June 19, 2009

Function call graph plugin sample

IDA Pro already has a function call graph facility, nonetheless it employs WinGraph32.

Continue reading "Function call graph plugin sample" »

June 15, 2009

IDA Pro 5.5 and Hex-Rays 1.1 have been released!

IDA Pro 5.5

We are happy to announce a new version of IDA Pro! The major news is the new docking user interface. There are many other improvements: processor modules, file formats, analysis tweaks, well, the usual stuff. There is a new MS Windows Crash Dump Loader and improved Bochs debugger. The complete list of new features and bug fixes is available here

http://www.hex-rays.com/idapro/55/index.htm

Hex-Rays 1.1

We also release a new version of our decompiler: now with the floating point support. It was a technically challenging task and required lots of testing, but we are very happy with the end result. It can really handle floating point computations and generates reliable output. All subtle nuances, like conversion rules, fpu stack state, predefined compiler helper functions, are all taken care of.

The decompiler uses debug information if it is available: in this case, even local variable names and types will be restored. If there is no debug information, the decompiler will still generate correct and precise output. In fact, it is designed to work without debug information, which means that virtually any compiler-generated executable can be analyzed and turned into C output.

New pricing and support plans

With this release, we update the pricing of IDA Pro and Hex-Rays Decompiler. While the initial purchase prices are increased, upgrade prices go down. In order to streamline the upgrade process, we will use the same rules for all our products: now a support plan is renewable any time while it is active and also three months after its expiration. The new support period is counted from the expiration date of the previous support period.

If you upgraded your IDA/Hex-Rays copy the last month with older prices, do not worry. For you, we will add a month of support for the IDA license, and three months of support for Hex-Rays Decompiler.

We will continue to accept old-style upgrade orders until 12 October 2009.

How to request the new versions

As usual, the new versions are free for users whose licenses are within active support plan. Submit your ida.key to

https://www.hex-rays.com/updida.shtml

and expect a message from us within 5-10 minutes. Sometimes we do not have your email in the database, so please specify it (otherwise we will have no means of communicating with you).

To request the new version of the decompiler, please use Edit, Plugins, Hex-Rays, Check for updates in IDA.

Is your key too old?

If your key is too old for a free update, you might still be eligible for a discounted upgrade. Until 12 October 2009 we offer the upgrade prices for all purchases made two years ago or less. The order forms can be found here:

http://www.hex-rays.com/idapro/idaorder.htm

We will arrange an electronic delivery to existing customers.

That's all folks! Enjoy the release.

June 02, 2009

IDA Pro 5.5 goes alpha

After many months of work, IDA Pro 5.5 is now in alpha stage and this week the beta will be out for testing.

Continue reading "IDA Pro 5.5 goes alpha " »

May 05, 2009

Decompiling floating point

It is a nice feeling, when, after long debugging nights, your software finally runs and produces meaningful results. Another hallmark is when other users start to use it and obtain useful results. Usually this period is very busy: lots of new bugs are discovered and fixed, unforeseen corner cases are handled. Then another period starts: when users come back for more copies,with more ideas, request more functionality, etc. This is what is happening with the decompiler now and I feel it is time to update you with the latest news.

Continue reading "Decompiling floating point" »

April 17, 2009

IDA v5.4 demo

Just a quick note for interested parties: we prepared the new demo version of IDA Pro. The new demo includes the bochs debugger. The debugger is fully functional with just one limitation: it will become inactive after a number of commands. I prefer to tell you this in advance rather than this limitation to be discovered in the middle of a heavy debugging session ;)

Here's the download link:

http://www.hex-rays.com/idapro/idadowndemo.htm

Enjoy!

February 19, 2009

Advanced Windows Kernel Debugging with VMWare and IDA's GDB debugger

We have already published short tutorial on Windows kernel debugging with IDA and VMWare on our site, but the debugging experience can still be improved.

VMWare's GDB stub is very basic, it doesn't know anything about processes or threads (for Windows guests), so for anything high-level we'll need to do some extra work. We will show how to get the loaded module list and load symbols for all them using IDAPython.

Continue reading "Advanced Windows Kernel Debugging with VMWare and IDA's GDB debugger" »

February 05, 2009

IDA Pro has 9 debugger modules

Since the number of debugger modules in IDA surpassed the magical number seven plus or minus two, we created a small table describing what is available and what is not:

http://www.hex-rays.com/idapro/debugger/index.htm

Direct links to tutorials are available here:

http://www.hex-rays.com/idapro/idasupport.htm

I know, I know - we need to add 64-bit support for all platforms, port the Bochs debugger module to Linux, and... any other suggestions? I personally would love to have source level debugging, yet it requires some substantial changes to the kernel. We probably will move in this direction, sooner or later...