acido 0.53.0

Azure Container Instance Distributed Operations

acido  🔥

The open-source engine powering Secrets by Merabytes™
Disrupting how secrets, tokens, and one-time credentials are shared — forever.

acido isn’t just another CLI tool. It’s the backbone of an infrastructure-first rethink of how secrets, tokens and one-time credentials are built, deployed and consumed.

Already powering Secrets by Merabytes™ — the first truly open-source secret-sharing app — acido installs like a developer tool and scales like an enterprise service.

Deploy fleets of workloads on Azure Container Instances in minutes.

Leverage full transparency: open source, auditable, no lock-in.

Built for the next generation of identity, secrets and “one-time everything”.

Whether you’re building a secure secret-sharing system, a distributor of short-lived credentials, or simply pushing containerised tasks to the edge — acido gives you the power, the scale and the freedom of open source.

Table of Contents

• Why Acido?
• Installation
• Quick Start
• CLI Reference
• Examples
  • IP Address Routing
  • Port Forwarding (Bidirectional Connectivity)
• Docker Usage
• AWS Lambda Support
  • REST API Client (acido-client)
• GitHub Self-Hosted Runners
• Secrets Sharing Service
• Credits

Why Acido?

Speed: Distribute scans across 10, 50, or 100+ containers. What takes 24 hours on one machine completes in minutes with parallelization.

Cost-Effective: Pay only when scanning. Spin up 100 containers for 30 minutes, then destroy them - no idle infrastructure costs.

Tool Support: Works with any containerized security tool (nmap, masscan, Nuclei, Nikto, gowitness, etc.).

Simple: Split targets automatically, deploy containers, collect results, cleanup - all automated.

+---------------------------+
| 1. Prepare targets file   |
|    urls.txt               |
+------------+--------------+
             |
             v
+---------------------------+
| 2. Configure (first time) |
|    acido configure        |
+------------+--------------+
             |
             v
+-----------------------------+
| 3. Create nuclei image      |
|    `acido create nuclei     |
|    --image projectdiscovery/|
|          nuclei:latest`     |
+------------+----------------+
             |
             v
+----------------------------------------------+
| 4. Run distributed scan fleet                |
|    ` acido fleet nuclei-scan                 |
|      -n 10                                   |
|      -im nuclei                              |
|      -t "nuclei -list input"                 |
|      -i urls.txt                             |
|      -o results                              |
|      --rm-when-done (optional auto cleanup)` |
+------------+---------------------------------+
             |
             v
+---------------------------+
| 5. View results           |
|    Open 'results' file    |
+------------+--------------+
             |
             v
+------------------------+
| 6. Cleanup acido fleet |-- Yes (auto --rm-when-done)
+------------------------+
             |
        No   v
+---------------------------+
| Manual cleanup            |
| `acido rm nuclei-scan`    |
+---------------------------+

(If --rm-when-done was used, skip manual cleanup.)

Inspired by axiom.

Installation

Prerequisites:

• Python 3.7+
• Azure account (free tier works)

Quick Setup in Azure Cloud Shell

1. Open Azure Cloud Shell:

   • Go to Azure Portal and click the Cloud Shell icon (>_)

2. Run the install script:

   curl -o install.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/merabytes/acido/main/install.sh
   chmod +x install.sh
   
   # Replace SUB_ID with your Azure Subscription ID
   ./install.sh \
     -s SUB_ID \
     -g acido-rg \
     -l eastus \
     -p acido \
     -a acidocr \
     -S acidostore123 \
     --show-secret \
     --emit-env-file acido.env \
     --create-rg
   

   This creates: Service Principal, ACR, Storage Account, blob container, and generates a complete environment file.

3. Load environment and install:

   source acido.env
   pip install acido
   

4. You're ready! All Azure credentials are configured via environment variables.

Quick Start

1. Create scanning image from GitHub:

acido create https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei

2. Run distributed scan:

echo -e "example.com\ntest.com" > targets.txt
acido fleet nuclei-scan -n 3 -im nuclei -t 'nuclei -list input' -i targets.txt

3. Manage containers:

acido ls              # List all instances
acido rm nuclei-scan  # Remove specific fleet

4. Manage IP addresses:

acido ip create pentest-ip   # Create IPv4 address
acido ip ls                  # List all IPs
acido ip rm pentest-ip       # Remove IP address

CLI Reference

Core Commands

# Create images
acido create https://github.com/projectdiscovery/nuclei
acido create nmap --image nmap:latest

# Deploy fleet
acido fleet <name> -n <count> -im <image> -t '<command>' -i <input-file>

# Manage containers
acido ls                    # List all instances
acido rm <name>             # Remove instances

# Manage IP addresses
acido ip create <name>      # Create IPv4 address
acido ip ls                 # List all IPs
acido ip rm <name>          # Remove IP
acido ip select             # Select IP interactively

Examples

Distributed Scanning

# Nuclei scan across 10 containers
acido fleet nuclei-scan -n 10 -im nuclei -t 'nuclei -list input' -i urls.txt

# Nmap scan with auto-cleanup
acido fleet nmap-scan -n 5 -im nmap -t 'nmap -iL input -p-' -i targets.txt --rm-when-done

Container Management

# List all running instances
acido ls

# Remove specific fleet
acido rm nuclei-scan

# Remove all matching pattern
acido rm 'scan-*'

IP Address Routing

# Create standalone public IP (no NAT Gateway stack)
acido ip create my-ip

# Create public IP with full NAT Gateway stack for egress
acido ip create nat-ip --with-nat-stack

# Select IP for use with containers
acido ip select

# Deploy with IP routing (containers use selected IP for egress)
acido fleet scan -n 10 -im nmap -t 'nmap -iL input' -i targets.txt

# List all IPs (shows NAT stack indicator)
acido ip ls

# Clean IP configuration from local config
acido ip clean

# Cleanup
acido ip rm my-ip

Port Forwarding (Bidirectional Connectivity)

Acido supports bidirectional connectivity for containers that need to accept inbound connections (e.g., VoIP servers, game servers, SSH bastions).

Key Concepts:

• Default behavior: Containers use NAT Gateway for egress-only (no changes to existing workflows)
• Bidirectional mode: Use --bidirectional flag with acido run to enable inbound connectivity
• Public IP assignment: Bidirectional containers get a dedicated public IP for inbound traffic
• Fleet unchanged: acido fleet always uses NAT Gateway (no bidirectional support)

💼 Enterprise Option: For advanced security and centralized control, see Azure Firewall Integration (Solution 4 - ~$900/month)

🔥 NEW: Automatic Firewall Rules: Use --expose-ip with --bidirectional to automatically create Azure Firewall rules, route tables, and network rules. See EXPOSE_IP_FEATURE.md for details.

Examples:

# 1. Create a standalone public IP (no NAT Gateway needed for bidirectional)
acido ip create voip-ip
acido ip select

# 2. Deploy VoIP server with bidirectional connectivity
acido run voip-server \
  -im asterisk:latest \
  -t "./start-asterisk.sh" \
  --bidirectional \
  --expose-port 5060:udp \
  --expose-port 5060:tcp \
  --cpu 4 \
  --ram 8 \
  -d 86400

# 3. Deploy game server (Minecraft)
acido run minecraft \
  -im minecraft-server:latest \
  -t "./start.sh" \
  --bidirectional \
  --expose-port 25565:tcp \
  --cpu 2 \
  --ram 4 \
  --no-cleanup

# 4. Deploy SSH bastion (time-limited for security)
acido run ssh-bastion \
  -im ubuntu:20.04 \
  -t "service ssh start && sleep infinity" \
  --bidirectional \
  --expose-port 22:tcp \
  -d 3600  # Auto-cleanup after 1 hour

# 5. Deploy with automatic firewall rules (requires configured firewall)
# Restrict access to specific source IPs
acido run api-server \
  -im nginx:latest \
  --bidirectional \
  --expose-ip 192.168.1.100 \
  --expose-ip 192.168.1.101 \
  --expose-port 80:tcp \
  --expose-port 443:tcp \
  -d 7200

# 6. DMZ mode - allow all traffic on all ports
acido run dmz-server \
  -im myserver \
  --bidirectional \
  --dmz \
  -d 86400

# 7. Custom resource allocation for fleet (no bidirectional support)
acido fleet scan -n 10 -im nmap \
  -t 'nmap -iL input' -i targets.txt \
  --cpu 8 --ram 16

Important Notes:

• The --bidirectional flag is only available for acido run (single containers)
• acido fleet does NOT support --bidirectional (fleet always uses NAT Gateway for egress)
• The --expose-port format is PORT:PROTOCOL or PORT_START-PORT_END:PROTOCOL (e.g., 5060:udp, 8080:tcp, 10000-10099:udp for ranges)
• Port ranges are expanded automatically (max 100 ports per range)
• Multiple ports can be exposed by repeating --expose-port
• NEW: --expose-ip <source-ip> flag with --bidirectional enables automatic Azure Firewall rule creation with source IP filtering
  • Specifies source IP addresses allowed to access container through firewall
  • Can be specified multiple times for multiple source IPs
  • NAT rules use firewall's public IP as destination, translate to container at 10.0.2.4
  • See EXPOSE_IP_FEATURE.md for complete documentation
• NEW: --dmz flag allows all traffic on all ports to container (requires firewall)
  • Mutually exclusive with --expose-ip
  • Creates single NAT rule for unrestricted access
• Container IP is printed after deployment for easy access
• Use --cpu and --ram to configure container resources (works for both run and fleet)
  • Default for acido run: 4 CPU cores, 16 GB RAM (when not specified)
  • Default for acido fleet: 8 CPU cores, 8 GB RAM (when not specified) - reduced to fit within Azure quota limits
• For acido run: --entrypoint and --task are both optional - if not provided, uses the default entrypoint/cmd from the Docker image
• For acido fleet: --task is required to specify the command to execute across the fleet

Command Execution:

• --task / -t: Override the container's CMD (command to execute)
  • Optional for acido run (uses image default if not provided)
  • Required for acido fleet
• --entrypoint: Override the container's ENTRYPOINT (optional for acido run)
• Both can be used together: entrypoint is executed with task as arguments

Environment Variables

Both acido run and acido fleet support setting custom environment variables using the -e or --env flag, similar to Docker.

Two formats supported:

1. KEY=value - Set KEY to the specified value
2. KEY - Use value from your current environment

Examples:

# Set environment variables with explicit values
acido run myapp \
  -im myapp:latest \
  -e DEBUG=true \
  -e LOG_LEVEL=info \
  -e API_KEY=secret123

# Use environment variables from your shell
export DATABASE_URL="postgresql://localhost/mydb"
export API_TOKEN="xyz789"

acido run myapp \
  -im myapp:latest \
  -e DATABASE_URL \
  -e API_TOKEN \
  -e APP_ENV=production

# Works with fleet too
acido fleet workers -n 5 \
  -im worker:latest \
  -t "python worker.py" \
  -e WORKER_POOL=large \
  -e REDIS_URL \
  -e DEBUG=false

Notes:

• Multiple -e flags can be specified
• Custom env vars are merged with acido's built-in environment variables
• If a KEY is not found in your environment, a warning is shown and it's skipped

Docker Usage

Acido can be run in a Docker container for isolated and reproducible environments.

Quick Start:

Build the Docker image from the latest version:

./build.sh

Or from a specific branch/tag:

./build.sh v0.45.0
./build.sh feature-branch

Run acido commands:

# Show help
docker run --rm acido-cli:main --help

# Run with Azure credentials
docker run --rm \
  -e AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP=your-rg \
  -e IMAGE_REGISTRY_SERVER=your-registry.azurecr.io \
  -e IMAGE_REGISTRY_USERNAME=your-username \
  -e IMAGE_REGISTRY_PASSWORD=your-password \
  -e STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME=your-storage \
  acido-cli:main ls

Key Features:

• Pre-built Docker image with acido CLI
• Isolated environment for testing
• Easy distribution and deployment
• Automated build script (build.sh)
• CI/CD tested in GitHub Actions

Documentation:

• See DOCKER.md for complete Docker usage guide
• Includes examples for mounting files and environment variables

AWS Lambda Support

Acido can be deployed as an AWS Lambda function, enabling serverless security scanning workflows.

Key Features:

• Serverless invocation via AWS Lambda
• Automatic container provisioning in Azure
• JSON-based event interface
• Continuous deployment via GitHub Actions
• New: Full CRUD operations support (fleet, run, ls, rm, ip)

Supported Operations:

1. Fleet Operation - Distributed scanning across multiple containers:

{
  "operation": "fleet",
  "image": "nmap",
  "targets": ["merabytes.com", "uber.com"],
  "task": "nmap -iL input -p 0-1000"
}

2. Run Operation - Single ephemeral instance:

{
  "operation": "run",
  "name": "runner-01",
  "image": "ubuntu",
  "task": "./run.sh"
}

3. List Operation - List all container instances:

{
  "operation": "ls"
}

4. Remove Operation - Remove container instances:

{
  "operation": "rm",
  "name": "fleet-1"
}

5. IP Management Operations - Manage IPv4 addresses:

{
  "operation": "ip_create",
  "name": "pentest-ip"
}

{
  "operation": "ip_ls"
}

{
  "operation": "ip_rm",
  "name": "pentest-ip"
}

Quick Example:

{
  "image": "nmap",
  "targets": ["merabytes.com", "uber.com", "facebook.com"],
  "task": "nmap -iL input -p 0-1000"
}

Documentation:

• See LAMBDA.md for complete deployment and usage instructions
• See LAMBDA_API_EXAMPLES.md for detailed API usage examples and CLI equivalents
• Example payload: examples/example_lambda_payload.json
• Automatic deployment workflow: .github/workflows/deploy-lambda.yml

REST API Client (acido-client)

A separate lightweight Python package is available for interacting with acido Lambda functions via REST API:

pip install acido-client

Key Features:

• Lightweight (minimal dependencies)
• Completely independent from main acido package
• Supports all 7 Lambda operations
• Python API and CLI interface

Quick Example:

from acido_client import AcidoClient

client = AcidoClient()  # Uses LAMBDA_FUNCTION_URL from environment

# Fleet operation
response = client.fleet(
    image="kali-rolling",
    targets=["merabytes.com", "uber.com"],
    task="nmap -iL input -p 0-1000"
)

# List instances
response = client.ls()

CLI Usage:

export LAMBDA_FUNCTION_URL="https://your-lambda-url.lambda-url.region.on.aws/"
acido-client fleet --image kali-rolling --targets example.com --task "nmap -iL input -p 0-1000"
acido-client ls

See acido-client/README.md for complete documentation.

GitHub Self-Hosted Runners

Acido supports spinning up ephemeral GitHub self-hosted runner containers on Azure Container Instances.

Key Features:

• Single ephemeral container instances with auto-cleanup
• Configurable duration (up to 15 minutes for Lambda compatibility)
• Ideal for on-demand CI/CD workers
• Cost-effective: pay only for runtime
• AWS Lambda orchestration support

Quick Example:

Run a GitHub runner for 15 minutes via CLI:

acido run github-runner-01 \
  -im github-runner \
  -t './run.sh --url https://github.com/myorg/myrepo --token TOKEN' \
  -d 900

Or via AWS Lambda:

{
  "operation": "run",
  "name": "github-runner-01",
  "image": "github-runner",
  "task": "./run.sh --url https://github.com/myorg/myrepo --token ${RUNNER_TOKEN}",
  "duration": 900
}

Documentation:

• See GITHUB_RUNNERS.md for complete setup and usage instructions
• Example payload: examples/example_lambda_github_runner_payload.json

Secrets Sharing Service

Acido includes a OneTimeSecret-like service for secure secrets sharing via AWS Lambda and Azure KeyVault.

Key Features:

• Generate UUID-based secrets
• One-time access (auto-delete after retrieval)
• Secure storage in Azure KeyVault
• Serverless AWS Lambda deployment
• Optional CloudFlare Turnstile bot protection

Quick Example:

Create a secret:

{
  "action": "create",
  "secret": "Your secret message here"
}

Retrieve the secret (one-time only):

{
  "action": "retrieve",
  "uuid": "generated-uuid-from-create"
}

Documentation:

• See SECRETS.md for complete documentation
• Example payloads: examples/example_lambda_secrets_create_payload.json and examples/example_lambda_secrets_retrieve_payload.json
• Automatic deployment workflow: .github/workflows/deploy-lambda-secrets.yml

Credits

• Xavier Álvarez ([e-mail])
• Juan Ramón Higueras Pica ([e-mail])