NoVmp – Unlocking VMProtect x64 With VTIL-Powered Devirtualization

Welcome to the world of NoVmp, a groundbreaking project that aims to unravel the complexities of VMProtect x64 3.0 – 3.5.

In this article, we’ll dive into the intriguing realm of devirtualization, exploring how NoVmp utilizes VTIL (Virtual-machine Translation Intermediate Language) to breathe new life into protected binaries.

Get ready to unlock the secrets of VMProtect and discover the power of NoVmp.

VMProtect? Nope.

NoVmp is a project devirtualizing VMProtect x64 3.0 – 3.5 (latest) into optimized VTIL and optionally recompiling back to x64 using the Virtual-machine Translation Intermediate Language library. It is rather experimental and is mostly a PoC I wanted to release. Most things can be improved especially with the new NativeLifters repo, but it did not exist back in the time this was written.

Usage

NoVmp accepts unpacked binaries, so if your binary is packed you’ll have to dump it first, additionally if you did dump it using a tool like Scylla, you’ll have to provide the original image base using the -base parameter like so:

-base 0x14000000

By default NoVmp will parse every single jump into a VM, if you are only interested in a number of specific virtualized routines you can use the -vms parameter like so with relative virtual addresses:

-vms 0x729B81 0x72521

These addresses should be pointing at the VMEnter, as shown below:

By default section discovery is automatic, but in case your calls are not being chained you should try adding the VMProtect section name into the section list using -sections as shown below:

-sections .xxx0 .yyy0

Note that the .<vmp>1 section is the merged VMProtect DLL which should not be inputted.

Additionally you can use any of the following switches:

-noopt: Disables optimization.
-opt:constant: Optimizes the VMProtect Ultra constant obfuscation out.
-experimental:recompile: Enables the experimental x64 compiler.

Known Bugs

Known issues from VTIL-Core, mainly the lack of jump table support and propagation passes taking too long/not being great which are being worked on.
Binaries compiled with relocations stripped are not fully supported yet.
Experimental compiler is a borderline broken demo, issues related to it should not be submitted as it’ll be reworked and will be in VTIL-Core.

Varshini

Varshini is a Cyber Security expert in Threat Analysis, Vulnerability Assessment, and Research. Passionate about staying ahead of emerging Threats and Technologies.