Operation created via API always uses "ad-hoc" adversary even when valid adversary_id is provided

[samiha26]

Operation created via API always uses "ad-hoc" adversary even when valid adversary_id is provided

Description
When creating an operation via the API, even though I provide a valid adversary_id in the payload, the operation is always created with the "ad-hoc" adversary (an empty profile). As a result, the operation does not run as expected.

Steps followed
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Created an adversary with abilities assigned (verified in the Caldera UI).
2. Used the API to create an operation with a payload like:

   {
     "name": "react",
     "adversary_id": "426382f6-9811-4751-be04-2642f5f3db8c",
     "planner": { "id": "aaa7c857-37a0-4c4a-85f7-4e9f7f30e31a" },
     "agent_group": ["reharu"]
   }

3. The operation is created, but the response shows:

   {
     "adversary": {
     "adversary_id": "ad-hoc",
     "name": "ad-hoc",
     "description": "an empty adversary profile",
     "atomic_ordering": [],
   }}

4. The operation does not run as expected.

Expected behavior
The operation should use the adversary specified by adversary_id and run with its assigned abilities.

Environment:
Caldera version: 5.3.0
API endpoint: /api/v2/operations
How I'm calling the API: using fetch

Additional context
Double checked:
The adversary exists and has abilities assigned.
The same adversary works when creating operations via the Caldera web UI.
No errors are returned in the API response.

Screenshots / Logs
Operation stops instantly without running:

In caldera UI, it shows the operation doesn't run:

[github-actions]

Looks like your first issue -- we aim to respond to issues as quickly as possible. In the meantime, check out our documentation here: http://caldera.readthedocs.io/

[HackedRico]

1. I wasn't able to replicate your error, CALDERA uses "ad-hoc" adversary as a fallback to when it can't find the supplied adversary in your request as shown here:

caldera/app/api/v2/managers/operation_api_manager.py

Line 161 in 032ec16

if not adv:

2. I noticed that you mentioned "How I'm calling the API: using fetch", you should be making a POST Request to create the operations and not a FETCH request as shown in Swagger docs:

3. Here is my JSON payload and POST Request to CALDERA REST API where it successfully created the operation and ran a test_adversary I created.

[uruwhy]

@samiha26 are you still seeing this problem?