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IdaJava 0.3

IdaJava is a plugin for IDA Pro that allows to write IDA plugins in Java. In other words: IdaJava is to Java like IDAPython is to Python... The plugin creates an in-process Java VM and looks for JAR files in IDA's plugins directory. Each Java based plugin gets their own menu item in Edit|Plugins.

NOTE (2017): This is old code that will likely no longer work. It's mainly here for reference. I don't plan on making further changes.

Table of Contents

• IdaJava 0.3
  • Requirements
  • Bugs
  • How to build
  • Installation
  • Developing Java Plugins for IDA
  • Future Directions
  • Copyright/Licensing

Requirements

Obviously:

• Windows version of IDA Pro, preferrably 5.7 (earlier versions are untested but may work)
• 32-bit Sun JRE (even on 64-bit Windows), version 1.6.0 or higher (tested with 1.6.0_21)

To rebuild language bindings:

• Swig 2.0.0

Bugs

There are quite a few rough edges:

• When closing IDA, the embedded Java VM does properly release its resources, but due to a bug in the VM itself, it always exits with an assertion. IDA databases are properly closed and the only thing that a user will notice is a hs-xxxxx.log file after closing IDA.

• The API is quite incomplete. Need more SWIG bindings. Started conversion of idc.idc (about 20% done top-to-bottom).

• Runs only on Windows at the moment

• Painting issues when creating TForm's with embedded AWT or Swing GUIs. The custom WindowProc that is set on the handle returned by IDA is never called. The embedded window always has width x height = 10000 x 10000.

• When using RMI to remotely control IDA, exiting IDA may result in un-marshalling errors.

• Generally not production-level code, since I (Christian) wrote the plugin initially as an automation tool for myself.

How to build

IdaJava was developed using Visual Studio 2010, but should compile on Visual Studio 2005/2008 as well. Just link with jvm.lib from a 32-bit Sun JDK and the ida.lib from the IDA 5.7 SDK. There are no other dependencies.

To rebuild the SWIG bindings, edit CallSwig.cmd and execute it. It will produce quite a few warnings, though.

The Java part of IdaJava was developed with Eclipse 3.6. Earlier versions will work as well. The complete project is included.

Source code is in part documented using JavaDoc-style comments. Java sources can thus be processed with JavaDoc, C++ sources with Doxygen.

The folder structure is roughly:

idajava/
+- javasrc/      Java project
|  +- bin/       Compiled Java classes
|  +- src/       Java source folder
|  +- external/  External source packages of used libraries
|  +- lib/       Jar files needed for building
+- cppsrc/       C++ project
|  +- Debug/     Debug build result files
|  +- Release/   Release build results files
|  +- src/       C++ sources
+- CONTRIBUTERS
+- LICENSE
+- README.md

Installation

1. Copy the file cppsrc\Debug\idajava.plw to your IDA plugin directory.
2. Copy the folder javasrc\bin\de folder to your IDA plugin directory
3. Copy the sample plugin javasrc\sample-plugin.jar to a sub directory java in your IDA directory.
4. Import cppsrc\EmptyPluginSettings.reg into the registry (the registry path HKCU\Software\blichmann.de\IdaJava\0.3 must exist).

Using the steps above, the Java part of IdaJava will be run from the compiled .class files instead of a JAR file. After loading a database, invoke the plugin with CTRL+8, it should display a small about dialog. To invoke the sample plugin, use the Edit|IdaJava Hello World Plugin menu item. It should display the current screen address in decimal.

Developing Java Plugins for IDA

1. Extend your plugin class from de.blichmann.idajava.api.plugin.IdaPlugin and implement the getDisplayName(), getHotkey() and run() methods (see the Java source, esp. de.blichmann.idajava.samples.HelloIdaPlugin).
2. Package your plugin as a JAR file (you can use Eclipse or an Ant task for that) and drop it in a directory IDADIR\java.

You can attach a debugger to the running Java VM inside of IDA. Your other options are of course System.out.println() and/or logging, sorry.

Access to a large part of the IDA SDK is provided through the classes of the de.blichmann.idajava.natives package. Constants are defined in de.blichmann.idajava.natives.IdaJavaConstants, API functions in de.blichmann.idajava.natives.IdaJava. A PrintStream for convenient output to IDA's message window is available in de.blichmann.idajava.api.IdaConsole. A part of idc.idc has been converted as well, it is available in the de.blichmann.api.idc.IdcCompat class (expect bugs!).

Future Directions

• Support for unloading and/or automatic reloading of plugins to aid development
• Provide an object-oriented Java-style API to the IDA SDK
• Provide an API to call IDA remotely via RMI
• More samples, i.e. port some of the SDK samples
• Properly support embedding AWT/Swing GUIs in IDA.
• Linux version with support for external "embedded" AWT/Swing GUIs (i.e. the IDA main window using the X11 version of libturbovision.so plus external windows)
• Support for Java based scripting languages as extlangs in IDA (think Groovy, JavaScript or even Jython)

Copyright/Licensing

IDAJava version 0.3 Copyright (c)2007-2017 Christian Blichmann idajava@blichmann.eu

IdaJava is subject to the terms of the GPLv2. See LICENSE for details. This also applies to all classes in the de.blichmann.framework package.