IDBTOOL

A tool for extracting information from IDA databases. idbtool knows how to handle databases from all IDA versions since v2.0, both i64 and idb files. You can also use idbtool to recover information from unclosed databases.

idbtool works without change with IDA v7.0.

Much faster than loading a file in IDA

With idbtool you can search thousands of .idb files in seconds.

More precisely: on my laptop it takes:

• 1.5 seconds to extract 143 idc scripts from 119 idb and i64 files.
• 3.8 seconds to print idb info for 441 files.
• 5.6 seconds to extract 281 enums containing 4726 members from 35 files.
• 67.8 seconds to extract 5942 structs containing 33672 members from 265 files.

Loading a approximately 5 Gbyte idb file in IDA, takes about 45 minutes. While idb3.h takes basically no time at all, no more than a few milliseconds.

Download

Two versions of this tool exist:

One written in python

• https://github.com/nlitsme/pyidbutil

One written in C++

• https://github.com/nlitsme/idbutil

Both repositories contain a library which can be used for reading .idb or .i64 files.

Usage

Usage:

idbtool [options] [database file(s)]

• -n or --names will list all named values in the database.
• -s or --scripts will list all scripts stored in the database.
• -u or --structs will list all structs stored in the database.
• -e or --enums will list all enums stored in the database.
• --imports will list all imported symbols from the database.
• --funcdirs will list function folders stored in the database.
• -i or --info will print some general info about the database.
• -d or --pagedump dump btree page tree contents.
• --inc, --dec list all records in ascending / descending order.
• -q or --query search specific records in the database.
• -m or --limit limit the number of results returned by -q.
• -id0, -id1 dump only one specific section.
• --i64, --i32 tell idbtool that the specified file is from a 64 or 32 bit database.
• --recover group files from an unpacked database.
• --classify summarizes node usage in the database
• --dump hexdump the original binary data

query

Queries need to be specified last on the commandline.

example:

idbtool [database file(s)]  --query  "Root Node;V"

Will list the source binary for all the databases specified on the commandline.

A query is a string with the following format:

• [==,<=,>=,<,>] - optional relation, default: ==
• a base node key:
  • a DOT followed by the numeric value of the nodeid.
  • a HASH followed by the numeric value of the system-nodeid.
  • a QUESTION followed by the name of the node. -> a 'N'ame node
  • the name of the node. -> the name is resolved, results in a '.'Dot node
• an optional tag ( A for Alt, S for Supval, etc )
• an optional index value

example queries:

• Root Node;V -> prints record containing the source binary name
• ?Root Node -> prints the Name record pointing to the root
• >Root Node -> prints the first 10 records starting with the root node id.
• <Root Node -> prints the 10 records startng with the recordsbefore the rootnode.
• .0xff000001;N -> prints the rootnode name entry.
• #1;N -> prints the rootnode name entry.

List the highest node and following record in the database in two different ways, the first: starting at the first record below ffc00000, and listing the next. The second: starting at the first record after ffc00000, and listing the previous:

• --query "<#0xc00000" --limit 2 --inc -v
• --query ">#0xc00000" --limit 2 --dec -v

Note that this should be the nodeid in the $ MAX NODE record.

List the last two records:

• --limit 2 --dec -v

List the first two records, the $ MAX LINK and $ MAX NODE records:

• --limit 2 --inc -v

A full database dump

Several methods exist for printing all records in the database. This may be useful if you want to investigate more of IDA''s internals. But can also be useful in recovering data from corrupted databases.

• --inc, --dec can be used to enumerate all b-tree records in either forward, or backward direction.
  • add -v to get a prettier key/value output
• --id0 walks the page tree, instead of the record tree, printing the contents of each page
• --pagedump linearly skip through the file, this will also reveal information in deleted pages.

naked files

When IDA or your computer crashed while working on a disassembly, and you did not yet save the database, you are left with a couple of files with extensions like .id0, .id1, .nam, etc.

These files are the unpacked database, i call them naked files.

Using the --filetype and --i64 or --i32 options you can inspect these naked files individually. or use the --recover option to view them as a complete database together. idbtool will figure out automatically which files would belong together.

idbtool can figure out the bitsize of the database from an .id0 file, but not(yet) from the others.

LIBRARY

The file idblib.py contains a library.

TODO

• add option to list all comments stored in the database
• add option to list flags for a list of addresses.

Author

Willem Hengeveld itsme@xs4all.nl