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

Understanding filesystem loaders

Ghidra also allows us to load filesystems. Filesystems are, basically, archive files (a file containing other files):

Figure 11.9 – A file named hello_world.zip imported as a filesystem

A good example of a filesystem loader implemented by Ghidra is the ZIP compressed format loader, which is available here: https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra/tree/master/Ghidra/Features/FileFormats/src/main/java/ghidra/file/formats/zip.

To develop a filesystem, you will need to implement the GFileSystem interface with the following methods: getDescription, getFileCount, getFSRL, getInfo, getInputStream, getListing, getName, getRefManager, getType, isClosed, isStatic lookup, and close.

FileSystem Resource Locator

A remarkable method of the GFileSystem interface is getFSRL, which allows you to retrieve the FileSystem Resource Locator (FSRL). An FSRL is a string allowing Ghidra to access files and directories stored...