Licensing

Feroxbuster Pro requires valid vendor-signed licensing artifacts installed from encrypted portal downloads.

The licensing flow is offline-first:

  • startup does not phone home
  • activation supports an offline challenge workflow
  • portal downloads are encrypted *.bin artifacts

Local artifact store

By default, Feroxbuster Pro stores licensing state in:

~/.config/feroxbuster-pro/artifacts.bin

artifacts.bin is machine-bound and written by the CLI during install.

Overrides:

  • flag: --artifacts-file PATH
  • env var: FEROXBUSTER_PRO_ARTIFACTS_FILE

CLI

Status

Show current licensing state:

feroxbuster-pro license status
feroxbuster-pro license status --json

Offline activation workflow

1. Generate challenge.bin on the target machine:

feroxbuster-pro license activate --offline --license-id <license_id>

2. Upload challenge.bin to the customer portal. 3. Download activation_bundle.zip. 4. Install the returned artifacts:

feroxbuster-pro license install /path/to/license.bin
feroxbuster-pro license install /path/to/activation.bin

If distributed runtime entitlement is enabled, also install:

feroxbuster-pro license install /path/to/attestation.ferox-agent.bin
feroxbuster-pro license install /path/to/attestation.ferox-tui.bin

Distributed Runtime entitlement currently covers 1 controller activation and up to 8 concurrently connected agents per controller. The controller enforces that limit from the signed license artifact.

Portal issuance and revocation

  • The portal issues vendor-signed artifacts and wraps them in encrypted *.bin payloads.
  • The portal bundle is challenge-first and machine-bound through the offline challenge flow.
  • Deactivation policy is enforced at issuance time; existing installed artifacts are not retroactively removed from disk.

Version and updates

feroxbuster-pro --version includes local license and update entitlement information.

Update checks are explicit and opt-in:

feroxbuster-pro update check
feroxbuster-pro update check --json

Security and integrity

  • Signed payloads are verified before install.
  • Encrypted portal artifacts must start with the expected encrypted prefix; plaintext JSON artifacts are rejected.
  • Activation is machine-bound: copying activation.bin to another machine fails validation.
  • activation_secret is treated as a credential and is never printed or logged.

Troubleshooting

"missing license/activation" or "not activated"

  • Ensure you installed both license.bin and activation.bin from the portal bundle.
  • Run feroxbuster-pro license status to inspect missing state.

"activation does not match this machine"

  • Regenerate challenge.bin on the machine you want to run on.
  • Upload the new challenge to the portal and reinstall the new activation.bin.

"I moved machines / reinstalled"

  • Generate a new offline challenge on the new machine.
  • Download a new bundle from the portal and reinstall the returned *.bin artifacts.