Executable nuclei not found in release asset after partial download timeout during nuclei -up

[AnonymoushackerxD]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues.

Current Behavior

Running nuclei -up starts downloading the latest release asset but stops partway through (~75%). After the download times out, the updater exits with the following error:

29.00 MiB / 38.54 MiB [------------------------------------------>_____________] 75.24% 1.17 MiB p/s
[updater] executable nuclei not found in release asset 329277642 got:
cause="context deadline exceeded (Client.Timeout or context cancellation while reading body)"
chain="failed to read response body"

The error message suggests the executable is missing from the release asset, but the failure appears to be caused by a partial or timed-out download.

Expected Behavior

The updater should:

• Detect incomplete or timed-out downloads explicitly

• Report a clear download timeout or network error

• Avoid validating a partially downloaded release asset

• Optionally retry or clean up the partial download before failing

Steps To Reproduce

Steps

1. Run nuclei -up
2. Allow the GitHub release asset download to partially complete
3. Download stalls or times out mid-transfer
4. Updater exits with a misleading “executable nuclei not found in release asset” error

Relevant log output

### Relevant Log Output
[updater] executable nuclei not found in release asset `329277642`  
cause="context deadline exceeded (Client.Timeout or context cancellation while reading body)"  
chain="failed to read response body"

Environment

OS: Kali GNU/Linux Rolling 2025.4 (x86_64)  
Kernel: Linux 6.16.8+kali-amd64  
Nuclei: v3.6.0  
Binary: Prebuilt ELF 64-bit, statically linked  
Go: go1.22.5 linux/amd64  
/
OTHER WINDOWS 11

Anything else?

Confirmation / Debug Details

Path: /root/osmedeus-base/binaries/nuclei
ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, statically linked

[INF] Nuclei Engine Version: v3.6.0

Manually downloading and installing the same release asset from GitHub works correctly, indicating the release asset itself is valid. The issue appears specific to the updater’s handling of partial or timed-out downloads, and the resulting error message is misleading.

[dogancanbakir]

I couldn' repro this

$ nuclei -up

                     __     _
   ____  __  _______/ /__  (_)
  / __ \/ / / / ___/ / _ \/ /
 / / / / /_/ / /__/ /  __/ /
/_/ /_/\__,_/\___/_/\___/_/   v3.6.0

		projectdiscovery.io

36.78 MiB / 36.78 MiB [------------------------------------------------------] 100.00% 10.66 MiB p/s
[INF] Verified Integrity of nuclei_3.6.1_macOS_arm64.zip

[INF] nuclei sucessfully updated 3.6.0 -> 3.6.1 (latest)
...

Could this be an internet connection problem? Is this happening all the time?

[AnonymoushackerxD]

[AnonymoushackerxD]

Screen Recording 2025-12-17 212738.zip

[AnonymoushackerxD]

any update?

[dogancanbakir]

I'm still not able to repro this. Could you try with https://github.com/projectdiscovery/pdtm ?

[dogancanbakir]

@AnonymoushackerxD Have you tried this?

[AnonymoushackerxD]

Now working fine

[AnonymoushackerxD]

@dogancanbakir ?