Individual skill
analyzing-shellcode
Analyze raw shellcode and position-independent code — extracting the bytes, guessing architecture, disassembling at the right base, decoding self-decoder stubs, resolving hashed Windows APIs, emulating to the decoded stage, and pulling C2 and stage IOCs. Use when handed a raw blob of position-independent code, an extracted payload with no PE/ELF header, shellcode lifted from an exploit or a macro/loader, a `\x`-escaped or base64 buffer, a suspected Cobalt Strike or Metasploit stager, or an egg-hunter.
secskills-defense/skills/analyzing-shellcode/SKILL.md
Source commit ca53957bcd8e3b83b5d4d190bb3ad008a4f15c84
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- Matches the observed repository HEAD
- Yes
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- Observed behavior
- Not checked yet
- Last checked
- Nov 6, 2026
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- Repository stars (not skill ratings)
- 188
- Repository last updated
- Sep 4, 2026
- License
- MIT
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- security Repository topic
- skills Repository topic
- engineering Derived category
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# Analyzing Shellcode
Shellcode is code with no container — no PE/ELF header, no imports table, no
fixed load address — so it must find everything it needs at runtime. That
self-reliance is exactly what gives it away: the PEB walk, the API hashing,
the position-independent GetPC trick are structural fingerprints you can read
even before you know what the payload does.
## When to Use
- A raw blob of position-independent code with no PE/ELF/Mach-O header
- A payload carved from an exploit, a macro, a loader, or a JS/HTA dropper
- A `\x`-escaped, `0x`-prefixed, base64, or XOR-obfuscated byte buffer
- A suspected Metasploit stager (reverse_tcp/https) or Cobalt Strike beacon stage