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Installing an Older Version of Impacket (0.10.0)

4 min read

Impacket 0.10.0 came out on May 4, 2022, and it’s the release that dropped Python 2.7 support. Since it’s a couple of years old now, the main thing that trips people up isn’t Impacket itself , it’s modern systems (Kali, Ubuntu 24.04, Debian 12) blocking global pip installs and shipping a newer Python than 0.10.0 was built against. The fix for both is the same: install it inside a virtual environment. That also keeps it from clobbering the Impacket that Kali already ships system-wide.

Here’s the beginner-friendly path.

Why pin an old version?

Some tools, courses, or lab guides depend on behavior from a specific Impacket release, and a newer version can subtly break them. Pinning to 0.10.0 guarantees you get exactly that release instead of whatever is latest.

Method 1: Virtual environment + pip (recommended)

A virtual environment (“venv”) is just an isolated folder with its own Python and packages, so nothing you install leaks into the rest of your system.

1. Make a folder and create the venv:

mkdir ~/impacket-0.10 && cd ~/impacket-0.10
python3 -m venv venv

2. Activate it (you’ll see (venv) appear in your prompt):

source venv/bin/activate

3. Install the exact version:

pip install impacket==0.10.0

The version specifier impacket==0.10.0 is what pins it to that specific release instead of grabbing the latest.

4. Verify it worked:

pip show impacket

You should see Version: 0.10.0. The example tools (secretsdump.py, GetUserSPNs.py, wmiexec.py, etc.) are now on your PATH while the venv is active , running any of them prints a banner like Impacket v0.10.0 at the top.

When you’re done, type deactivate to leave the venv. To use it again later, just cd ~/impacket-0.10 && source venv/bin/activate.

Method 2: From GitHub source

Use this if you want to inspect or modify the code.

git clone https://github.com/fortra/impacket.git
cd impacket
git checkout impacket_0_10_0
python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
pip install .

git checkout impacket_0_10_0 rewinds the repo to the exact 0.10.0 tag before installing.

Method 3: pipx (cleanest if you just want the tools globally)

If you don’t want to manually activate a venv every time but still want isolation, pipx handles the venv for you and puts the commands on your PATH permanently:

sudo apt install pipx    # if you don't have it
pipx install impacket==0.10.0

Common problems

error: externally-managed-environment

This means you tried to pip install into the system Python (outside a venv). Modern Debian-based distros block that on purpose. Just use one of the venv/pipx methods above and the error goes away.

Build errors on Python 3.12+

If you see errors mentioning distutils or setuptools, it’s because Python 3.12 removed some modules that older packages expect. Two easy fixes:

  • Upgrade the build tools inside your venv first: pip install --upgrade pip setuptools wheel, then retry.
  • Or create the venv with an older interpreter if you have one installed: python3.10 -m venv venv.

command not found for the scripts

The example tools only work while the venv is activated (Methods 1–2). If your prompt doesn’t show (venv), re-run source venv/bin/activate. With pipx (Method 3) they work anywhere.

Pinning it in a requirements.txt (reproducible labs)

If you’re building a lab, sharing a setup with students or teammates, or just want to be able to rebuild the exact same environment later, a requirements.txt is the cleanest way to do it. It’s a plain text file listing the packages (and versions) you want, so anyone can recreate your environment with a single command.

1. Create the file:

echo "impacket==0.10.0" > requirements.txt

Or open it in an editor and add one package per line:

impacket==0.10.0

2. Install from it (inside an activated venv):

python3 -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Now anyone who has your requirements.txt gets the identical Impacket version, no guesswork.

Capture the whole environment

Once everything works, you can freeze every installed package , including Impacket’s own dependencies , so the environment is byte-for-byte reproducible:

pip freeze > requirements.txt

This overwrites the file with the full pinned dependency tree (e.g. impacket==0.10.0, pyasn1==..., pycryptodomex==..., and so on). Commit it alongside your lab notes so future-you can rebuild the exact same setup.

Bonus: hash-pinned installs

For maximum reproducibility (and to defend against a dependency being tampered with upstream), you can pin cryptographic hashes and require them at install time:

pip install --require-hashes -r requirements.txt

This only works if every line in the file includes a --hash=sha256:... entry. Tools like pip-compile (from pip-tools) can generate those for you.

That’s it , 0.10.0 installed cleanly in an isolated environment, plus a requirements.txt you can hand to anyone to reproduce it exactly.

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