The rise of Go-written red team tools has created new challenges for conversion. Go applications often spawn multiple threads that may not terminate cleanly, leading to memory leaks. Clematis specifically addresses these issues by ensuring thread reclamation and automatic memory release after Go payload execution.
To make C code position-independent, you must avoid global variables, disable standard library links, and resolve APIs manually.
Clematis is another robust option that offers a user-friendly graphical interface (GUI) in addition to its command-line interface (CLI).
All tools and techniques discussed in this article are intended exclusively for where you have explicit written permission from the system owner. Using them against systems you do not own or without authorization is illegal and constitutes a criminal act.
Instead of dropping an EXE file onto a target hard drive—which triggers modern Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and antivirus solutions—shellcode can be injected directly into the memory space of a legitimate, trusted process (e.g., explorer.exe or svchost.exe ).
std::streamsize size = file.tellg(); file.seekg(0, std::ios::beg);
Then compile loader.c to shellcode using msfvenom -p windows/x64/exec ? Not ideal. Instead, compile it as an EXE, then run Donut on it – but that defeats the manual purpose.
Converting EXE files to shellcode represents a powerful capability in the modern cybersecurity landscape. Through tools like Donut, pe_to_shellcode, Clematis, and sRDI, security professionals can transform conventional Windows executables into position-independent shellcode that executes directly in memory, bypassing traditional file-based detection.
# Remove headers and metadata subprocess.run(["dd", "if=example.bin", "of=example.bin.noheader", "bs=1", "skip=64"])
Compile the code without standard libraries and instruct the compiler not to emit security cookies or data sections. cl.exe /c /FA /GS- /O1 shellcode.c Use code with caution. Step 3: Extract the Opcodes
PE2SHC (PE to Shellcode) is a specialized tool that modifies a target PE file so that it can be executed as a raw script or shellcode blob while retaining its validity as a normal executable. pe2shc.exe target_program.exe payload.bin Use code with caution.
Several specialized tools can automate the wrapping of an .exe into a shellcode-ready format:
