CERT Kaiju: binary analysis framework extension for the Ghidra software reverse engineering suite

by do son · May 13, 2021

CERT Kaiju Binary Analysis Framework for GHIDRA

CERT Kaiju is a collection of binary analysis tools for Ghidra.

This is a Ghidra/Java implementation of some features of the CERT Pharos Binary Analysis Framework, particularly the function hashing and malware analysis tools, but is expected to grow new tools and capabilities over time.

As this is a new effort, this implementation does not yet have full feature parity with the original C++ implementation based on ROSE; however, the move to Java and Ghidra has actually enabled some new features not available in the original framework — notably, improved handling of non-x86 architectures. Since some significant re-architecting of the framework and tools is taking place, and the move to Java and Ghidra enables different capabilities than the C++ implementation, the decision was made to utilize new branding such that there would be less confusion between implementations when discussing the different tools and capabilities.

Our intention for the near future is to maintain both the original Pharos framework as well as Kaiju, side-by-side since both can provide unique features and capabilities.

CAVEAT: As a prototype, there are many issues that may come up when evaluating the function hashes created by this plugin. For example, unlike the Pharos implementation, Kaiju’s function hashing module will create hashes for very small functions (e.g., ones with a single instruction like RET causing many more unintended collisions). As such, analytical results may vary between this plugin and Pharos fn2hash.