Table of Contents for
The IDA Pro Book, 2nd Edition

Version ebook / Retour

Cover image for bash Cookbook, 2nd Edition The IDA Pro Book, 2nd Edition by Chris Eagle Published by No Starch Press, 2011
  1. Cover
  2. The IDA Pro Book
  3. PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION OF THE IDA PRO BOOK
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. Introduction
  6. I. Introduction to IDA
  7. 1. Introduction to Disassembly
  8. The What of Disassembly
  9. The Why of Disassembly
  10. The How of Disassembly
  11. Summary
  12. 2. Reversing and Disassembly Tools
  13. Summary Tools
  14. Deep Inspection Tools
  15. Summary
  16. 3. IDA Pro Background
  17. Obtaining IDA Pro
  18. IDA Support Resources
  19. Your IDA Installation
  20. Thoughts on IDA’s User Interface
  21. Summary
  22. II. Basic IDA Usage
  23. 4. Getting Started with IDA
  24. IDA Database Files
  25. Introduction to the IDA Desktop
  26. Desktop Behavior During Initial Analysis
  27. IDA Desktop Tips and Tricks
  28. Reporting Bugs
  29. Summary
  30. 5. IDA Data Displays
  31. Secondary IDA Displays
  32. Tertiary IDA Displays
  33. Summary
  34. 6. Disassembly Navigation
  35. Stack Frames
  36. Searching the Database
  37. Summary
  38. 7. Disassembly Manipulation
  39. Commenting in IDA
  40. Basic Code Transformations
  41. Basic Data Transformations
  42. Summary
  43. 8. Datatypes and Data Structures
  44. Creating IDA Structures
  45. Using Structure Templates
  46. Importing New Structures
  47. Using Standard Structures
  48. IDA TIL Files
  49. C++ Reversing Primer
  50. Summary
  51. 9. Cross-References and Graphing
  52. IDA Graphing
  53. Summary
  54. 10. The Many Faces of IDA
  55. Using IDA’s Batch Mode
  56. Summary
  57. III. Advanced IDA Usage
  58. 11. Customizing IDA
  59. Additional IDA Configuration Options
  60. Summary
  61. 12. Library Recognition Using FLIRT Signatures
  62. Applying FLIRT Signatures
  63. Creating FLIRT Signature Files
  64. Summary
  65. 13. Extending IDA’s Knowledge
  66. Augmenting Predefined Comments with loadint
  67. Summary
  68. 14. Patching Binaries and Other IDA Limitations
  69. IDA Output Files and Patch Generation
  70. Summary
  71. IV. Extending IDA’s Capabilities
  72. 15. IDA Scripting
  73. The IDC Language
  74. Associating IDC Scripts with Hotkeys
  75. Useful IDC Functions
  76. IDC Scripting Examples
  77. IDAPython
  78. IDAPython Scripting Examples
  79. Summary
  80. 16. The IDA Software Development Kit
  81. The IDA Application Programming Interface
  82. Summary
  83. 17. The IDA Plug-in Architecture
  84. Building Your Plug-ins
  85. Installing Plug-ins
  86. Configuring Plug-ins
  87. Extending IDC
  88. Plug-in User Interface Options
  89. Scripted Plug-ins
  90. Summary
  91. 18. Binary Files and IDA Loader Modules
  92. Manually Loading a Windows PE File
  93. IDA Loader Modules
  94. Writing an IDA Loader Using the SDK
  95. Alternative Loader Strategies
  96. Writing a Scripted Loader
  97. Summary
  98. 19. IDA Processor Modules
  99. The Python Interpreter
  100. Writing a Processor Module Using the SDK
  101. Building Processor Modules
  102. Customizing Existing Processors
  103. Processor Module Architecture
  104. Scripting a Processor Module
  105. Summary
  106. V. Real-World Applications
  107. 20. Compiler Personalities
  108. RTTI Implementations
  109. Locating main
  110. Debug vs. Release Binaries
  111. Alternative Calling Conventions
  112. Summary
  113. 21. Obfuscated Code Analysis
  114. Anti–Dynamic Analysis Techniques
  115. Static De-obfuscation of Binaries Using IDA
  116. Virtual Machine-Based Obfuscation
  117. Summary
  118. 22. Vulnerability Analysis
  119. After-the-Fact Vulnerability Discovery with IDA
  120. IDA and the Exploit-Development Process
  121. Analyzing Shellcode
  122. Summary
  123. 23. Real-World IDA Plug-ins
  124. IDAPython
  125. collabREate
  126. ida-x86emu
  127. Class Informer
  128. MyNav
  129. IdaPdf
  130. Summary
  131. VI. The IDA Debugger
  132. 24. The IDA Debugger
  133. Basic Debugger Displays
  134. Process Control
  135. Automating Debugger Tasks
  136. Summary
  137. 25. Disassembler/Debugger Integration
  138. IDA Databases and the IDA Debugger
  139. Debugging Obfuscated Code
  140. IdaStealth
  141. Dealing with Exceptions
  142. Summary
  143. 26. Additional Debugger Features
  144. Debugging with Bochs
  145. Appcall
  146. Summary
  147. A. Using IDA Freeware 5.0
  148. Using IDA Freeware
  149. B. IDC/SDK Cross-Reference
  150. Index
  151. About the Author

IDAPython

IDAPython is a plug-in developed by Gergely Erdelyi that integrates a Python interpreter into IDA. Combined with supplied Python bindings, this plug-in allows you to write Python scripts with full access to all of the capabilities of the IDC scripting language. One clear advantage gained with IDAPython is access to Python’s native data-handling capabilities as well as the full range of Python modules. In addition, IDAPython exposes a significant portion of IDA’s SDK functionality, allowing for far more powerful scripting than is possible using IDC. IDAPython has developed quite a following in the IDA community. Ilfak’s blog[106] contains numerous interesting examples of problem solving with Python scripts, while questions, answers, and many other useful IDAPython scripts are frequently posted in the forums at OpenRCE.org.[107] In addition, third-party tools such as BinNavi[108] from Zynamics rely on IDA and IDAPython in order to perform various subtasks required by the tools.

Since IDA 5.4, Hex-Rays has been including IDAPython as a standard plug-in. Source code for the plug-in is available for download on the IDA-Python project page,[109] and API documentation is available on the Hex-Rays website.[110] IDA enables the plug-in only when Python is found to be installed on the computer on which you are running IDA. The Windows version of IDA ships with and installs a compatible version of Python,[111] while the Linux and OS X versions of IDA leave proper installation of Python up to you. On Linux, the current version of IDA (6.1) looks for Python 2.6. IDAPython is compatible with Python 2.7, and IDA will work just fine if you create symlinks from the required Python 2.6 libraries to your existing Python 2.7 libraries. If you have Python 2.7, a command similar to the following will create the symlink that will make IDA happy:

# ln -s /usr/lib/libpython2.7.so.1.0 /usr/lib/libpython2.6.so.1

OS X users may find that the version of Python that ships with OS X is older than that required by IDA. If this is the case, a suitable Python installer should be downloaded from www.python.org.[112]

Using IDAPython

IDAPython bridges Python code into IDA by making available three Python modules, each serving a specific purpose. Access to the core IDA API (as exposed via the SDK) is made available with the idaapi module. All of the functions present in IDC are made available in IDAPython’s idc module. The third module that ships with IDAPython is idautils, which provides a number of utility functions, many of which yield Python lists of various database-related objects such as functions or cross-references. Modules idc and idautils are automatically imported for all IDAPython scripts. If you need idaapi, on the other hand, you must import it yourself.

When using IDAPython, keep in mind that the plug-in embeds a single instance of the Python interpreter into IDA. This interpreter is not destroyed until you close IDA. As a result, you can view all of your scripts and statements as if they are running within a single Python shell session. For example, once you have imported the idaapi module for the first time in your IDA session, you need never import it again until you restart IDA. Similarly, initialized variables and function definitions retain their values until they are redefined or until you quit IDA.

There are a number of strategies for learning IDA’s Python API. If you already have some experience using IDC or programming with the IDA SDK, then you should feel right at home with the idaapi and idc modules. A quick review of the additional features in the idautils module should be all you really need to start making full use of IDAPython. If you have prior experience with IDC or the SDK, then you might dive into the Hex-Ray’s documentation for the Python API to develop a feel for the capabilities it offers. Remember that the idc module basically mirrors the IDC API and that you may find the list of IDC functions in IDA’s built-in help to be quite useful. Similarly, the descriptions of IDC functions presented earlier in this chapter are equally applicable to the corresponding functions in the idc module.


[106] See http://www.hexblog.com.

[107] See http://www.openrce.org/articles/.

[108] See http://www.zynamics.com/binnavi.html.

[109] See http://code.google.com/p/idapython/

[110] See http://www.hex-rays.com/idapro/idapython_docs/index.html.

[111] See http://www.python.org/.

[112] See http://www.python.org/download/mac/