Individual skill
deobfuscating-powershell-obfuscated-malware
Systematically deobfuscates multi-layer PowerShell malware using AST analysis, dynamic tracing, and tools like PSDecode and PowerDecode to reveal hidden payloads and C2 infrastructure. Use during incident response or malware analysis when a PowerShell script is obfuscated with encoding, string manipulation, or invocation tricks and you need to recover the underlying commands, dropped payloads, or C2 endpoints.
skills/deobfuscating-powershell-obfuscated-malware/SKILL.md
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- Observed behavior
- Network or broad shell
- Last checked
- Nov 9, 2026
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- Repository stars (not skill ratings)
- 35,926
- Repository last updated
- Aug 31, 2026
- License
- Apache-2.0
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- ai-agents Repository topic
- claude-code Repository topic
- cybersecurity Repository topic
- incident-response Repository topic
- mitre-attack Repository topic
- penetration-testing Repository topic
- red-team Repository topic
- security Repository topic
- cloud-security Repository topic
- malware-analysis Repository topic
- powershell Declared skill tag
- deobfuscation Declared skill tag
- malware-analysis Declared skill tag
- scripting Declared skill tag
- obfuscation Declared skill tag
- ast-analysis Declared skill tag
- incident-response Declared skill tag
- devops Derived category
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LICENSEasset · 11,255 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 14,187 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 14,187 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 14,187 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 14,187 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 14,187 bytesassets/template.mddoc · 1,353 bytesreferences/api-reference.mddoc · 1,425 bytesreferences/standards.mddoc · 1,907 bytesreferences/workflows.mddoc · 2,348 bytesscripts/agent.pyruns · 5,229 bytesscripts/process.pyruns · 10,939 bytes
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# Deobfuscating PowerShell Obfuscated Malware
## Overview
PowerShell is heavily abused by malware authors due to its deep Windows integration and powerful scripting capabilities. Obfuscation techniques include string concatenation, Base64 encoding, character substitution, Invoke-Expression layering, SecureString abuse, environment variable manipulation, and tick-mark insertion. Modern malware uses multiple obfuscation layers requiring iterative deobfuscation. Tools like PSDecode, PowerDecode, and PowerPeeler automate much of this process, while manual AST (Abstract Syntax Tree) analysis handles custom obfuscation. PowerPeeler achieves a 95% deobfuscation correctness rate using instruction-level dynamic analysis of expression-related AST nodes.
## When to Use
- When performing authorized security testing that involves deobfuscating powershell obfuscated malware
- When analyzing malware samples or attack artifacts in a controlled environment
- When conducting red team exercises or penetration testing engagements
- When building detection capabilities based on offensive technique understanding
## Prerequisites