Ghidra
Ghidra (pronounced GEE-druh;[3] /ˈɡiːdrə/[4]) is a free and open source reverse engineering tool developed by the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. The binaries were released at RSA Conference in March 2019; the sources were published one month later on GitHub.[5] Ghidra is seen by many security researchers as a competitor to IDA Pro.[6] The software is written in Java using the Swing framework for the GUI. The decompiler component is written in C++, and is therefore usable in a stand-alone form.[7]
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![]() Disassembly of a file in Ghidra | |
Original author(s) | NSA |
---|---|
Initial release | March 5, 2019 |
Stable release | 11.0.3[1]
/ April 11, 2024 |
Repository | github |
Written in | Java, C++ |
License | Apache License 2.0 / Public domain[2] |
Website | ghidra-sre |
Scripts to perform automated analysis with Ghidra can be written in Java or Python (via Jython),[8][9] though this feature is extensible and support for other programming languages is available via community plugins.[10] Plugins adding new features to Ghidra itself can be developed using a Java-based extension framework.[11]
History
Ghidra's existence was originally revealed to the public via Vault 7 in March 2017,[12] but the software itself remained unavailable until its declassification and official release two years later.[5] Some comments in its source code indicates that it existed as early as 1999.[13]
Version | Year | Major features |
---|---|---|
1.0 | 2003 | Proof of concept |
2.0 | 2004 | Database, docking windows |
3.0 | 2006 | SLEIGH, decompiler, version control |
4.0 | 2007 | Scripting, version tracking |
5.0 | 2010 | File system browser |
6.0 | 2014 | First unclassified version |
9.0 | 2019 | First public release |
9.2 | 2020 | Graph visualization, new PDB parser |
10.0 | 2021 | Debugger |
11.0 | 2023 | Rust and Go binaries support, BSim |
In June 2019, Coreboot began to use Ghidra for its reverse engineering efforts on firmware-specific problems following the open source release of the Ghidra software suite.[16]
Ghidra can be used, officially,[17][18] as a debugger since Ghidra 10.0. Ghidra's debugger supports debugging user-mode Windows programs via WinDbg, and Linux programs via GDB.[19]
See also
- IDA Pro
- JEB decompiler
- radare2
- Binary Ninja
References
- "Releases · NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2023-07-30. Retrieved 2023-12-22.
- "ghidra/NOTICE". GitHub.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2022. Retrieved 13 April 2019.
- "Frequently asked questions". GitHub.com. Archived from the original on 5 March 2019. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- "Come Get Your Free NSA Reverse Engineering Tool!". YouTube.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-15. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
- Newman, Lily Hay. "The NSA Makes Ghidra, a Powerful Cybersecurity Tool, Open Source". Wired. Archived from the original on 6 March 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
- Cimpanu, Catalin. "NSA releases Ghidra, a free software reverse engineering toolkit". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 2019-03-06. Retrieved 2019-03-07.
- e. g. as Plugin Archived 2022-10-14 at the Wayback Machine for Radare2 oder Rizin.
- "Ghidra Scripting Class". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2023-02-20. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
- "Three Heads are Better Than One: Mastering NSA's Ghidra Reverse Engineering Tool" (PDF). GitHub. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-03-01. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
- "Ghidraal". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2023-02-20. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
- "Ghidra Advanced Development Class". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2023-02-20. Retrieved 2023-02-19.
- "NSA to release a free reverse engineering tool". ZDNET. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
- "Build software better, together". GitHub. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
- "ghidra/Ghidra/Configurations/Public_Release/src/global/docs/ChangeHistory.html at master · NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra". GitHub. Retrieved 2024-05-08.
- Ghidra - Journey from Classified NSA Tool to Open Source. Retrieved 2024-05-08 – via www.youtube.com.
- "Coreboot Project Is Leveraging NSA Software To Help With Firmware Reverse Engineering". Archived from the original on 2009-09-21. Retrieved 2019-06-05.
- "Compiled/built Ghidra 9.3 for Windows with Debugger feature by Galician R&D Center in Advanced Telecommunications employees". Archived from the original on 2022-11-25. Retrieved 2022-11-25.
- "Analizando el depurador de Ghidra". 11 March 2021. Archived from the original on 14 December 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
- "What's new in Ghidra 10.0". Archived from the original on 2023-06-19. Retrieved 2021-06-24.
- "Rob Joyce on Twitter". Twitter.com. Archived from the original on 7 March 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
- "List of Processors Supported by Ghidra". Github.com. Archived from the original on 12 October 2023. Retrieved 29 September 2023.