Shikata Ga Nai is the first encoder we’ll demystify in the Shellcode Signature series, where Booz Allen threat analysts explore technical issues and insights for security practitioners to reference as they protect their organizations against cyber threats. Shikata Ga Nai is one of the few encoders in the Metasploit Framework with an ‘excellent’ ranking on GitHub, and is often referenced in cybersecurity books and tutorials.[1] Before its payload can be successfully encoded, Shikata Ga Nai runs through a handful of steps, as described below.