# mandiant/commando-vm

Complete Mandiant Offensive VM (Commando VM), a fully customizable Windows-based pentesting virtual machine distribution. commandovm@mandiant.com

Repository: https://github.com/mandiant/commando-vm
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/commando-vm
Homepage: https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/commando-vm-windows-offensive-distribution
Language: PowerShell
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: penetration-testing, red-teaming, windows, fireeye-flare
Last push: 2025-10-16T04:00:43+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 53/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 47, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2717, "days_push": 321, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7791, forks 1365 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:05.042469+00:00)

## What it is
Commando VM is a fully customizable Windows-based security distribution for penetration testing and red teaming, packaged as a PowerShell installer that provisions a large set of offensive tools. It complements Kali Linux by highlighting Windows as an attack platform with tools not included there.

## Use cases
- set up a windows pentesting vm
- build a red team attack workstation
- install offensive security tools on windows
- alternative to kali linux for windows-based testing
- customize a penetration testing environment
- provision a security testing virtual machine

## When to choose
- you need Windows-native offensive tooling not found in Kali Linux
- you want a pre-packaged, customizable red team VM
- your testing targets Windows/Active Directory environments

## When to avoid
- you need a Linux-based pentest environment
- you cannot disable Windows Defender or run as administrator
- you want a lightweight setup - it requires 60+ GB disk and significant resources

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: active
- function: penetration-testing, security, developer-tools, cli
- domain: penetration-testing, security, windows
- platform: windows, cli
- tags: red-teaming, offensive-security, vm-distribution, powershell, mandiant, pentest-toolkit

## Member repositories
- mandiant/commando-vm (main) score 53

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:05.042469+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:34:39.352421+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/mandiant/commando-vm (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:05.042469+00:00, sha 20ec2e4323b6)
  - homepage: https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/commando-vm-windows-offensive-distribution (fetched 2026-08-29T08:30:56.503062+00:00, sha c7bd89bea0fa)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.