Generative AI Accelerates Malware Reverse Engineering: ChatGPT Breaks XLoader’s Multiple RC4 Encryption Layers in Hours

According to Check Point Research, Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT can accelerate malware reverse engineering, cutting analysis time from days to hours while focusing on the XLoader malware, a rebrand of FormBook. The study notes that XLoader is built with complex encryption layers, obfuscation, and evasion techniques that have long challenged analysts.

Using AI-assisted workflows, researchers connected ChatGPT with IDA Pro, x64dbg, and VMware for live debugging and memory inspection, and also employed an offline static analysis pipeline to examine decompiled code and memory structures entirely in the cloud.

With the latest XLoader 8.0 sample, the AI assistant identified multiple RC4 encryption layers and “secure-call trampolines” that shield memory, revealing a two-round RC4 process where the first decrypts the entire buffer and a second pass uses a different key.

AI-driven analysis produced working decryption scripts and exposed domain names used for command and control, such as taskcomputer[.]xyz, streamingsite[.]xyz, and goldenspoon[.]click, illustrating how rapid AI-assisted triage and scripting can shorten the attacker’s window of opportunity.