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README.md

BinExport for Ghidra

Table of Contents

Introduction

BinExport is the exporter component of BinDiff. This subdirectory contains an experimental version for the open source software reverse engineering suite Ghidra.

How to Build

Build Dependencies

In order to build, the following software needs to be installed on the development machine:

The Gradle build tool will addtionally download these dependencies:

  • Gradle plugin for protobuf
  • Protobuf 3.25.0 for Java

For development, a recent version of Eclipse and the Ghidra development plugin are recommended (see below)

Build BinExport

From the command-line, start the build with

gradle

After downloading the addtional dependencies and compiling the Java sources, the extension is available as a .zip file under dist/ghidra_11.0.3_PUBLIC_YYYYMMDD_BinExport.zip, where YYYYMMDD stands for the current date.

Development using Eclipse

For development Eclipse 2023-12 or higher is recommended (https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/release/2023-12/r/eclipse-ide-java-developers).

The Gradle build tool can automatically create an Eclipse project. From the command-line, run

gradle build eclipse

Then import the project in Eclipse using File|Open Projects from File System.... To enable build and debug configurations for Ghidra, follow the Installation Guide

Using GhidraDev, link the project to your local Ghidra installation via GhidraDev|Link Ghidra....

Note: Due to the way Gradle project generation works, you may need to manually clean up the build class path in .classpath before linking to your local Ghidra installation.

Installing the Ghidra Extension

After a successful dist-build the BinExport extension can be installed like any other extension:

  1. Start Ghidra, then select File|Install Extensions....
  2. Click the + button to Add extension.
  3. In the Select Extension dialog, navigate to your source directory and open the dist folder.
  4. Select the .zip file you created and click OK
  5. Click OK to confirm and again to dismiss the restart message. Then restart Ghidra.

Usage

This version of the Java based exporter for Ghidra has the following features compared to the native C++ version for IDA Pro:

Ghidra Extension IDA Pro plugin
Protocol Buffer based full export ✓¹ ✓
Statistics text file - ✓
Text format for debugging - ✓

¹ No operand trees

Verifying the installation version

  1. In Ghidra, select File|Install Extensions....
  2. Verify that BinExport is listed and has the correct Install Path

Invocation

  1. In Ghidra, open a project or create a new one.
  2. If not already done, open the binary to export in the Code Browser tool and run Ghidra's initial analysis. You may want to enable the "aggressive instruction finder" option to get better coverage in the export.
  3. In the project view, right-click the binary to export and select Export...
  4. From the drop-down list, select Binary BinExport (v2) for BinDiff
  5. Select a path for the output file. This can be the original filename, as .BinExport will be appended.
  6. Click OK.

BinDiff Exported Files

If you have BinDiff installed (available from https://www.zynamics.com/software.html), exported files can be diffed and the results displayed in its UI:

  1. Export two binaries following the instructions above. The following steps assume primary.BinExport and secondary.BinExport.

  2. From the command-line, run the BinDiff engine with

    bindiff primary.BinExport secondary.BinExport

    This will create a file primary_vs_secondary.BinDiff in the current directory.

  3. Launch the BinDiff UI, either via bindiff --ui or using the launcher for your operating system.

  4. Create a new workspace or open an existing one.

  5. Select Diffs|Add Existing Diff....

  6. Under Choose Diff, select the primary_vs_secondary.BinDiff created in step 2.

  7. Click OK, followed by Add. The diff is now shown in the tree view on the left and can be opened by double-clicking it.

  8. Use BinDiff normally to display the call graph or flow graphs of matched functions.