recog requires Ruby version >=2.1. even though its already present

[Spike Spiegel]

Installing recog version 2.0.6 using the command sudo gem install recog -v '2.0.6' gives the following error:

ERROR:  Error installing recog:
    recog requires Ruby version >= 2.1.

even when Ruby version is >= 2.1.

Here's the output of ruby --version

$ ruby --version
ruby 2.3.0p0 (2015-12-25 revision 53290) [i686-linux]

and the output of gem env

$  gem env
RubyGems Environment:
  - RUBYGEMS VERSION: 2.6.4
  - RUBY VERSION: 2.3.0 (2015-12-25 patchlevel 0) [i686-linux]
  - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /home/Spike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0
  - USER INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /home/Spike/.gem/ruby/2.3.0
  - RUBY EXECUTABLE: /home/Spike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/bin/ruby
  - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /home/Spike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/bin
  - SPEC CACHE DIRECTORY: /home/Spike/.gem/specs
  - SYSTEM CONFIGURATION DIRECTORY: /home/Spike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/etc
  - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
    - ruby
    - x86-linux
  - GEM PATHS:
     - /home/Spike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0
     - /home/Spike/.gem/ruby/2.3.0
  - GEM CONFIGURATION:
     - :update_sources => true
     - :verbose => true
     - :backtrace => false
     - :bulk_threshold => 1000
  - REMOTE SOURCES:
     - https://rubygems.org/
  - SHELL PATH:
     - /home/Spike/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/bin
     - /home/Spike/.rbenv/libexec
     - /home/Spike/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build/bin
     - /home/Spike/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build/bin
     - /home/Spike/.rbenv/shims
     - /home/Spike/.rbenv/bin
     - /home/Spike/.rbenv/bin
     - /usr/local/bin
     - /usr/bin
     - /bin
     - /usr/local/games
     - /usr/games
     - /home/Spike/.rvm/bin
     - /home/Spike/.rvm/bin

Even the Ruby version for root is 2.3.0

# ruby --version
ruby 2.3.0p0 (2015-12-25 revision 53290) [i686-linux]
# gem env
RubyGems Environment:
  - RUBYGEMS VERSION: 2.5.1
  - RUBY VERSION: 2.3.0 (2015-12-25 patchlevel 0) [i686-linux]
  - INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /root/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0
  - USER INSTALLATION DIRECTORY: /root/.gem/ruby/2.3.0
  - RUBY EXECUTABLE: /root/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/bin/ruby
  - EXECUTABLE DIRECTORY: /root/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/bin
  - SPEC CACHE DIRECTORY: /root/.gem/specs
  - SYSTEM CONFIGURATION DIRECTORY: /root/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/etc
  - RUBYGEMS PLATFORMS:
    - ruby
    - x86-linux
  - GEM PATHS:
     - /root/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/lib/ruby/gems/2.3.0
     - /root/.gem/ruby/2.3.0
  - GEM CONFIGURATION:
     - :update_sources => true
     - :verbose => true
     - :backtrace => false
     - :bulk_threshold => 1000
  - REMOTE SOURCES:
     - https://rubygems.org/
  - SHELL PATH:
     - /root/.rbenv/versions/2.3.0/bin
     - /root/.rbenv/libexec
     - /root/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build/bin
     - /root/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build/bin
     - /root/.rbenv/shims
     - /root/.rbenv/bin
     - /usr/local/sbin
     - /usr/local/bin
     - /usr/sbin
     - /usr/bin
     - /sbin
     - /bin

[Paul Deardorff]

I noticed you installed the gem with sudo ...is there a particular reason for that? I believe that's why the appropriate ruby version cannot be found. Maybe try without sudo, just gem install recog -v '2.0.6' and hopefully it should work. You can see sudo gem env vs gem env usually represent different environments.

[Spike Spiegel]

Yes, I've tried that and that does definitely work

$ gem install recog -v '2.0.6'
Successfully installed recog-2.0.6
Parsing documentation for recog-2.0.6
Done installing documentation for recog after 0 seconds
1 gem installed

However this fails in metasploit-framework:

/usr/share/metasploit-framework/tools$ bundle install
Fetching gem metadata from https://rubygems.org/
Fetching version metadata from https://rubygems.org/
Using rake 10.4.2
Using i18n 0.7.0
Using minitest 4.7.5
Using multi_json 1.11.1
Using thread_safe 0.3.5
Using tzinfo 0.3.44
Using builder 3.1.4
Using erubis 2.7.0
Using rack 1.5.5
Using activerecord-deprecated_finders 1.0.4
Using arel 4.0.2
Using bcrypt 3.1.10
Using docile 1.1.5
Using rkelly-remix 0.0.6
Using json 1.8.2
Using thor 0.19.1
Using pg 0.18.2
Using pg_array_parser 0.0.9
Using mini_portile 0.6.2
Using rubyntlm 0.5.0
Using rubyzip 1.1.7
Using metasploit-payloads 1.0.7
Using msgpack 0.6.0
Using packetfu 1.1.9
Using rb-readline-r7 0.5.2.0
Using robots 0.10.1
Using sqlite3 1.3.10
Using network_interface 0.0.1
Using pcaprub 0.12.0
Using simplecov-html 0.9.0
Using bundler 1.12.5
Using activesupport 4.0.13
Using rack-test 0.6.3
Using jsobfu 0.2.1
Using nokogiri 1.6.6.2
Using simplecov 0.9.2
Using activemodel 4.0.13
Using actionpack 4.0.13
Installing recog 2.0.6

Gem::InstallError: recog requires Ruby version >= 2.1.
Using activerecord 4.0.13
Using railties 4.0.13
An error occurred while installing recog (2.0.6), and Bundler cannot continue.
Make sure that `gem install recog -v '2.0.6'` succeeds before bundling.

[Brent Cook]

This metasploit-framework is pretty out-of-date - the latest is on Ruby 2.3.1. Is this Kali 2.0? If so, you should upgrade to the kali rolling release.

[Spike Spiegel]

Thanks. I've updated the Kali version. This helps. Closing the issue.

[Brent Cook]

No problem, glad to help :)