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Ghidra by NSA

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Re: Ghidra by NSA

#121

Post by mathisfun123 »

1vuio0pswjnm7 wrote: post #108
alexrp wrote: post #44

Binary Ninja deserves a mention in these threads: https://binary.ninja I've used IDA, Ghidra, and Binary Ninja a lot over the years. At this point I much prefer Binary Ninja for the task of building up an understanding of large binaries with many thousands of types and functions. It also doesn't hurt that its UI/UX feel like something out of this century, and it's very easy to automate using Python scripts.

The Linux free trial version is a 400MB .zip file including a 255.2MB "binaryninja" shared binary https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/releases/downloa...

what's your point?

Re: Ghidra by NSA

#122

Post by boltzmann-brain »

giancarlostoro wrote: post #114
palata wrote: post #20

Taking the opportunity to ask: are there nice recommended resources for a beginner to start with reverse engineering (ideally using Ghidra)? Let's say for an experienced developer, but not so experienced in reverse engineering? I guess one issue I have is that I don't have good ideas of fun projects, and that's probably something I need to actually get the motivation to learn. I can find a "hello world", that's easy,…

Find an old piece of software you care about that is broken somehow, and abandoned. Most of my friends use these types of tools to reverse engineer abandoned MMOs and remake servers for them.

That's very deep water to dive into. I suggest something simpler, like an ancient irc client that asks you to sign up, or an archive extractor.

Re: Ghidra by NSA

#123

Post by dogma1138 »

alexrp wrote: post #44

Binary Ninja deserves a mention in these threads: https://binary.ninja I've used IDA, Ghidra, and Binary Ninja a lot over the years. At this point I much prefer Binary Ninja for the task of building up an understanding of large binaries with many thousands of types and functions. It also doesn't hurt that its UI/UX feel like something out of this century, and it's very easy to automate using Python scripts.

BN is nice if someone is paying for it, but has too many limitations especially for the most common use case which is security.

Re: Ghidra by NSA

#124

Post by palata »

salawat wrote: post #99
ActorNightly wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I often wonder why on this forum of alleged hacker types, there seems to be such an impetus to push what all VC's are desperately bought into at the moment, whether it be crypto, or AI nonsense. Oh wait... Right. Asking for resources or asking "does anyone know where I can start?" Followed by a description of "here's where I'm at" has been table stakes for the uninitiated since time immemorial. When I see "ask the LL…

Thanks! I appreciate the insights. I definitely don't expect to make money out of that, I really just want to learn and understand :-).

Re: Ghidra by NSA

#126

Post by palata »

gosub100 wrote: post #105
ActorNightly wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You were rude but I understand what you mean. People can obviously Google "reverse engineering tutorial" or something similar. And certainly "what are good resources for X" can be a way to signal interest in something, get people to respond, and not necessarily do anything about it. But I think the most charitable interpretation of that question is they want a group consensus for the best place to start, since Google…

> can be a way to signal interest in something, get people to respond, and not necessarily do anything about it.

I can explain my intent, since I asked the question :-).

"Signal interest in something in the hope of starting a discussion with people who share that interest and may have interesting stories to share".

I loved IRC for that. I could join a channel, ask a question and sometimes someone knowledgeable would engage in a discussion with me. Often nobody answered, but because IRC was "ephemeral", I could ask again another time, and another one, hoping to eventually find someone interested.

> I think we should conclude people want to maximize learning while minimizing wasted time

In my case (and I want to believe that in many other cases), it's really just that people (me, here) would like to have some human interaction about a topic.

I know how to learn, I was not asking about that. I was trying to start a conversation with humans, that's all.

Re: Ghidra by NSA

#127

Post by palata »

ActorNightly wrote: post #113
salawat wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often wonder why on this forum of alleged hacker types, there seems to be such an impetus to push what all VC's are desperately bought into at the moment, whether it be crypto, or AI nonsense. Oh wait... Right. Asking for resources or asking "does anyone know where I can start?" Followed by a description of "here's where I'm at" has been table stakes for the uninitiated since time immemorial. When I see "ask the LL…

I happened to be at Amazon during Covid, and at a certain point during the hiring craze, I was doing like 3 interviews a week. I have interviewed probably close to 500 people so far in my career as software. Even pre llm, there was a clear indicator of someone who was skilled at coding versus someone who was not. The big thing that differentiated people was curiosity. When someone is curious, they would go look stuff…

Respectfully, I hope you don't judge the people you interview the way you judged me based on my question. You have no idea who I am, and surely not enough data to decide whether I know how to learn or not.

In my opinion, it is extremely important for the interviewer to realise that they are in a dominant position. Here, I can tell you what I think about how you judged me. If I was an interviewee, I may not be in a position to lose the job just because I told you that you are being rude.

Re: Ghidra by NSA

#128

Post by giancarlostoro »

boltzmann-brain wrote: post #122
giancarlostoro wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Find an old piece of software you care about that is broken somehow, and abandoned. Most of my friends use these types of tools to reverse engineer abandoned MMOs and remake servers for them.

That's very deep water to dive into. I suggest something simpler, like an ancient irc client that asks you to sign up, or an archive extractor.

Well I didnt mean dive into an MMO right away, but yes I recommend smaller programs.

Re: Ghidra by NSA

#129

Post by WalterGR »

dogma1138 wrote: post #123
alexrp wrote: post #44

Binary Ninja deserves a mention in these threads: https://binary.ninja I've used IDA, Ghidra, and Binary Ninja a lot over the years. At this point I much prefer Binary Ninja for the task of building up an understanding of large binaries with many thousands of types and functions. It also doesn't hurt that its UI/UX feel like something out of this century, and it's very easy to automate using Python scripts.

BN is nice if someone is paying for it, but has too many limitations especially for the most common use case which is security.

What are the limitations?

Re: Ghidra by NSA

#130

Post by palata »

ActorNightly wrote: post #111
palata wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since we're judging each other, I'm genuinely wondering how bad you are at making friends. I mean, non-LLM friends. Relatives don't count.

Im neurodivergent as hell, so good at all. But I also don't really require friendships, as people interactions are very draining on me.

> Im neurodivergent as hell

Well that may explain it, then, thanks for letting me know.

I realise that my question was not super clear because... well I didn't really know what to ask :-). I was just trying to engage in a human interaction. Say I am at a party with friends and strangers, and when I get introduced to a stranger, they say "I am a professional reverse engineer". Because I find that interesting, I will start asking questions. And I may well start trying to explain what I find interesting, giving the expert an angle to start talking about it.

Of course I could just go home and read about reverse engineering. But at that moment, in that party, I want to enjoy a discussion about it with a human being. Part of the experience is that I get to hear what some other human thinks about it.

I am not there for a formal course, I am there to listen to what a human being has to say about it. And obviously an LLM cannot do that job :-).

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