Shellcodes are set of instructions or code that serves as payloads to carry out a function/command in the exploitation of a system or software vulnerability. These are written in the language the system understands i.e, the assembly language. Since the shellcode will be saved in the machine memory, to function well, it has to be in the language the machine understands.
Simply put, we can say shellcodes are like malicious codes generated and sent to the target machine which when executed performs the function the attacker wants in other to exploit a vulnerability in the target machine. Note that the shellcodes generated will be in which ever format the attacker wants depending on the attackers target machine. For example, a shellcode to be executed on windows x64 will be diffrent from one to be executed on a website. All these are put into consideration while entering the command to generate the shellcode.
Shellcodes can be generated through various means, some of which are;
- Windows cmd
- Windows powershell
- Metasploit
- msfvenom
- linux