Compile shellcode into an exe file from Windows or Linux.

• Can accept a shellcode blob or string (String format \x5e\x31)
• Can target both 32bit or 64bit Windows architecture.
• Cross platform. Works on Linux or Windows.
• No dependency on Wine when running on Linux
• Tested working with Python v3.10 and above
• Latest version tested working on Windows 11

Created mainly for malware analysis but can also be used for exploit development.

Inspired by shellcode2exe.

• Netwide Assembler (NASM)
• GNU Linker

For Linux, install the above dependencies via a package manager.

$ sudo apt install nasm
$ sudo apt install binutils

For Windows, you can install nasm from here. As for the linker, you can get the 64-bit version of ld.exe by installing MingW-w64.

As an alternative, pre-compiled binaries are included in the tools/ directory. To use them:

Command Prompt:

set PATH=%CD%\tools\nasm;%CD%\tools\linkers;%PATH%
python shcode2exe.py -o output.exe test.bin

PowerShell:

$env:PATH = "$PWD\tools\nasm;$PWD\tools\linkers;$env:PATH"
python shcode2exe.py -o output.exe test.bin

Note: It is advisable to install the latest versions directly using the official installers above for production use.

usage: shcode2exe.py [-h] [-o OUTPUT] [-s] [-a {32,64}] input

Compile a binary shellcode blob into an exe file. Can target both 32bit or 64bit architecture.

positional arguments:
  input                 The input file containing the shellcode.

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -o OUTPUT, --output OUTPUT
                        Set output exe file.
  -s, --string          Set if input file contains shellcode in string format.
  -a {32,64}, --architecture {32,64}
                        The windows architecture to use

Load a file with shellcode in the format of a string

$ cat test.txt
\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90\x90\x8b\xec\x55\x8b\xec\x68\x65\x78\x65\x20\x68\x63\x6d\x64\x2e\x8d\x45\xf8\x50\xb8\x44\x80\xbf\x77\xff\xd0
$ ./shcode2exe.py -s -o test-string.exe test.bin

Load a file with shellcode in the format of a blob

$ ./shcode2exe.py -o test-blob.exe test.bin

Use 64 bit architecture for the output (32 bit is the default)

$ ./shcode2exe.py -o test-blob.exe -a 64 test.bin
$ file test-blob.exe
test-blob.exe: PE32+ executable (console) x86-64 (stripped to external PDB), for MS Windows

I've included two samples in this repository.

• test.bin - Is a file containing a shellcode blob
• test.txt - Is a file containing a shellcode string

You can also generate shellcode samples using the Metasploit tool msfvenom.

Here's an example on how to generate a simple Windows exec payload:

$ msfvenom -a x86 --platform windows -p windows/exec cmd=calc.exe -o test2.bin

Program appends the shellcode binary to a barebones assembly file using the incbin macro. It is then automatically compiled using NASM and then linked using GNU Linker (ld).

• Single binary release for easy deployment (So no need for Python)

• f4yd4-s3c - Fix to hide console window on Windows execution

Feel free to submit a pull request if you want to improve this tool!