Book Image

Ghidra Software Reverse Engineering for Beginners

By : A. P. David
Book Image

Ghidra Software Reverse Engineering for Beginners

By: A. P. David

Overview of this book

Ghidra, an open source software reverse engineering (SRE) framework created by the NSA research directorate, enables users to analyze compiled code on any platform, whether Linux, Windows, or macOS. This book is a starting point for developers interested in leveraging Ghidra to create patches and extend tool capabilities to meet their cybersecurity needs. You'll begin by installing Ghidra and exploring its features, and gradually learn how to automate reverse engineering tasks using Ghidra plug-ins. You’ll then see how to set up an environment to perform malware analysis using Ghidra and how to use it in the headless mode. As you progress, you’ll use Ghidra scripting to automate the task of identifying vulnerabilities in executable binaries. The book also covers advanced topics such as developing Ghidra plug-ins, developing your own GUI, incorporating new process architectures if needed, and contributing to the Ghidra project. By the end of this Ghidra book, you’ll have developed the skills you need to harness the power of Ghidra for analyzing and avoiding potential vulnerabilities in code and networks.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
1
Section 1: Introduction to Ghidra
6
Section 2: Reverse Engineering
12
Section 3: Extending Ghidra

Developing a Ghidra loader

A loader is a Ghidra extension module that extends from the AbstractLibrarySupportLoader class. This class has the following methods: getName, findSupportedLoadSpecs, load, and, optionally, if supporting custom options, getDefaultOptions and validateOptions.

I'm assuming that you are familiar with loaders and these methods because they were superficially overviewed in Chapter 4, Using Ghidra Extensions.

The old-style DOS executable (MZ) parser

The existing Ghidra loader for MZ files must be able to parse the old-style DOS executable (MZ) file as we did by using HexIt v.1.57 in the Formatted binaries section of this chapter. To do that, Ghidra implements a parser for these kinds of binaries that is available here: https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/tree/master/Ghidra/Features/Base/src/main/java/ghidra/app/util/bin/format/mz.

This link contains three files:

  • DOSHeader.java: A file implementing the old-style DOS executable...