Impacket
Impacket is a Python collection of classes and example scripts for working with network protocols such as SMB, Kerberos and MSRPC, widely used in Active Directory assessments.
Legal & ethical use. Active Directory attacks against real corporate domains without written authorisation are illegal. Use this tool only on systems, networks and data that you own or have explicit written permission to test. Unauthorised access or scanning can break computer-misuse laws (for example Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, and equivalents elsewhere). Practise in your own lab or in authorised environments such as CTFs.
What it is used for
- Test SMB/Kerberos configuration in an authorised Active Directory lab
- Understand protocol-level behaviour by reading the example scripts
Key features
- Protocol implementations in Python
- Many ready-to-use example scripts
- Used by other tools
Installation
Install with pipx/pip (`pipx install impacket`) or from your distribution.
Beginner usage guide
Practise only in a lab domain you built; read each example script's help before running it.
Example commands
Run these only against your own lab or authorised targets. Placeholder addresses such as 192.0.2.x are documentation ranges.
List options of an example script
impacket-smbclient -hShows the options of the SMB client example (the script prefix may differ between installations).
Keep learning
🎓 Learning path: Active Directory
References
Source verification
Last reviewed: 2026-10-27
Links checked over HTTP: 2026-10-27 07:51 UTC — official: 200, docs: 200, repo: 200
Commands were written from the official documentation and have not been executed on this site; test them in your lab.