Routersploit install fails on Termux with Python 3.12 — bcrypt + setuptools.build_meta workaround

[chris-maker-ops]

Environment:

Termux on Android

Python 3.12 via pkg install python

pip 24.x

Routersploit cloned from Threat9 GitHub

Targeting paramiko, which depends on bcrypt >= 3.2

Problem Summary:

Installing Routersploit fails during pip install paramiko due to bcrypt build errors. The root cause is:

bcrypt uses PEP 517 and requires setuptools.build_meta

Python 3.12 removed distutils, and pip’s isolated build environment can’t see patched symlinks

Termux lacks prebuilt bcrypt wheels for Python 3.12 on aarch64

pip install bcrypt fails with BackendUnavailable: Cannot import 'setuptools.build_meta'

Workaround Steps:

Install build tools:

pkg install rust clang libffi openssl
pip install wheel

Bypass pip’s build isolation:

export SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS=local
pip install --no-build-isolation bcrypt

This forces pip to use the global environment and patched setuptools.

Install paramiko without re-triggering bcrypt build:

pip install --no-deps paramiko

Launch Routersploit:

cd ~/routersploit
python rsf.py

Optional: Add alias for easier launch

Add this to .bashrc or .zshrc:

alias rsf='python ~/routersploit/rsf.py'

Why this matters:

This isn’t an isolated case — Python 3.12 broke compatibility with many legacy build systems, and Termux’s sandboxed environment makes it worse. Anyone using Routersploit on modern Termux will hit this unless they downgrade Python or manually patch setuptools.