5 ms·

Binsider – A TUI for analyzing Linux binaries

97 points by orhunp_ 2y ago

alex_suzuki 2y ago
[flagged]
- johnisgood 2y ago
  Yeah, an explanation would be nice, or perhaps a demonstration of whatever he has in mind that involves xz. That would make for a good demo.
  - pxc 2y ago
    The demo screencaps are of the xz binary.
    - johnisgood 2y ago
      What I tried to emphasize is documentation, like how Binsider may have helped mitigate security issues (or help raise awareness of potential issues) with regarding to xz.
      - pxc 2y ago
        Oh! Yeah, that's a great idea :)
- hacb 2y ago
  I cringed when I saw that
- TimeBearingDown 2y ago
  A reminder of why it’s good to analyze your project’s binaries. Test data, famously, but also firmware blobs, etc.
  - pxc 2y ago
    Why the black flag, though? That's a symbol of anarchy, which kinda suggests some kind of endorsement to me. But that also doesn't make sense because the Jia Tan affair was an attack on the commons, which is absolutely opposed to anarchist values.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
gjvc 2y ago
see also: https://github.com/haampie/libtree https://github.com/haampie/libtree for ldd(1) output as a tree for transitive dependencies
q3k 2y ago
I don't really get why this is a TUI. Any time I actually hack on this sort of stuff, I'd rather have the outputs (eg. symbols, ELF sections/segments, strings, ...) directly on stdout so I can then further filter stuff or otherwise process it. Especially strings! The only part of this tool that seems to merit a TUI is the hex view...
- IggleSniggle 2y ago
  Sometimes you really want to make a TUI videogame but can't think of a good roguelike design so you just start hacking away at what you're curious about. I can see this tool being a fun introduction to many things you would normally want to keep as separate tools you can glue together, and was probably also just a chance for them to exercise the TUI library they also created.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- fuhsnn 2y ago
  "llvm-readelf --elf-output-style=JSON | jq" is handy.
  - q3k 2y ago
    That's a neat trick!
  - szszrk 2y ago
    Push it through jless and you just made a great TUI for that :)
  - wwader 2y ago
    Nice haven't seen. Shameless plug fq support elf https://github.com/wader/fq https://github.com/wader/fq and will have a look if i could lend some ideas from llvm-readelf
- Vegenoid 2y ago
  One of the biggest benefits of a (good) TUI (or GUI) is that it guides someone who doesn't already know exactly what they want to do towards the most relevant information and the most common actions. Once you already know these things, it is usually faster and more powerful to work with code instead. With this TUI, someone who doesn't know very much about the internals of a binary gets that information presented them in a way that helps them learn the parts of the file, and their relations and relevance. It is also easier for many people to remember how to navigate a GUI/TUI to achieve a task than to use the CLI, likely because it makes use of the parts of our brain for navigating space. This often makes them easier to use for tasks that you only do occasionally (at least until you learn how to take good notes, manage snippets, and work with your shell history). So why a TUI instead of a GUI? Probably mostly for aesthetic and comfort reasons than for utility reasons - but I prefer staying in the terminal if possible, as I have a lot of control over its appearance and behavior, and TUIs generally have much better keyboard support than GUIs.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

97 points by orhunp_ 2y ago

alex_suzuki 2y ago

[flagged]

johnisgood 2y ago
Yeah, an explanation would be nice, or perhaps a demonstration of whatever he has in mind that involves xz. That would make for a good demo.
- pxc 2y ago
  The demo screencaps are of the xz binary.
  - johnisgood 2y ago
    What I tried to emphasize is documentation, like how Binsider may have helped mitigate security issues (or help raise awareness of potential issues) with regarding to xz.
    - pxc 2y ago
      Oh! Yeah, that's a great idea :)
hacb 2y ago
I cringed when I saw that
TimeBearingDown 2y ago
A reminder of why it’s good to analyze your project’s binaries. Test data, famously, but also firmware blobs, etc.
- pxc 2y ago
  Why the black flag, though? That's a symbol of anarchy, which kinda suggests some kind of endorsement to me. But that also doesn't make sense because the Jia Tan affair was an attack on the commons, which is absolutely opposed to anarchist values.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

gjvc 2y ago

see also: https://github.com/haampie/libtree https://github.com/haampie/libtree for ldd(1) output as a tree for transitive dependencies

q3k 2y ago

I don't really get why this is a TUI. Any time I actually hack on this sort of stuff, I'd rather have the outputs (eg. symbols, ELF sections/segments, strings, ...) directly on stdout so I can then further filter stuff or otherwise process it. Especially strings! The only part of this tool that seems to merit a TUI is the hex view...

IggleSniggle 2y ago
Sometimes you really want to make a TUI videogame but can't think of a good roguelike design so you just start hacking away at what you're curious about. I can see this tool being a fun introduction to many things you would normally want to keep as separate tools you can glue together, and was probably also just a chance for them to exercise the TUI library they also created.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
fuhsnn 2y ago
"llvm-readelf --elf-output-style=JSON | jq" is handy.
- q3k 2y ago
  That's a neat trick!
- szszrk 2y ago
  Push it through jless and you just made a great TUI for that :)
- wwader 2y ago
  Nice haven't seen. Shameless plug fq support elf https://github.com/wader/fq https://github.com/wader/fq and will have a look if i could lend some ideas from llvm-readelf
Vegenoid 2y ago
One of the biggest benefits of a (good) TUI (or GUI) is that it guides someone who doesn't already know exactly what they want to do towards the most relevant information and the most common actions. Once you already know these things, it is usually faster and more powerful to work with code instead. With this TUI, someone who doesn't know very much about the internals of a binary gets that information presented them in a way that helps them learn the parts of the file, and their relations and relevance. It is also easier for many people to remember how to navigate a GUI/TUI to achieve a task than to use the CLI, likely because it makes use of the parts of our brain for navigating space. This often makes them easier to use for tasks that you only do occasionally (at least until you learn how to take good notes, manage snippets, and work with your shell history). So why a TUI instead of a GUI? Probably mostly for aesthetic and comfort reasons than for utility reasons - but I prefer staying in the terminal if possible, as I have a lot of control over its appearance and behavior, and TUIs generally have much better keyboard support than GUIs.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]