encrypt is a small utility which was initially created for shellcode protection, but has since been adapted to protect arbitrary strings. encrypt can take one or more comma-separated strings, or any raw position independent shellcode and encrypt it. Encryption takes place using AES-256 with a user-supplied or randomly generated alphanumeric key, salt and/or initialization value. encrypt then outputs a decryption routine in either C# or C/C++ to file or CLI, depending on what is selected.
encrypt was inspired after taking the Sektor7 RTO Malware Development Essentials course, which I cannot recommend enough. Shellcode aside, encrypting strings can be quite useful when you are hiding certain function calls from the IAT (function call obfuscation). This is a well-known practice when evading endpoint security. For example, if you want to call QueueUserApc, you will need to bring in the function prototype and create a pointer like pQueueUserApc = GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandle("kernel32.dll"),"QueueUserApc");. While this will remove QueueUserApc from the IAT, scanning engines can still do the equivilent of strings and find that QueueUserApc is in the compiled PE as it is a cleartext string. That’s the long way around for saying - if you need to call function names, you should probably encrypt them.
You can grab a copy of encrypt from the releases page. Alternatively, feel free to compile the solution yourself. encrypt relies on the templates folder being in the same directory as encrypt.exe (a check is done at runtime). This has also been made available on the releases page.
The following input types are supported:
- File: A raw/binary position independent shellcode file, such as a Cobalt Strike
beacon.bin. This can be supplied either by it's current, relative, or full path. - String: One or more arbitrary strings that are comma-separated.
C:\Users\skawa\Desktop\encrypt> encrypt.exe -h
Examples:
encrypt.exe -l cs -m file -i C:\test\beacon.bin -e random -o file
encrypt.exe -l cpp -m string -i VirtualAlloc,LoadLibrary -e manual -k oC95@#Qy -s 2cVMpO!0 -v cf8U4v%M -o cli
Language (-l):
-l cpp - Create C/C++ encrypted output
-l cs - Create C# encrypted output
Mode (-m):
-m file - Read in a raw/binary position independent shellcode file
-m string - Read in one or more comma-seperated strings
Input (-i):
-i C:\test\beacon.bin
-i VirtualAlloc,LoadLibrary
Encryption Type (-e):
-e random - Randomly generate a alphanyumeric key, salt and initialization value
-e manual - Manually supply a alphanumeric key, salt and initialization value. This requires the following three arguments:
-k Password123
-s Salt123
-v InitVal123
Ouput (-o):
-o cli - Ouput to CLI
-o file - Output to template files
C:\Users\skawa\Desktop\encrypt>encrypt.exe -l cs -m file -i ..\beacon.bin -e random -o file
[+] File encryption mode
[+] Lang: cs
[+] Key: oVGhPyvOt5nqHS0BO
[+] Salt: 7PmbgoaTkm7xaTRI2a26W60TY5ViCDeynbSTZnOsg7njS74EJ910KT
[+] Encrypted raw shellcode file created: c:\users\skawa\desktop\beacon-encrypted.bin
[+] C# Template file created: c:\users\skawa\desktop\beacon-encrypted.cs
C:\Users\skawa\Desktop\encrypt>encrypt.exe -l cs -m string -i VirtualAlloc,LoadLibrary,VirtualProtect -e manual -k oC9asdf1355@#Qy -s 2cjnsq91O!0 -v cf13rsacf8U4v%M -o cli
[+] String encryption mode
[+] Lang: cs
[+] Key: oC9asdf1355@#Qy
[+] Salt: 2cjnsq91O!0
[+] Encrypted: VirtualAlloc
[+] Encrypted: LoadLibrary
[+] Encrypted: VirtualProtect
byte[] passwordBytes = new byte[] { 67, 108, 214, 254, 105, 35, 107, 133, 77, 5, 45, 127, 6, 127, 175, 83, 169, 118, 22, 211, 231, 185, 154, 234, 134, 249, 144, 245, 88, 80, 134, 136, };
byte[] saltBytes = new byte[] { 229, 127, 26, 1, 72, 167, 247, 214, 33, 29, 139, 124, 103, 135, 85, 147, 118, 247, 164, 76, 23, 211, 226, 162, 22, 0, 221, 197, 18, 55, 24, 14, };
byte[] virtualalloc_enc = new byte[] { 134, 181, 237, 72, 90, 40, 88, 20, 153, 216, 147, 165, 233, 7, 122, 203, };
byte[] virtualalloc = DecryptShellcode(passwordBytes, saltBytes, virtualalloc_enc);
byte[] loadlibrary_enc = new byte[] { 151, 119, 31, 92, 130, 163, 141, 163, 96, 31, 178, 234, 114, 253, 124, 254, };
byte[] loadlibrary = DecryptShellcode(passwordBytes, saltBytes, loadlibrary_enc);
byte[] virtualprotect_enc = new byte[] { 118, 164, 103, 91, 48, 237, 160, 217, 245, 31, 90, 245, 237, 101, 6, 244, };
byte[] virtualprotect = DecryptShellcode(passwordBytes, saltBytes, virtualprotect_enc);
C:\Users\skawa\Desktop\encrypt>encrypt.exe -l cpp -m file -i c:\users\skawa\desktop\beacon.bin -e manual -k Password1 -s Salt2 -v IV123! -o file
[+] File encryption mode
[+] Lang: cpp
[+] IV: IV123!
[+] Key: Password1
[+] Encrypted raw shellcode file created: c:\users\skawa\desktop\beacon-encrypted.bin
[+] C++ Template file created: c:\users\skawa\desktop\beacon-encrypted.cpp
C:\Users\skawa\Desktop\encrypt>encrypt.exe -l cpp -m string -i VirtualAlloc -e random -o cli
[+] String encryption mode
[+] Lang: cpp
[+] IV: f2jb5VuUQ0GWJdbg1ARASsovBOHGyKhdqZR90bPKMrB2MtwMEVRH1tlWMXK
[+] Key: cnkwrWWMeuub65q4oFxgC9LiNE7NJE9x0YdhXs12p5ad
[+] Encrypted: VirtualAlloc
char iv[] = { 0xD5, 0xBE, 0x34, 0x9D, 0x10, 0x5D, 0x03, 0x1A, 0x00, 0x67, 0x45, 0x24, 0x6A, 0x9D, 0xB6, 0xCD };
char key[] = { 0x63, 0x6E, 0x6B, 0x77, 0x72, 0x57, 0x57, 0x4D, 0x65, 0x75, 0x75, 0x62, 0x36, 0x35, 0x71, 0x34, 0x6F, 0x46, 0x78, 0x67, 0x43, 0x39, 0x4C, 0x69, 0x4E, 0x45, 0x37, 0x4E, 0x4A, 0x45, 0x39, 0x78, 0x30, 0x59, 0x64, 0x68, 0x58, 0x73, 0x31, 0x32, 0x70, 0x35, 0x61, 0x64 };
unsigned char VirtualAlloc[] = { 0x5D, 0x95, 0x80, 0xFC, 0x2B, 0x01, 0x2F, 0x0C, 0x34, 0xC5, 0xD2, 0x85, 0x0E, 0x5C, 0x79, 0xB8 };
unsigned int VirtualAlloc_len = sizeof(VirtualAlloc);
If you look at the first line of the output file, you will find the necessary commands to compile the payload. In cases where the output option is set to file, the template file will have a vanilla injection routine which is designed just to test if the decryption routine (which is what you really want) works. If the output option is set to cli, the decryption routine will not be printed to screen (to save space). This can be pulled from the corresponding templates file in the templates directory.