Binary Ninja API

This repository contains documentation and source code of the C++, Python, and Rust APIs for the Binary Ninja reverse engineering platform.

Documentation

Online documentation is available for the following APIs:

Branches

This repository has two primary branches dev and master.

The dev branch has the latest updates and tracks the latest development build of Binary Ninja; pull requests should be made against this branch. The master branch tracks the stable build of Binary Ninja. If you have just installed Binary Ninja for the first time, you are likely on the stable release channel.

Usage and Build Instructions

To write Binary Ninja plugins using C++, you'll need to build the C++ API. Building the API library is done similarly to most CMake-based projects; the basic steps are outlined as follows:

# Get the source
git clone https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api.git
cd binaryninja-api
git submodule update --init --recursive

# Configure an out-of-source build setup
cmake -S . -B build # (additional arguments go here if needed)

# Compile
cmake --build build -j8

In addition to the default build setup, you may want to:

Build examples. To build the API examples, pass -DBN_API_BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON to CMake when configuring the build. After the build succeeds, you can install the built plugins by running the install target. When using the "Unix Makefiles" build generator, this looks like: make install.
Build UI plugins. You will need Qt 6.4.3 (as of writing) installed to build UI plugins.
Build headlessly. If you are using a headless Binary Ninja distribution or you do not wish to build UI plugins, pass -DHEADLESS=ON to CMake when configuring the build.

Troubleshooting

If Binary Ninja is installed at a different location than the platform default (defined in CMakeLists.txt), you will likely get an error stating "Binary Ninja Core Not Found." Specify the path to your Binary Ninja installation with by passing -DBN_INSTALL_DIR=/path/to/binaryninja to CMake when configuring the build setup.
Since Binary Ninja is a 64-bit only product, ensure that you are using a 64-bit compiling and linking environment. Errors on Windows like LNK1107 might indicate that your bits don't match.

Examples

There are many examples available. The Python examples folder demonstrates many different applications of the Python API, while C++ examples include:

bin-info is a standalone executable that prints some information about a given binary to the terminal.*
breakpoint is a plugin that allows you to select a region within an x86 binary and use the context menu to fill it with breakpoint bytes.
command-line disassm demonstrates how to dump disassembly to the command line.*
llil-parser parses Low-Level IL, demonstrating how to match types and use a visitor class.*
mlil-parser parses Medium-Level IL, demonstrating how to match types and use a visitor class.*
print_syscalls is a standalone executable that prints the syscalls used in a given binary.*
triage is a fully featured plugin that is shipped and enabled by default, demonstrating how to do a wide variety of tasks including extending the UI through QT.
workflows is a collection of plugins that demonstrate using Workflows to extend the analysis pipeline.
x86 extension creates an architecture extension which shows how to modify the behavior of the build-in architectures without creating a complete replacement.

* Requires license supporting headless API access.

Issues

The issue tracker for this repository tracks not only issues with the source code contained here but also the broader Binary Ninja product.

Contributing

Public contributions are welcome to this repository. All the API and documentation in this repository is licensed under an MIT license, however, the API interfaces with a closed-source commercial application, Binary Ninja.

If you're interested in contributing when you submit your first PR, you'll receive a notice from CLA Assistant that allows you to sign our Contribution License Agreement online.

Related Repositories

In addition to this main API repository being open source Vector35 also has open sourced Architecture, Platform, BinaryView and Debugger plugins open source as well:

Architectures

Platforms

BinaryViewTypes

Debugger

Debugger

Licensing

Some components may be released under compatible but slightly different open source licenses and will have their own LICENSE file as appropriate.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 3,336 Commits
.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE		.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE
api-docs		api-docs
cmake		cmake
docs		docs
examples		examples
images		images
json		json
overrides/partials/integrations		overrides/partials/integrations
python		python
rapidjson		rapidjson
rust		rust
scripts		scripts
sphinx_rtd		sphinx_rtd
suite		suite
themes		themes
ui		ui
.clang-format		.clang-format
.doxygen.h		.doxygen.h
.editorconfig		.editorconfig
.gitignore		.gitignore
.gitmodules		.gitmodules
.style.yapf		.style.yapf
CMakeLists.txt		CMakeLists.txt
LICENSE.txt		LICENSE.txt
PythonAPIDocumentation.md		PythonAPIDocumentation.md
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
activity.cpp		activity.cpp
architecture.cpp		architecture.cpp
backgroundtask.cpp		backgroundtask.cpp
basicblock.cpp		basicblock.cpp
binaryninjaapi.cpp		binaryninjaapi.cpp
binaryninjaapi.h		binaryninjaapi.h
binaryninjacore.h		binaryninjacore.h
binaryreader.cpp		binaryreader.cpp
binaryview.cpp		binaryview.cpp
binaryviewtype.cpp		binaryviewtype.cpp
binarywriter.cpp		binarywriter.cpp
callingconvention.cpp		callingconvention.cpp
component.cpp		component.cpp
database.cpp		database.cpp
databuffer.cpp		databuffer.cpp
datarenderer.cpp		datarenderer.cpp
debuginfo.cpp		debuginfo.cpp
demangle.cpp		demangle.cpp
downloadprovider.cpp		downloadprovider.cpp
enterprise.cpp		enterprise.cpp
enterprise.h		enterprise.h
fileaccessor.cpp		fileaccessor.cpp
filemetadata.cpp		filemetadata.cpp
flowgraph.cpp		flowgraph.cpp
flowgraphnode.cpp		flowgraphnode.cpp
function.cpp		function.cpp
functionrecognizer.cpp		functionrecognizer.cpp
highlevelil.cpp		highlevelil.cpp
highlevelilinstruction.cpp		highlevelilinstruction.cpp
highlevelilinstruction.h		highlevelilinstruction.h
http.cpp		http.cpp
http.h		http.h
interaction.cpp		interaction.cpp
languagerepresentation.cpp		languagerepresentation.cpp
linearviewcursor.cpp		linearviewcursor.cpp
linearviewobject.cpp		linearviewobject.cpp
log.cpp		log.cpp
lowlevelil.cpp		lowlevelil.cpp
lowlevelilinstruction.cpp		lowlevelilinstruction.cpp
lowlevelilinstruction.h		lowlevelilinstruction.h
mainthread.cpp		mainthread.cpp
mediumlevelil.cpp		mediumlevelil.cpp
mediumlevelilinstruction.cpp		mediumlevelilinstruction.cpp
mediumlevelilinstruction.h		mediumlevelilinstruction.h
metadata.cpp		metadata.cpp
mkdocs-verify.yml		mkdocs-verify.yml
mkdocs.yml		mkdocs.yml
platform.cpp		platform.cpp
plugin.cpp		plugin.cpp
pluginmanager.cpp		pluginmanager.cpp
rapidjsonwrapper.h		rapidjsonwrapper.h
relocationhandler.cpp		relocationhandler.cpp
scriptingprovider.cpp		scriptingprovider.cpp
secretsprovider.cpp		secretsprovider.cpp
settings.cpp		settings.cpp
tempfile.cpp		tempfile.cpp
transform.cpp		transform.cpp
type.cpp		type.cpp
typelibrary.cpp		typelibrary.cpp
typeparser.cpp		typeparser.cpp
typeprinter.cpp		typeprinter.cpp
undoaction.cpp		undoaction.cpp
update.cpp		update.cpp
user.cpp		user.cpp
websocketprovider.cpp		websocketprovider.cpp
workflow.cpp		workflow.cpp

License

withzombies/binaryninja-api

Folders and files

Latest commit

History