Crinkler VS upx

I also tried crinkler, got it to link but the executable does apparently nothing.

Crinkler - https://github.com/runestubbe/Crinkler

Crinkler [1] is a popular compressor-linker for 1--8 KB demos and its decompressor (partially embedded in a PE header) is probably around 1--200 bytes. Later efforts like oneKpaq [2] also have a comparable decompressor size.

If you don't mind a shameless plug and a slightly larger decompressor (about 500 bytes in JS) for better compression, my Roadroller [3] might fit the bill as well.

[1] https://github.com/runestubbe/Crinkler

[2] https://github.com/temisu/oneKpaq

[3] https://lifthrasiir.github.io/roadroller/

Crinkler, the compressing linker, is really interesting. This link inadvertently shows the file_id.diz for Crinkler rather than anything relevant to the rest of Elevated; but honestly I always found the Crinkler stuff to be fascinating.

The project lives on today: https://github.com/runestubbe/Crinkler and http://crinkler.net/

A somewhat similar project is Crinkler, a compressing linker.

Crinkler is designed to help make extremely small EXE files (such as around 4K in size), and replaces the Link step in building a program. It uses otherwise unused space in the EXE header, and uses a different method than the typical way to import DLL functions.

According to this source:

Following optimization, tools like UPX can compress the resulting binary, significantly reducing file size. This compression is invaluable for resource-constrained environments but adds a decompression step during binary execution.

I have been using UPX but I'm quite sure if there's something out there that offers better compression.

Ah that's nice, long ago I used parchment.js to load a inform7 created z5 file on my website. You could try to compress your executable with upx https://upx.github.io/

In this process, the given packer tool embeds a natively compiled PE into another executable that contains the information needed to unpack the original content and execute it. Perhaps the most well known packer, which is not even for malicious purposes, is Golang's UPX package.

Rewrite in C#, and use an obfuscator on the DLL. You can also write some parts in C++ as many variable and function names are forgotten when compiling. You should also encrypt the PCK, and see if you can embed it. If it's embedded, you can make it more annoying to deal with by packing it with https://upx.github.io/

Another good example of false positives like this would be binaries that are compressed with UPX - the way it works is apparently very similar to how stub-loader malware operates and signature detection tools will flag it as malicious.

This will optimise the release binary to be as small as possible. Additionally with upx we can create really small docker image !

Then I compressed it with upx, cp small.exe smallUpx.exe && upx --brute smallUpx.exe, got a 10752 bytes executable, half the size, but still pretty large