=kerberos, aes_key=aes_key, password=password
+            )
+        )
+        args.extend(self._build_connection_flags(dc_ip=dc_ip, target_ip=target_ip))
+
+        return await execute(
+            self._build_script_command("wmiexec.py", args),
+            timeout=timeout or self.timeout + 60,
+            input=input,
+            env=env,
+        )


Fixed in 6c48209 — sends exit\n via stdin when no command is given, so the shell terminates and returns the banner promptly.

mkultraWasHere · 2026-07-08T18:06:21Z

+        identity = self._build_identity_with_target(
+            target, domain=domain, username=username, password=password
+        )
+
+        args = [identity]
+        if command:
+            args.append(command)
+


Fixed in 6c48209 — same exit\n stdin pattern applied to psexec for consistency with wmiexec and dcomexec.

mkultraWasHere · 2026-07-08T18:06:23Z

+        args.extend(
+            self._build_auth_flags(
+                hashes=hashes, kerberos=kerberos, aes_key=aes_key, password=password
+            )
+        )
+        args.extend(self._build_connection_flags(dc_ip=dc_ip, target_ip=target_ip))
+
+        return await execute(
+            self._build_script_command("dcomexec.py", args),
+            timeout=timeout or self.timeout + 60,
+            input=input,
+            env=env,
+        )


Fixed in 6c48209 — sends exit\n via stdin when command=None, matching the wmiexec fix.

wmiexec, psexec, and dcomexec hang until timeout when called without a command since the underlying scripts launch an interactive shell. Now send exit via stdin when no command is given so the process terminates and returns the banner promptly. Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

mkultraWasHere and others added 4 commits July 7, 2026 17:24

fix(network-ops): add smbclient binary existence check

f8a6689

All three SmbClient methods now verify smbclient is on PATH before executing, returning a clear install hint instead of a raw traceback. Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

mkultraWasHere requested a review from Copilot July 8, 2026 16:07

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of mkultraWasHere July 8, 2026 16:08 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 8, 2026

View reviewed changes

mkultraWasHere and others added 2 commits July 8, 2026 12:19

mkultraWasHere requested a review from Copilot July 8, 2026 17:08

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of mkultraWasHere July 8, 2026 17:09 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 8, 2026

View reviewed changes

mkultraWasHere requested a review from Copilot July 8, 2026 17:40

Copilot started reviewing on behalf of mkultraWasHere July 8, 2026 17:40 View session

Copilot AI reviewed Jul 8, 2026

View reviewed changes

Provide feedback

Saved searches

Use saved searches to filter your results more quickly

Uh oh!

network-ops 2.0: multi-agent pipeline + tool gap fills#78

network-ops 2.0: multi-agent pipeline + tool gap fills#78
mkultraWasHere wants to merge 8 commits into
mainfrom
nops/ma

mkultraWasHere commented Jul 8, 2026 •

edited

Loading

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

Uh oh!

Conversation

mkultraWasHere commented Jul 8, 2026 • edited Loading Uh oh! There was an error while loading. Please reload this page.

Uh oh!

Added

Changed

Fixed

Notes

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Reviewed changes

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Copilot AI left a comment

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Pull request overview

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

mkultraWasHere Jul 8, 2026

Choose a reason for hiding this comment

Uh oh!

Reviewers

Assignees

Labels

Projects

Milestone

Development

Uh oh!

2 participants

mkultraWasHere commented Jul 8, 2026 •

edited

Loading