Ghidra, software reverse engineering framework.
Posted: Mon Mar 09, 2026 7:33 pm
Ghidra, software reverse engineering framework.
Ive known a bit about Ghirdra for some time but never needed to install it and didnt quite know what it could do but after getting frustrated with the disassembler ive been using I watched a couple of videos aabout it and decided to give it a trial. It doesnt quite justwork strait out of the boxbut with a little input it soon gets away and starts making really useful output with nicely formatted disasembly listings.
Ghirdra is a cross platform tool written in Java, it depends on having JRE installed. The actual program and installation instructions are available on Github here: https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra I had no difficulty instaling it on my M4 Mac by following the simple instructions.
The configuration process is allfully interactive so you can see changes you make in realtime, i.e.chnging a labelname immediateleychanges the whole listing wherever it is used. Another useful feature is the ability to define data structures of complex types including arrays of structures. Program flow is highlited with little lines joining branch source and destinations.
Ive ben using Ghirdra to reverse engineer the MACH-9 AIM-65 6809 CPU replacement software, its getting easier now some of the key functions are known about but still a way to go. Ghirdra can process binary files written for most common processors including 8086, Z80, 6502, and 6809 etc.I'm still at the beginner stage but its proving to be quite a bit of fun seeing the generated soure code taking shape.
The generated source looks like it should compile ok.
There is a feature to run the generated code within the application itself, but I havnt tried this yet...
When I'm back at my dest I'll add a few screenshots of the output etc.
Best rgards, David.
Ive known a bit about Ghirdra for some time but never needed to install it and didnt quite know what it could do but after getting frustrated with the disassembler ive been using I watched a couple of videos aabout it and decided to give it a trial. It doesnt quite justwork strait out of the boxbut with a little input it soon gets away and starts making really useful output with nicely formatted disasembly listings.
Ghirdra is a cross platform tool written in Java, it depends on having JRE installed. The actual program and installation instructions are available on Github here: https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra I had no difficulty instaling it on my M4 Mac by following the simple instructions.
The configuration process is allfully interactive so you can see changes you make in realtime, i.e.chnging a labelname immediateleychanges the whole listing wherever it is used. Another useful feature is the ability to define data structures of complex types including arrays of structures. Program flow is highlited with little lines joining branch source and destinations.
Ive ben using Ghirdra to reverse engineer the MACH-9 AIM-65 6809 CPU replacement software, its getting easier now some of the key functions are known about but still a way to go. Ghirdra can process binary files written for most common processors including 8086, Z80, 6502, and 6809 etc.I'm still at the beginner stage but its proving to be quite a bit of fun seeing the generated soure code taking shape.
The generated source looks like it should compile ok.
There is a feature to run the generated code within the application itself, but I havnt tried this yet...
When I'm back at my dest I'll add a few screenshots of the output etc.
Best rgards, David.
