[alexrp]

Binary Ninja deserves a mention in these threads: https://binary.ninja

I've used IDA, Ghidra, and Binary Ninja a lot over the years. At this point I much prefer Binary Ninja for the task of building up an understanding of large binaries with many thousands of types and functions. It also doesn't hurt that its UI/UX feel like something out of this century, and it's very easy to automate using Python scripts.

[dang]

One large-ish past thread and a few tinies, for anyone curious:

Binary Ninja – an interactive decompiler, disassembler, debugger - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41297124 - Aug 2024 (1 comment)

Binary Ninja – 4.0: Dorsai - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39546731 - Feb 2024 (1 comment)

Binary Ninja 3.0: The Next Chapter - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30109122 - Jan 2022 (1 comment)

Binary Ninja – A new kind of reversing platform - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12240209 - Aug 2016 (56 comments)

[b8]

Yep, it's cheaper than IDA and I like the UI better. Also I love that it's made by game hacking folks (my clique).

[SoraNoTenshi]

I believe the Binja folk originate from the CTF folk.

[charcircuit]

Wow, they made it free. The last time I used it I bought a $100 subscription for non commercial use.

[Thaxll]

Not sure why you would use Binary Ninja free version, there are so many limitations, like IDA free the platform support is very low.

[dogma1138]

BN is nice if someone is paying for it, but has too many limitations especially for the most common use case which is security.

[WalterGR]

What are the limitations?

[dogma1138]

No shellcode decoding, no plugin support and rather limited IR.

[alexrp]

> No shellcode decoding

Can't speak to this as I don't RE for security purposes, but:

> no plugin support and rather limited IR.

this I'm profoundly confused by. BN has multiple IRs that are easily accessible both in the UI and to scripts. And it certainly has a plugin system too.

[dogma1138]

Not in the free version

[saagarjha]

Binary Ninja definitely has plugins?

[capl]

Binary Ninja seems way ahead in terms of UX, as a hobby reverser. It's my default as well.

[zo1]

It's basically "VS Code" UX with dark mode. Come on, is this some sort of joke? Serious question.

[psifertex]

I'm curious what you would consider better UX?

We have actually been more inspired by Jetbrains lately than VS Code. Take that for what you will.

We do try to pick simple sane defaults while still allowing enough customization to adapt to different workflows.

Actually working on a startup wizard for first time users if they want to more closely replicate the feel of other RE tools since muscle memory is hard to break.

[EE84M3i]

Last time I used them - Ghidra, and to some extent IDA, had UXes that were very difficult for new users to pick up and frequently deviate from standard expectations for modern desktop apps because they have two decades of baggage. In contrast binary ninja is very easy to explore and has many fewer surprises.

[xvilka]

In particularly I like their approach of creating modern IR pipeline.

[ActorNightly]

Also this.

https://github.com/jart/blink

[saagarjha]

This is not really related

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

The Linux free trial version is a 400MB .zip file including a 255.2MB "binaryninja" shared binary

https://github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/releases/downloa...

[1vuio0pswjnm7]

Source code:

https://codeload.github.com/Vector35/binaryninja-api/tar.gz/...

[beeflet]

i've heard there is a way to get the source code for free

[mathisfun123]

what's your point?