gef v2022.06 released: Multi-Architecture GDB Enhanced Features for Exploiters & Reverse-Engineers

GEF – GDB Enhanced Features

GEF is a kick-ass set of commands for X86, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC and SPARC to make GDB cool again for exploit dev. It is aimed to be used mostly by exploiters and reverse-engineers, to provide additional features to GDB using the Python API to assist during the process of dynamic analysis and exploit development.

It has full support for both Python2 and Python3 indifferently (as more and more distros start pushing gdb compiled with Python3 support).

Feature

• One single GDB script.
• Entirely OS Agnostic, NO dependencies: GEF is battery-included and is installable in 2 seconds (unlike PwnDBG).
• Fast limiting the number of dependencies and optimizing code to make the commands as fast as possible (unlike PwnDBG).
• Provides more than 50 commands to drastically change your experience in GDB.
• Easily extendable to create other commands by providing more comprehensible layout to GDB Python API.
• Works consistently on both Python2 and Python3.
• Built around an architecture abstraction layer, so all commands work in any GDB-supported architecture such as x86-32/64, ARMv5/6/7, AARCH64, SPARC, MIPS, PowerPC, etc. (unlike PEDA)
• Suited for real-life apps debugging, exploit development, just as much as CTF (unlike PEDA or PwnDBG)

Changelog v2022.06

• The unit testing structure has been re-designed to be more modular and flexible
• The documentation has been globally updated, moved from ReadTheDocs to GithubPages, and redesigned from mkdocs to mkdocs-material
• Countless (potential) errors were fixed thanks to more integration of type hinting
• Debugged file formats (such as ELF) now rely on a abstraction layer. This means GEF can transparently support more file formats including PE or MachO (see gef-extras/os)
• Remote support has been entirely rewritten and is now fully exposed via the gef.remote namespace. This includes the Qemu (user and system) support.
• Many commands, relying on external dependencies (such as cs-dis, asm or emulate) were transfered to GEF-Extras. Therefore, GEF now has absolutely no dependency whatsoever, not even optional ones. Refer to the deprecation page of the documentation for a complete overview of the changes.
• ida-interact has been totally removed and is now entirely of GEF-Extras only. It has also been rewritten to drop Python XMLRPC and relies on the much more advanced rpyc Python library.
• A new subcommand appeared, gef install which allows to install commands from gef-extras on the fly, if you cannot clone the repository or just need a one-time command.
• pcustom supports class factory allowing the structure(s) defined to collect information from the runtime
• Some improvements were added to the stack canary detection
• On a more personal note, this release marks the 10 years anniversary 🎂 since the first lines of GEF were written!!

Installation

# via the install script
$ wget -q -O- https://github.com/hugsy/gef/raw/master/gef.sh | sh

Then just start playing (for local files):

$ gdb -q /path/to/my/bin
gef➤  gef help
Or (for remote debugging):

remote:~ $ gdbserver 0.0.0.0:1234 /path/to/file
Running as PID: 666
And:

local:~ $ gdb -q
gef➤  gef-remote -t your.ip.address:1234 -p 666

# manually
$ wget -O ~/.gdbinit-gef.py -q https://github.com/hugsy/gef/raw/master/gef.py
$ echo source ~/.gdbinit-gef.py >> ~/.gdbinit

Emulating code in GDB via Unicorn-Engine (x86-64)

Displaying ELF information, memory mapping and using Capstone/Keystone integration (ARM v6)

Automatic dereferencing of registers values and identifying binary protections (PowerPC)

Showing current context and heap information (MIPS)

Playing with Capstone engine (SPARC v9)

Copyright (c) 2013-2018 crazy rabbidz

Source: https://github.com/hugsy/gef