# EmpireProject/Empire

Empire is a PowerShell and Python post-exploitation agent.

Repository: https://github.com/EmpireProject/Empire
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/empire
Homepage: http://www.powershellempire.com/
Language: PowerShell
License: BSD-3-Clause
License Family: permissive
Archived: true
Last push: 2020-01-19T22:50:59+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4046, "days_push": 2418, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7863, forks 2932 (observed 2026-08-28T04:10:07.982341+00:00)

## What it is
Empire is a post-exploitation framework with a pure PowerShell Windows agent and a pure Python Linux/OS X agent, offering encrypted communications and deployable post-exploitation modules like keyloggers and Mimikatz. The project is no longer supported, with the last release in January 2020.

## Use cases
- run a command and control server for red team operations
- deploy post-exploitation agents on windows and linux targets
- run powershell agents without powershell.exe
- collect credentials with mimikatz during penetration tests
- evade network detection with encrypted c2 communications
- log keystrokes on compromised hosts

## When to choose
- you need a battle-tested C2 framework for authorized red team engagements and can accept an unmaintained codebase
- you want pure PowerShell or Python agents without touching powershell.exe
- you are studying offensive tooling or C2 architecture

## When to avoid
- you need maintained software with security patches - the project is officially unsupported since 2020
- you need a modern C2 with current evasion capabilities against up-to-date defenders
- you want Python 3 support - Empire relies on Python 2.6/2.7
- you are doing defensive security work rather than authorized offensive testing

## Facets
- artifact type: framework
- maturity: abandoned
- function: security, penetration-testing, cryptography, cli
- domain: security, penetration-testing
- platform: windows, python, cli
- tags: post-exploitation, c2, red-team, powershell, command-and-control, offensive-security, unsupported, command-line, linux, macos, docker

## Member repositories
- EmpireProject/Empire (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:07.982341+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 2026-08-29T17:33:45.946640+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/EmpireProject/Empire (fetched 2026-08-28T04:10:07.982341+00:00, sha 6538d5698d25)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.