python-binexport 0.3.1

Python wrapper to manipulate binexport files (protobuf)

Python-Binexport

python-binexport is a python module aiming to give a friendly interface to load and manipulate binexport files.

What is binexport ?

Binexport is a protobuf format used by Bindiff to extract IDA database and to process them outside. It gives a very optimizated (in size) representation of the program.

Dependencies

Python-binexport can load any .BinExport files generated from the supported disassemblers IDA, Ghidra and Binary Ninja.

However to perform the export with binexporter or from the API ProgramBinexport.from_binary_file() the IDA plugin must be installed as it is the only supported at the moment. For that it has to be installed first from the github page. To use the feature python-binexport requires IDA >=7.2 (as it calls the BinExportBinary IDC function).

[!WARNING] If you export files from python-binexport make sure the IDA Pro binexport plugin is properly installed and works when running it manually before trying to use it from the python library (it can hang if not properly installed).

[!NOTE] The possibility to export files using Ghidra, or Binary Ninja from python-binexport might be supported in the future.

Installation

pip install python-binexport

Python module usage

The main intended usage of python-binexport is as a python module. The main entry point is the class ProgramBinExport which triggers the loading of the whole file. Here is a snippet to iterate on every expression of every instruction in the program:

from binexport import ProgramBinExport

p = ProgramBinExport("myprogram.BinExport")
for fun_addr, fun in p.items():
    with fun:  # Preload all the basic blocks
        for bb_addr, bb in fun.items():
            for inst_addr, inst in bb.instructions.items():
                for operand in inst.operands:
                    for exp in operand.expressions:
                        pass  # Do whatever at such deep level

Obviously ProgramBinExport, FunctionBinExport, InstructionBinExport and OperandBinExport all provides various attributes and method to get their type, and multiple other infos.

If the module idascript is installed you can directly generate a BinExport file using the Program.from_binary_file static method.

Command line usage

The executable script binexporter provides a very basic utility to export a BinExport file straight from the command line (without having to launch IDA etc..). This is basically a wrapper for Program.from_binary_file.