Last week, I received an email from Tod B. at Rapid7 stating that the next binary installer of Metasploit would ship without Armitage and msfgui. Metasploit 4.6 drops both programs. According to Tod, the Metasploit Framework repository on Github will also drop both projects in the near future.

The reason given is that Rapid7 does not want to confuse users about which products they do and do not support.

When I released Armitage in November 2010, I had one simple goal–release something that would get into BackTrack Linux. I didn’t expect that it would make it into the Metasploit Framework. I even had a license scheme that prohibited it (GPLv2). HD Moore approached me and asked me to change my license to BSD. If I agreed to change my license, HD would ship Armitage with the Metasploit Framework. I never expected this and I always saw this distribution as a privilege, not a right.

Thank you HD and Rapid7 for making Armitage part of the Metasploit Framework for the past two years.

For the thousands of Armitage hackers out there, I’d like to clarify how this affects you. The short answer… this isn’t a big deal.

• I maintain Armitage and will continue to do so. I average one release every six weeks or so. In fact, I pushed a release yesterday.
• I do not have an automated update process for Armitage. You’ll have to download it from its homepage. You can signup to get an email notification when a new Armitage update is available.
• Armitage still works out of the box with a properly installed Metasploit environment. If you have Metasploit Community Edition setup, you can download Armitage, extract it, and run it. It will work like it always has.
• You can use Armitage with Kali Linux as well.
• If you’d like to support my work, Cobalt Strike is the way to do it. Check that it supports your needs first (I’m a value in exchange for value kind of hacker). If Cobalt Strike isn’t for you, but you still love Armitage, a simple thank you is good too.

The Armitage homepage is still http://www.fastandeasyhacking.com/