Timeout can´t be edited in abilities yaml file in Caldera 5.3.0

[mgonzcast]

Not sure it is a bug, I am using Caldera 5.3.0 under Kali 2025.2 I have to check previous versions of Caldera

I am trying to run an operation of Oilrig. Some abilities timeout and after checking the github issues, some people mentioned you can edit the yml file under the abilities folder

If I go to a certain ability, i.e. oilrig mimikatz download under ./plugins/emu/data/abilities/command-and-control/f96e8195-8b0f-4b87-bdce-748dfda2861f.yml

It doesn´t matter whether I edit the file manually or through the GUI in abilities -> OilRig Download Mimikatz (Kali Agent), everytime I restart Caldera, the timeout is reverted to 60 seconds instead of the 360 seconds I set.

Is there any way to change timeouts (several abilities timed out) that stick after reboots?

[github-actions]

Looks like your first issue -- we aim to respond to issues as quickly as possible. In the meantime, check out our documentation here: http://caldera.readthedocs.io/

[uruwhy]

Hi @mgonzcast , thanks for bringing this up. Have you seen this behavior with abilities in other plugins (e.g. stockpile) or user-created abilities? Or does this only happen with abilities in the emu plugin? I suspect the emu plugin may be rebuliding the abilities from scratch every time the server starts, which we would have to circumvent by adding a check to make sure the plugin service doesn't overwrite existing abilities

[mgonzcast]

Hi @mgonzcast , thanks for bringing this up. Have you seen this behavior with abilities in other plugins (e.g. stockpile) or user-created abilities? Or does this only happen with abilities in the emu plugin? I suspect the emu plugin may be rebuliding the abilities from scratch every time the server starts, which we would have to circumvent by adding a check to make sure the plugin service doesn't overwrite existing abilities

Thanks for answering me here and at discord!

I have managed to change the timeout for all the abilities here:

app/service/data_svc.py: timeout = executor.get('timeout', 360)

instead of the default 60 seconds. I had to rebuild caldera and now it´s persistent. I guess this kind of manual tweaks are not the right way to do it but I needed to continue working on my issues of the Oilrig emulation which some I reported here

Now all the abilities (not only the emu plugins abilities) use 360 seconds as default in my Caldera server. I have tried to change the timeout through the GUI i.e. for ability "Modify Registry of Current User Profile - cmd" to 560 seconds and it persists after reboots but If I try to change an ability from EMU plugin "Oilrig SQL Admins Group Discovery" doesn´t persist after the reboot, so you might be right it might be the EMU plugin.

[uruwhy]

closing since this is due to an issue specific to the emu plugin and is currently undergoing resolution there:

mitre/emu#48