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IDA: What's new in 7.00

hex-rays.com

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Re: IDA: What's new in 7.00

#41

Post by mettamage »

A couple of years back I learned how to use IDA in a binary and malware analysis class. If you happen to study in The Netherlands, the VU University Amsterdam is where that class is at!

I'm fuzzy on my memory, but man! This was so much cooler and better than disassembling stuff on the commandline! The cool thing about IDA that I found out are:

- its scripting language (we used Python)

- its ability to show loops and branches by drawing arrows to other pieces of assembly (it's a special view you can use)

- really good search and code labeling features: if you change on register name somewhere, then that's propagated to where that register is used in the rest of the relevant code

- the ability to patch programs: you can overwrite processor instructions, mostly I used instruction 90 which is the nop instruction (meaning: no operation).

These features are not unique to IDA, but from a beginner perspective: I thought they were awesome! We used some kind of demo version for IDA.

Re: IDA: What's new in 7.00

#42

Post by Cerium »

satysin wrote: post #14
bitexploder wrote: post #3

A quick overview of what makes IDA cool for those unfamiliar with it: * It has one of the best decompilers available * It supports a ridiculous number of platforms * I trust its disassembler (especially for mainstream languages) more than almost any other disassembler * Demangling of Swift names is a nice quality of life improvement, Swift moves fast and is hard to keep up with * Still the best disassembler and machi…

It isn't as powerful as IDA but x64dbg is a free and open source debugger for Windows and a good goto for hobbyists imho - https://x64dbg.com

x64dbg is great. It has enough features (such as visual charts) to make debugging much easier than on a classic debugger. That said, it makes mistakes and is not nearly as bulletproof as IDA.

Re: IDA: What's new in 7.00

#43

Post by MichaelGG »

utku_karatas2 wrote: post #15
adamnemecek wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's my understanding that people who have previously pirated it are blacklisted from every using the sw legally thereby potentially making it impossible to get a job in the industry.

How do you even enforce such a policy? And who the hell is IDA run by? The Soup Nazi?

They're very difficult to deal with. Renewing my license which was in my name, but at a company I didn't actively work with, was a pain. Even though I had a valid email address at the company in question (part owner). They wanted the company to verify I was allowed to pay them to buy the product. Took over a week IIRC for me to give them money.

Then, if you lose your downloads (in my case, corrupted file) and your contract expires, you're out of luck. Since they make a separate EXE for each customer, they don't provide any way of getting the software once your support contract ends. Seems silly, considering pirated copies are readily obtainable.

But, they're the best so they can act like this and get away with it.

Re: IDA: What's new in 7.00

#44

Post by khedoros1 »

khedoros1 wrote: post #36
captainmuon wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially since there is no way I'm buying this as a hobbyist. I'd like to have it, but I don't need it and can't afford it - so I either pirate it or won't use it. If I got access, by pirating, or having a free / subsidized / university version, I might be able to develop my skills such that I can use this professionally, and would certainly be able to buy a license (and ongoing support). But like this, the only wa…

> But like this, the only way I could "get into" IDA Pro is by using it at a company where the bought a license. Or use the older, free version, which would be enough to develop some skills and become familiar with the general operation of the program.

If someone else has a better idea of how to legally become familiar with the program without paying $739 for a Starter Edition license, I'd like to hear it.

Re: IDA: What's new in 7.00

#45

Post by khedoros1 »

dijit wrote: post #6
_xhok wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's expected that hobbyists will pirate it.

Thats a crappy model; I'd pay for it if it were available. Especially on my preferred platform. (Linux)

The Starter Edition license is $739, and is available on Linux. I've heard that it can take some work to get them to agree to sell you a copy (liability concerns, or something)

Re: IDA: What's new in 7.00

#46

Post by lawnchair_larry »

_xhok wrote: post #5
adamnemecek wrote: post #2

the prices are still kinda ridiculous for hobbyists. i realize those might not be the main customers.

It's expected that hobbyists will pirate it.

Wow, you could not be more wrong on that. They've gone to greater lengths than any other vendor I can think of to prevent piracy and punish those who do.

Re: IDA: What's new in 7.00

#47

Post by lawnchair_larry »

tptacek wrote: post #24
adamnemecek wrote: post #2

the prices are still kinda ridiculous for hobbyists. i realize those might not be the main customers.

It's expensive, but it probably doesn't cost nearly enough. IDA is the Microsoft Word of software reverse engineering, and its low price relative to the bill rates of people who actually use it is a boat anchor for the entire reversing market. It's difficult to charge more than IDA charges for new products. Since the market for reversing products is always going to involve a relatively small number of people doing ve…

Disagree, most people who use IDA professionally only use it occasionally, when the job calls for it. I know many security professionals who only end up using it a few times a year, but when they need it they need it. Full time reverse engineers are the exception, but they are not the majority of IDA users. For everyone else, it's typically one of many pieces of expensive software.

Though it's unclear if we are discussing sticker shock over IDA Pro or over IDA Pro + Hex Rays decompilers, because there is a pretty huge increase in cost as you start needing those.

Re: IDA: What's new in 7.00

#48

Post by aetherspawn »

I feel like they kind of lose money on IDA by not marketing some sort of hobby version. I offered the guy $100 to purchase a legit version of IDA for personal educational use and he declined (go figure). I am just a university student.

Re: IDA: What's new in 7.00

#49

Post by FraKtus »

bitexploder wrote: post #3

A quick overview of what makes IDA cool for those unfamiliar with it: * It has one of the best decompilers available * It supports a ridiculous number of platforms * I trust its disassembler (especially for mainstream languages) more than almost any other disassembler * Demangling of Swift names is a nice quality of life improvement, Swift moves fast and is hard to keep up with * Still the best disassembler and machi…

Hopper on the Mac is very nice an affordable, it did save me several time to understand undocumented features in some plugins...

Re: IDA: What's new in 7.00

#50

Post by fish_fan »

adamnemecek wrote: post #7
_xhok wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's expected that hobbyists will pirate it.

It's my understanding that people who have previously pirated it are blacklisted from every using the sw legally thereby potentially making it impossible to get a job in the industry.

From every what? It's hard for me to imagine a company caring about such a thing; this seems like something the courts handle just fine.
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