Ghidra Software Reverse Engineering for Beginners

Detect potentials bugs in your code or program and develop your own tools using the Ghidra reverse engineering framework developed by the NSA project

▶Book Description
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.

▶What You Will Learn
- Get to grips with using Ghidra's features, plug-ins, and extensions
- Understand how you can contribute to Ghidra
- Focus on reverse engineering malware and perform binary auditing
- Automate reverse engineering tasks with Ghidra plug-ins
- Become well-versed with developing your own Ghidra extensions, scripts, and features
- Automate the task of looking for vulnerabilities in executable binaries using Ghidra scripting
- Find out how to use Ghidra in the headless mode

▶Key Features
- Make the most of Ghidra on different platforms such as Linux, Windows, and macOS
- Leverage a variety of plug-ins and extensions to perform disassembly, assembly, decompilation, and scripting
- Discover how you can meet your cybersecurity needs by creating custom patches and tools

▶Who This Book Is For
This SRE book is for developers, software engineers, or any IT professional with some understanding of cybersecurity essentials. Prior knowledge of Java or Python, along with experience in programming or developing applications, is required before getting started with this book.

▶What this book covers
- Chapter 1, Getting Started with Ghidra, is a journey through the history of Ghidra and an overview of the program from the user perspective.

- Chapter 2, Automating RE Tasks with Ghidra Scripts, explains how to use Ghidra scripts to automate reverse engineering tasks and introduces script development.

- Chapter 3, Ghidra Debug Mode, covers how to set up a Ghidra development environment, how to debug Ghidra, and all about the Ghidra debug mode vulnerability.

- Chapter 4, Using Ghidra Extensions, provides you with background for developing Ghidra extensions, as well as showing you how to install and use it.

- Chapter 5, Reversing Malware Using Ghidra, demonstrates how to use Ghidra for malware analysis by reversing a real-world malware sample.

- Chapter 6, Scripting Malware Analysis, continues the previous chapter by scripting for both languages, Java and Python, the analysis of a shellcode found in the malware sample.

- Chapter 7, Using Ghidra Headless Analyzer, explains Ghidra Headless Analyzer and applies this knowledge to a set of malware samples acquired with a script developed during the chapter.

- Chapter 8, Auditing Program Binaries, introduces the topic of finding memory corruption vulnerabilities using Ghidra and how to exploit it.

- Chapter 9, Scripting Binary Audits, continues the previous chapter, teaching how to automate the bug hunting process via scripting, taking advantage of the powerful PCode intermediate representation.

- Chapter 10, Developing Ghidra Plugins, delves into Ghidra extension development by explaining that Ghidra plugin extensions are the way to get the most out of the Ghidra features implemented.

- Chapter 11, Incorporating New Binary Formats, shows how to write Ghidra extensions to support new binary formats, taking a real-world file format as an example.

- Chapter 12, Analyzing Processor Modules, discusses how to write Ghidra processor modules using the SLEIGH processor specification language.

- Chapter 13, Contributing to the Ghidra Community, explains how to interact with the community using social networks, chats, and how to contribute with your own development, feedback, bug reports, comments, and so on.

- Chapter 14, Extending Ghidra for Advanced Reverse Engineering, introduces advanced reverse engineering topics and tools such as SMT solvers, Microsoft Z3, static and dynamic symbex, LLVM, and Angr, and explains how to incorporate them with Ghidra.