Auditor versions

[SysAdminDk]

Auditor or 48 hour license key, missing in appsettings.console.json

After version 3.5 when requesting download from https://backend.pingcastle.com/Download/AskLicense using Auditor or 48 hour license.
The appsettings.console.json do not contain the license as PingCastle.exe.config in older versions do.

If this is by design, from version 3.5 and forward the following statement needs to be removed from the site.
"As a reminder, the license is automatically embedded into each Download. There is no need to embed the license."

Reproduce
On https://backend.pingcastle.com/Download/AskLicense, insert your Auditor license key.
Download any 3.5.o.x version, and the appsettings.console.json is missing the license key
Download 3.4.2.66 and PingCastle.exe.config will contain the provided key.
Or request a 48h Auditor license, and copy the license.

On https://backend.pingcastle.com/Download/AskLicense, insert the 48h Auditor key.
Download any 3.5.o.x version, and the appsettings.console.json is missing the license key
Download 3.4.2.66 and PingCastle.exe.config will contain the provided key.

Full URL to reproduce
https://backend.pingcastle.com/Download/DownloadAuditor?name=PingCastle%203.5.0.44&license=<Auditor / 48h key>
https://backend.pingcastle.com/Download/DownloadAuditor?name=PingCastle%203.4.2.66&license=<Auditor / 48h key>

[sscotter]

I'm also experiencing the same issue.

None of the 3.5.X.Y download links on https://backend.pingcastle.com/Download/AskLicense result in a ZIP file which contain a license.

I note in the 3.5.X.Y versions the config file seems to be named appsettings.console.json, where as previously it used to be called PingCastle.exe.config.

Manually copying the license we purchased in Sept 2025 to appsettings.console.json does not have any effect. The first line when executing pingcastle --protocol ADWSOnly --healthcheck --datefile is still...

Free Edition of PingCastle - Not for commercial use

3.4.X.Y versions work as expected, reporting...

Standard for COMPANY NAME REDACTED

I've been unable to find any documentation regarding (for either the old 3.4.X.Y or new 3.5.X.Y versions) licensing
https://www.pingcastle.com/documentation/
https://www.google.com/search?q=license+site%3Apingcastle.com

I notice there is also a significate size increase between 3.4.X.Y and 3.5.X.Y.

PingCastle_3.4.2.66\pingcastle.exe    18.9MB
PingCastle_3.5.0.44\pingcastle.exe    238MB

Given the config filename has changed and there's been a significate size increase I suspect there has been some major refactoring going on.. and I believe I saw something to indicate a newer version of .NET has been targeted. All together it suggests the licensing process has changed, but it's either not been tested or communicated?

[An-dir]

Migration has been announced:
We have now migrated this functionality to [Netwrix.com](http://netwrix.com/)!

That might help:
https://community.netwrix.com/t/netwrix-pingcastle-48-hour-assessment-license/2063

[SysAdminDk]

An-Dir, True the migration have been announced, if just that worked.

When I create an "guest" account on netwrix.com as one of my clients to download with an 48h auditor license, there is NO place to put the license to create the download with license, and no products available, unless my client purchase their own license.

It might be me that is unable to find where, and if so, please enlighten me !

[An-dir]

You should see the products you have a licence there:
https://customer.netwrix.com/my_products.html

It looks like this:

If not just contact the support.

[RichardHNetwrix]

This issue should now be fixed. Downloads from the /Download/AskLicense page now correctly embed the license into appsettings.console.json for 3.5.x versions.

If you previously downloaded a 3.5.x ZIP without the license embedded, please re-download it — the license will now be included automatically.

[SysAdminDk]

You should see the products you have a licence there: https://customer.netwrix.com/my_products.html

It looks like this:

If not just contact the support.

Think you misunderstand the issue.

When one of my clients have "hands on" and needs to download the Auditor version using the 48H key that I provide, they then need to create a customer account to download, but there are NO products assigned to NEW customers, and there are NO where to input the 48H license to download the files on the new portal.

From what I can see, the functionality of the old way have NOT been migrated.

[SysAdminDk]

This issue should now be fixed. Downloads from the /Download/AskLicense page now correctly embed the license into appsettings.console.json for 3.5.x versions.

If you previously downloaded a 3.5.x ZIP without the license embedded, please re-download it — the license will now be included automatically.

Thank you, just tested and now it works !

[JoeDibley]

You should see the products you have a licence there: https://customer.netwrix.com/my_products.html
It looks like this:
If not just contact the support.

Think you misunderstand the issue.

When one of my clients have "hands on" and needs to download the Auditor version using the 48H key that I provide, they then need to create a customer account to download, but there are NO products assigned to NEW customers, and there are NO where to input the 48H license to download the files on the new portal.

From what I can see, the functionality of the old way have NOT been migrated.

Hi there @SysAdminDk, just a couple of questions that would help to understand processes for moving forward:

• So you provide the 48 hour license to the customer and then get them to download from the portal?
• We have both the GitHub release and direct downloads from Netwrix.com so what will likely be possible in the future will be that you get the 48 hour license and then they just put that in the appsettings.console.json file from the GitHub download. Would this work for you as a new process?

Cheers,
Joe

[SysAdminDk]

@JoeDibley Yes I use the /AskLicense site the following way.

Get our Company Auditor license key and use that key to request an 48h key.
E-mail/Teams message the 48h key and the link to /AskLicense for the customer, so they can run the scan, and send/show me the result, in a teams meeting to discuss roadmap to fix the issues, if there are any.

Asking the customer to download from Github and edit the appsettings might not bee a good idea, why I created this case in the first place, since the key was not in the latest versions.

If you keep the /AskLicense site this will not be an issue, but from the migration announcement one can get the impression that you are removing the /AskLicense site at some point.

If the /AskLicense site are removed, it might be an idea to add an option when running pingcastle.exe that it asks for the key like with the "advanced/apilicense", add an 9th option AddLicense, that asks for the key, and updates the appsettings file.

And this is perhaps the important thing, I do NOT have access to our Netwrix Customer site, I get our Auditor key from our internal secrets store.