aeondave/binaryninja

Binary Ninja

Programmable RE platform — disassembler + decompiler + multi-level IL + Python API.

Quick Start

1. File → Open → target binary
2. Wait for auto-analysis (progress bar at bottom)
3. Navigate: Functions list (left) → click to view disassembly
4. Toggle views: Disassembly / HLIL (decompiler) / MLIL / LLIL / Graph
5. Right-click → Linear View or Graph View

Key Views

| View | Purpose | |------|---------| | Graph | Control flow graph of current function | | Linear | Linear disassembly (IDA-style) | | HLIL | High-Level IL — decompiler (C-like pseudocode) | | MLIL | Medium-Level IL — variables recovered, stack abstracted | | LLIL | Low-Level IL — close to assembly, normalized | | Hex | Raw hex editor | | Strings | All detected strings | | Cross References | XREF list for selected symbol |

Navigation

| Key | Action | |-----|--------| | G | Go to address or symbol | | N | Rename symbol | | Y | Change type | | L | Change label | | / | Add comment | | Tab | Switch between graph/linear | | H | Toggle between IL levels (LLIL→MLIL→HLIL→Disasm) | | X | Cross references | | Ctrl+E | Edit bytes | | P | Create function at cursor | | U | Undefine | | D | Change data type | | Ctrl+Shift+M | Open script console |

Intermediate Languages (IL)

Binary Ninja's defining feature — layered IL system:

LLIL — Low-Level IL: one-to-one with assembly but normalized. Architecture-independent register/flag access.

MLIL — Medium-Level IL: stack variables promoted to named variables; constant propagation; dead store elimination. Good for cross-function analysis.

HLIL — High-Level IL: decompiler output. Loops, if/else, switch, and variable declarations recovered. Best for human reading.

# Access different IL layers for a function
func = bv.get_function_at(here)
for block in func.hlil:
    for inst in block:
        print(f"  {inst.address:#x}: {inst}")

Python API (Scripting)

Basics

# Script console: View -> Script Console (or Ctrl+Shift+M)
# Or headless: import binaryninja; bv = binaryninja.load("/path/to/binary")

# List all functions
for func in bv.functions:
    print(f"{func.start:#x}: {func.name}")

# Get function at address
func = bv.get_function_at(0x401000)
print(func.name, func.start, func.total_bytes)

Find suspicious API calls

suspicious = ['VirtualAlloc', 'CreateRemoteThread', 'WriteProcessMemory',
              'LoadLibrary', 'GetProcAddress', 'connect', 'send']

for func in bv.functions:
    for block in func.hlil:
        for inst in block:
            if inst.operation == HighLevelILOperation.HLIL_CALL:
                target = str(inst.dest)
                for s in suspicious:
                    if s.lower() in target.lower():
                        print(f"  {func.name} @ {inst.address:#x} calls {target}")

Extract strings with cross-references

for s in bv.strings:
    if any(kw in s.value.lower() for kw in ['http', 'password', 'key', 'exec']):
        refs = bv.get_code_refs(s.start)
        for ref in refs:
            func = bv.get_functions_containing(ref.address)
            if func:
                print(f"  '{s.value}' referenced in {func[0].name} @ {ref.address:#x}")

Trace data flow (MLIL)

func = bv.get_function_at(0x401234)
for block in func.mlil:
    for inst in block:
        if inst.operation == MediumLevelILOperation.MLIL_CALL:
            if 'VirtualAlloc' in str(inst):
                if len(inst.params) > 3:
                    prot = inst.params[3]
                    print(f"  VirtualAlloc protect={prot} @ {inst.address:#x}")

Batch analysis (headless)

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Headless Binary Ninja analysis."""
import binaryninja

bv = binaryninja.load("/path/to/binary", update_analysis=True)
if bv is None:
    exit(1)
bv.update_analysis_and_wait()

print(f"Functions: {len(bv.functions)}")
print(f"Strings: {len(bv.strings)}")
print(f"Sections: {[s.name for s in bv.sections.values()]}")

for func in bv.functions:
    for ref in func.call_sites:
        callee = bv.get_function_at(ref.mlil.dest.constant)
        if callee and not callee.name.startswith("sub_"):
            print(f"  {func.name} -> {callee.name}")

bv.file.close()

Common RE Workflows

Malware static triage

1. Open sample → wait for analysis
2. Strings view → search for URLs, IPs, registry paths, suspicious keywords
3. Imports → check for injection/evasion/network APIs
4. Cross-reference suspicious imports → follow to calling functions
5. Switch to HLIL for decompiled view of key functions
6. Rename functions as you identify their purpose

Identify encryption algorithms

# Look for crypto constants (AES S-box)
aes_sbox = bytes([0x63, 0x7C, 0x77, 0x7B, 0xF2, 0x6B, 0x6F, 0xC5])
results = bv.find_all_data(bv.start, bv.end, aes_sbox)
for addr in results:
    print(f"  AES S-box found at {addr:#x}")
    refs = bv.get_code_refs(addr)
    for ref in refs:
        print(f"    Referenced from {ref.address:#x}")

Firmware analysis

1. File → Open with Options → set architecture and base address manually
2. Use Strings and XREF to find interesting code paths
3. Supports: ARM, Thumb, MIPS, PPC, RISC-V, x86, x64

Plugins

# Install via Plugin Manager: Edit -> Preferences -> Plugin Manager
# Useful plugins:
# - SigMaker: create IDA-compatible signatures
# - Syscall identifier: annotate syscall numbers
# - binja-msdn: auto-annotate WinAPI parameters

Resources

| File | When to load | |------|--------------| | references/scripting-recipes.md | Python API recipes for common analysis tasks | | references/il-guide.md | LLIL/MLIL/HLIL operation types and traversal patterns |