Consider using JNI/JNA for Decompiler, Sleigh and PDB?

Question

Consider using JNI/JNA for Decompiler, Sleigh and PDB?

dazzleworth opened this issue 5 years ago · comments

Requires less resources than invoking an executable

ghidra_9.0/Ghidra/Features/Decompiler/os/win64/decompile.exe ghidra_9.0/Ghidra/Features/Decompiler/os/win64/sleigh.exe ghidra_9.0/Ghidra/Features/PDB/os/win64/pdb.exe

Abc Xyz · Answer 1 · Tue Mar 12 2019 17:32:21 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

From $GHIDRA_DIR/docs/GhidraClass/AdvancedDevelopment/GhidraAdvancedDevelopment.html:

NEVER EVER USE JNI!

Communicate with a native process using sockets, I/O stream, etc.

Ryan Kurtz · Answer 2 · Tue Mar 12 2019 20:02:08 GMT+0800 (China Standard Time)

We advise against using JNI when developing extensions for a couple of reasons. First, if there is a problem in an extension's native code, we don't want it to bring down the entire Ghidra process. Second, Ghidra discovers extensions at runtime and adds them to the classpath, but it cannot add native libraries to the process's library search path at runtime for all supported platforms. That would require a custom launch script which would be tough to distribute generically.

The decompiler and other native executables also benefit from the process isolation I mentioned above, at hopefully a lost cost in resources on modern hardware. Also, it might be worth noting that the sleigh executable can be run standalone.