IDA The IDA Disassembler and Debugger is an interactive, programmable, extendible, multi-processor disassembler hosted on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X. IDA has become the de-facto standard for the analysis
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Formerly IDA PRO The IDA Disassembler and Debugger is an interactive, programmable, extendible, multi-processor disassembler hosted on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X. IDA has become the de-facto standard for the analysis of hostile code, vulnerability research and COTS validation. See this executive overview for a summary of its features and uses. * IDA Pro is a disassembler As a disassembler, IDA Pro explores binary programs, for which source code isn't always available, to create maps of their execution. The real interest of a disassembler is that it shows the instructions that are actually executed by the processor in a symbolic representation called assembly language. If the friendly screen saver you have just installed is spying on your e-banking session or logging your e-mails, a disassembler can reveal it. However, assembly language is hard to make sense of. That's why advanced techniques have been implemented into IDA Pro to make that code more readable, in some cases, quite close to the original source code that produced the binary program. The map of the program's code then be postprocessed for further investigations. Some people have used it as the root of a genomic classification of viruses. (digital genome mapping – advanced malware analysis) * IDA Pro is a debugger But, in real life, things aren't always simple. Hostile code usually does not cooperate with the analyst. Viruses, worms and trojans are often armored and obfuscated. More powerful tools are required. The debugger in IDA Pro complements the static analysis capabilities of the disassembler: by allowing to single step through the code being investigated, the debugger often bypasses the obfuscation and helps obtain data that the more powerful static disassembler will be able to process in depth. IDA Pro can be used as a local and as a remote debugger on various platforms, including the ubiquitous 80x86 (typicallyWindows/Linux) and the ARM platform (typically Windows CE PDAs) and other platforms. Remote debuggers are very useful when one wants to safely dissect potentially harmful programs. Some of IDA debuggers can run the application in a virtual environment: this makes malware analysis even safer. * IDA is interactive Because no computer can currently beat the human brain when it comes to exploring the unknown, IDA Pro is fully interactive. In sharp contrast with its predecessors, IDA always allows the human analyst to override its decisions or to provide hints. Interactivity culminates in a built-in programming language and an open plugin architecture. * IDA is programmable IDA Pro contains a complete development environment that consists of a very powerful macro-like language that can be used to automate simple to medium complexity tasks. For more advanced tasks, our open plugin architecture puts no limits on what external developers can do to enhance IDA Pro's functionality. One could, for example, extend IDA Pro with a MP3 player and make malware sing. However, we suspect our governmental customers are involved in more serious projects.

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