Troubleshooting

"Sintassi OK" but the tool exits silently

Make sure you didn't accidentally pipe stdin somewhere. Run with --no-html
first to see all console output.

"cryptography" import error

Install or upgrade:

py -m pip install --upgrade cryptography

"py is not recognized"

The Python launcher is not in PATH. Either:

• Reinstall Python from python.org with "Add Python to PATH" checked, or
• Use python instead of py.

"No module named modules"

You are running the script from outside the project root. cd into
ToolSicurezza/ first.

"Master key v10: failed"

Either your Local State is corrupted, or you're trying to read a profile
belonging to another user. Verify:

Get-Content "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\Google\Chrome\User Data\Local State" | Select-String "encrypted_key"

You should see a base64 string. If empty, the browser profile is not
initialised (browser hasn't been launched yet).

"DPAPI fail err=-2146893813 (0x8009000B)"

Translation: NTE_BAD_DATA. The blob you tried to decrypt is not valid
DPAPI data, or the data was encrypted with a different user's key.

If this happens in --aggressive mode, it likely means the blob format
has changed in a newer Chrome — please open an issue with your Chrome
version.

Aggressive mode: "schtasks /Create failed (/TR > 261 chars)"

This was a bug fixed in v3. We now use a .bat wrapper to keep the
/TR short. If you still see it, you're on an older build — pull
latest.

Aggressive mode: brute-force key not found

Expected on Chrome 131+. The v20 ABE has an additional Stratum 3
(chrome.dll constant) that prevents key recovery by SYSTEM-DPAPI alone.
Read HTML Report tab "ABE Timeline" for details.

"Wi-Fi profiles: 0" on a laptop

The tool detects wlansvc not running automatically. If the service is
actually running but you still get 0, try:

netsh wlan show profiles

If that command shows profiles but the tool still finds none, please
file an issue with the exact netsh output (with SSIDs redacted).

"External tools" tab shows "lazagne installed" but I never installed it

In v2 we had a false-positive on the LaZagne detection. v3 fixes this
using shutil.which + module-presence checks. If you still see false
positives, please file an issue.

Browser version detection fails

The tool tries multiple methods: registry keys, file VersionInfo of
the .exe, and EdgeUpdate for Edge. If all fail:

• Make sure the browser is installed via official installer (not a
  portable zip).
• Run as the same user who installed the browser.
• Try py -c "from modules.browser_versions import detect_chrome_version; print(detect_chrome_version())".

Online version check fails / "unavailable"

• Check internet connectivity.
• Try --force-tool-update to invalidate the cache.
• Some corporate networks block GitHub API or Mozilla's product-details
  endpoint. Use --no-online if so.

HTML report is 0 bytes / corrupted

Something errored after the file was opened but before content was
written. Run with --no-html to see if a Python exception is thrown,
and report it.

"Defender deleted my LaZagne install"

Expected. Defender flags LaZagne as PUA. Either:

• Don't install LaZagne (the default — our lazagne_light replaces
  most of it natively), or
• Add a Defender exclusion for the install path (only on dedicated
  audit machines).

Aggressive mode shows the elevated console for 1 second and closes

You're running with --no-pause. Remove that flag to keep the console
open. The log is also written to reports/audit_aggressive_*.log —
read it there.

"Permission denied" on reports/

The directory may be read-only or owned by a different user. Delete it
and let the tool re-create it:

Remove-Item -Recurse -Force reports
py infostealer_audit.py

How to get more debug output

Set environment variable PWD_AUDIT_DEBUG=1 (planned, not yet
implemented). For now, edit the script and add print() statements
where useful.

I see different results on different runs

Browser data changes constantly (you log in, you save passwords, you
clear data). That's normal. The version check is cached for 24h so
that part is stable.

How to report a bug

1. Update to the latest version: git pull.
2. Reproduce with py infostealer_audit.py --no-online --no-tools to
   eliminate network/installer variables.
3. Open an issue using the bug-report template in
   .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/bug_report.md.
4. Include OS version, Python version, browser version, exact command
   line, full console output (redact passwords).