Daily Post August 22 2025

Gophish

This phishing platform to help with the creation, deployment, and analysis of simulated phishing campaigns. Originally released in 2016, the project has grown into a widely adopted tool among security professionals, educators, and organizations of all sizes. It provides a web‑based interface that guides users through the entire lifecycle of a phishing test from crafting realistic email messages and landing pages to tracking recipient interactions and generating detailed reports. Because the software is released under the permissive MIT license, anyone can download, modify, and run it on their own infrastructure without paying licensing fees. This openness reduces cost barriers but also encourages community contributions that continually improve the platform’s stability and feature set.

Features

Users begin by defining a “campaign,” selecting a target group, and then building an email template that can incorporate variables such as the recipient’s name or department. Gophish includes a built‑in HTML editor that supports drag‑and‑drop elements, making it possible to design replicas of legitimate corporate communications. Once the email is ready, the system can schedule delivery through a configurable SMTP server, allowing organizations to test a variety of sending domains and authentication methods.

Landing pages are another component. Gophish lets administrators create custom pages that mimic login portals, password reset forms, or any other web interface a malicious actor might use. These pages can be hosted on the same server as the Gophish instance or on separate infrastructure, providing flexibility for network segmentation and realistic testing scenarios. When a recipient clicks a link in the simulated phishing email, Gophish records the event, captures any entered credentials (which are stored securely for analysis), and logs the timestamp.

Reporting capabilities are built directly into the dashboard. After a campaign concludes, users can view aggregated statistics such as click‑through rates, credential submission percentages, and geographic distribution of responses. The platform also offers CSV export options, enabling security teams to integrate the data with broader analytics pipelines or compliance documentation. Because Gophish is open source, developers can extend these reporting features through the RESTful API, automating data collection or integrating with third‑party security information and event management (SIEM) systems

Licensing Model and Cost Implications

It is distributed under the MIT License, one of the most permissive open‑source licenses available. This means that the software can be used, modified, and redistributed freely, even for commercial purposes, without the need to disclose source code changes or pay royalties. For a small business, the absence of licensing fees eliminates a significant financial hurdle that often accompanies commercial phishing simulation tools.

The core platform is free, organizations may incur indirect costs related to hosting, maintenance, and optional professional services. Deploying Gophish on a cloud provider or on-premises server requires modest compute resources—a small virtual machine with a few gigabytes of RAM and a modest amount of storage is typically good for campaigns targeting a few hundred employees. Some vendors and consultants offer paid support packages, custom integrations, or managed hosting solutions for enterprises that prefer to outsource operational responsibilities. However, these services remain optional, preserving the ability for a lean team to run the platform entirely in‑house.

Control, Security, and Customization

Installing the software on a server that the organization controls, administrators retain full ownership of the data generated during phishing simulations. This is especially important for businesses that operate under strict data protection regulations, such as GDPR or HIPAA, where third‑party data handling could raise compliance concerns. Self‑hosting also enables granular network configuration, allowing the platform to be placed behind firewalls, isolated within a demilitarized zone (DMZ), or integrated with existing identity and access management (IAM) solutions.

From a security perspective, running Gophish internally reduces the attack surface associated with external SaaS platforms. Since the software does not require outbound connections beyond the configured SMTP and DNS services, the risk of data leakage is minimized. The open‑source nature of the codebase invites independent security audits, and the active community addresses vulnerabilities through public patches. Organizations can apply these updates on their own schedule, ensuring that the platform remains aligned with internal patch‑management policies.

Customization is another advantage of self‑hosting. Because the source code is openly available, developers can tailor the user interface, add new email or landing‑page templates, and integrate Gophish with internal ticketing or learning‑management systems. The built‑in REST API facilitates automation of repetitive tasks, such as provisioning new target groups from HR databases or triggering follow‑up training modules when a user falls for a simulated attack.

Value Add for Small Businesses

The primary value of Gophish lies in its ability to democratize security awareness training without imposing prohibitive costs. Phishing remains one of the leading vectors for data breaches, and many smaller organizations don't have dedicated security staff or budgets for expensive third‑party services. With Gophish, a modest IT team can conduct regular, realistic phishing exercises that surface vulnerable employees, measure the effectiveness of existing training programs, and identify gaps in policy enforcement.

The analytics help to make data‑driven decisions. For example, if a particular department exhibits a higher click‑through rate, targeted remedial training can be scheduled, thereby reducing overall risk exposure. Additionally, the visibility into credential submissions helps IT teams assess whether password reuse or weak password policies are contributing to susceptibility. Over time, the cumulative effect of these insights translates into reduced likelihood of successful social engineering attacks, lower incident response costs, and confidence among customers and partners who see that the organization takes security seriously.

Another benefit is the ability to simulate a wide range of phishing tactics. Gophish supports multiple email formats, including HTML and plain text, and can emulate common tricks such as spoofed sender addresses, urgent language, or malicious attachments. When varying the complexity of campaigns, small businesses can build employee resilience, moving from basic awareness to advanced threat recognition. The platform’s flexibility also allows organizations to align simulations with industry‑specific threats—for instance, crafting spear‑phishing emails that reference supply‑chain partners in manufacturing or financial services contexts.

The open‑source community surrounding Gophish contributes a wealth of shared resources. Public repositories host pre‑built templates, instructional videos, and best‑practice guides that small teams can adopt without reinventing the wheel. Participation in forums and mailing lists provides a venue for troubleshooting, idea exchange, and staying abreast of emerging phishing trends. This collaborative ecosystem effectively extends the capabilities of a small security team, granting them access to collective expertise that would otherwise be out of reach.

It a good tool, we actually use it here at mintarc: https://getgophish.com/