Introduction

What is BinCAT?

BinCAT is a static Binary Code Analysis Toolkit, designed to help reverse engineers, directly from IDA.

It features:

• value analysis (registers and memory)
• taint analysis
• type reconstruction and propagation
• backward and forward analysis

In action

You can check BinCAT in action here:

• Basic analysis
• Using data tainting

Check the tutorial out to see the corresponding tasks.

Quick FAQ

Supported Platforms:

• IDA plugin: all, version 6.9 or later
• analyzer (local or server): Linux, macOS (maybe)

Supported CPUs (for now):

• x86-32

Installation

Analyzer

The analyzer is only supported on Linux, but can expose a Web service for use from a Windows IDA.

• Using Docker: Docker installation instructions
• Manual: Manual installation instructions

IDA Plugin

Only IDA v6.9 or later are supported

Install for Windows

• In IDA, click on "File -> Script File..." menu (or type ALT-F7)
• Select python\windows_install_plugin.py
• the BinCAT plugin is now installed in your IDA user dir

Or install manually.

Linux install

Installation instructions

Using BinCAT

• Now you can run analyses (Ctrl-Shift-A)

Quick start

• Load the plugin by using the Ctrl-Shift-B shortcut, or using the Edit -> Plugins -> BinCAT menu

• Select an instruction in any IDA view, then use the Ctrl-Shift-A shortcut, or the BinCAT -> Analyze from here context menu

Configuration

Global options can be configured through the Edit/BinCAT/Options menu.

Default config and options are stored in $IDAUSR/idabincat/conf.

Options

• Use remote bincat: select if you are running docker in a Docker container
• Remote URL: http://localhost:5000 (or the URL of a remote BinCAT server)
• Autostart: autoload BinCAT at IDA startup
• Save to IDB: default state for the save to idb checkbox

Analyzer configuration files

Default config for analyzer.

Documentation

A manual is provided.

A tutorial is provided to help you try BinCAT's features. It makes use of a sample binary and screenshots.

Log levels

1. basic info
2. more info
3. debug
4. advanced debug

Article and presentations about BinCAT

• SSTIC 2017, Rennes, France: article (english), slides (french), video of the presentation (french)
• REcon 2017, Montreal, Canada

Licenses

BinCAT is released under the GNU Affero General Public Licence.

The BinCAT OCaml code includes code from the original Ocaml runtime, released under the LGPLv2.

The BinCAT IDA plugin includes code from python-pyqt5-hexview by Willi Ballenthin, released under the Apache License 2.0.