# DominicBreuker/pspy

Monitor linux processes without root permissions

Repository: https://github.com/DominicBreuker/pspy
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/pspy
Language: Go
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: ctf, pentesting, privesc, enumeration, golang, security
Last push: 2026-03-01T09:06:16+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 54/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 70, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3128, "days_push": 185, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 6155, forks 568 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:36.677786+00:00)

## What it is
pspy is a command line tool that snoops on Linux processes without root permissions by combining procfs scans with inotify watchers to catch short-lived processes. It reveals commands run by other users, such as cron jobs, making it popular for CTF enumeration and privilege escalation discovery.

## Use cases
- monitor linux processes without root
- find cron jobs running on a server
- enumerate a ctf box for privesc opportunities
- catch short-lived processes other users run
- demonstrate why passing secrets as cli arguments is unsafe
- discover scheduled tasks during pentesting

## When to choose
- you need unprivileged visibility into other users' processes on linux
- you are doing ctf or pentest privilege escalation enumeration
- you want a static binary that runs anywhere without dependencies

## When to avoid
- you need root-level process auditing or syscall tracing (use auditd or strace)
- you are on a non-linux platform
- you need persistent monitoring with alerting rather than ad-hoc snooping

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: monitoring, security, cli
- domain: security, penetration-testing, operating-systems
- platform: cli
- tags: privesc, ctf, process-monitoring, procfs, inotify, pentesting, enumeration, command-line, linux

## Member repositories
- DominicBreuker/pspy (main) score 54

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:36.677786+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 2026-08-29T17:47:30.266798+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/DominicBreuker/pspy (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:36.677786+00:00, sha f0a4a5089189)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.