The Beginner's Guide to IDAPython
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The Beginner's Guide to IDAPython

About the Book

Hello!

This is a book about IDAPython.

I originally wrote it as a reference for myself - I wanted a place to go to where I could find examples of functions that I commonly use (and forget) in IDAPython. Since I started this bookI have used it many times as a quick reference to understand syntax or see an example of some code - if you follow my blog you may notice a few familiar faces – lots of scripts that I cover here are result of sophomoric experiments that I documented online.

Over the years I have received numerous emails asking what is the best guide for learning IDAPython. Usually I will point them to to Ero Carrera's Introduction to IDAPython or the example scripts in the IDAPython's public repo. They are excellent sources for learning but they don't cover some common issues that I have come across. I wanted to create a book that covers these issues.I feel this book will be of value for anyone learning IDAPython or wanting a quick reference for examples and snippets. Being an e-book it will not be a static document and I plan on updating it in the future on regular basis.

The above snippet is from the Introduction of the The Beginner's Guide to IDAPython. I wrote this book in my spare time. It has been rewritten to cover changes made with the release of IDA 7.

Updates

Version 1.0

  • Published

Version 2.0

  • Table of Contents and closing added

Version 3.0

  • Grammar fixes provided by Russell V. and added an example of renaming operands.

Version 4.0

  • Support for IDAPython 7.0

Version 4.1

  • Bug fixes provided by Minh-Triet Pham Tran @MinhTrietPT

Version 5.0 

  • Converted format from Markdown to Microsoft Word.
  • Yara chapter added
  • Coloring chapter added
  • Structure chapter added
  • Enumerated Types chapter added
  • What’s next chapter added
  • Fixed bug found by @qmemcpy
  • Added MakeFunction as requested by Minh-Triet Pham Tran

Version 6.0

  • Support for IDAPython 7.4 and Python 3.
  • Extracting Function Arguments chapter added
  • Basic Blocks chapter added
  • PyQt chapter added
  • Unicorn Engine chapter added

 Version 7.0

  • Layout improvements, function updates and bug fixes.
  • Rewrote basic blocks chapter
  • Persistent storage chapter added

About the Author

Alexander Hanel
Alexander Hanel

I work as a reverse engineer and malware analyst. I enjoy coding, reverse engineering, data analysis and a bunch of outdoor activities. I live in Boulder, Colorado. For more information about my work you can check out my blog or my code repository.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Updates 2

Intended Audience & Disclaimer 3

Conventions 3

IDAPython Background 5

Old vs New 5

Python-x86_64 Issues 6

The Basics 7

Segments 9

Functions 10

Extracting Function Arguments 17

Instructions 18

Operands 22

Basic Blocks 27

Structures 30

Enumerated Types 35

Xrefs 38

Searching 44

Selecting Data 51

Comments & Renaming 52

Persistent Storage for IDBs 60

Coloring 65

Accessing Raw Data 67

Patching 69

Input and Output 71

PyQt 74

Batch File Generation 77

Executing Scripts 79

Yara 81

Unicorn Engine 87

What’s Next? 99

Closing 100

Appendix 101

PeFile 101

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