competition-malware-config

Competition Malware Config

Use this skill only as a downstream specialization after $ctf-sandbox-orchestrator is already active and has established sandbox assumptions, node ownership, and evidence priorities. If that has not happened yet, return to $ctf-sandbox-orchestrator first.

Use this skill when the decisive value is not just "what the sample does," but which config fields, stages, or network parameters the sample hides and when they become plaintext.

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Quick Start

1. Preserve the original sample before unpacking or patching.
2. Separate loader, payload, config blob, and post-decode behavior.
3. Rank candidate config blobs by entropy, field shape, nearby strings, and decode helpers.
4. Record the exact transform chain for each recovered field.
5. Reproduce the decoded config or beacon parameters from the smallest possible path.

Workflow

1. Find The Config Boundary

• Inspect sections, resources, embedded archives, strings, imports, and decode helpers.
• Identify where config is stored: resource, overlay, encrypted blob, registry seed, network bootstrap, or stage2 memory.
• Keep one note of when each value becomes plaintext.

2. Reconstruct The Decode Chain

• Recover the chain in order: container -> compression -> encoding -> xor/substitution -> crypto -> parse.
• Group all config fields from the same chain together instead of treating them as unrelated clues.
• Preserve hashes, offsets, keys, IVs, masks, and parsed fields in one compact evidence block.

3. Tie Config To Behavior

• Show which field affects which branch: beacon path, mutex, wallet, bot id, campaign, tasking route, persistence name, or process target.
• Correlate decoded config with PCAPs, process trees, or stage2 strings when possible.

Read This Reference

• Load references/malware-config.md for the config-hunting checklist, staged-sample checklist, and evidence packaging rules.

What To Preserve

• Original artifact, unpacked layer, dumped stage, and parsed config as separate artifacts
• Offsets, hashes, decode helpers, keys, masks, and field names
• The branch or protocol step each recovered field actually influences