Headless IDA

Install

pip install headless-ida

Usage

[!TIP] Headless IDA supports the latest idalib. Just provide the idalib path instead of idat64 to use it as the backend.

Use it as a normal Python module.

# Initialize HeadlessIda
from headless_ida import HeadlessIda
headlessida = HeadlessIda("/path/to/idat64", "/path/to/binary")

# Import IDA Modules (make sure you have initialized HeadlessIda first)
import idautils
import ida_name

# Or Import All IDA Modules at Once (idaapi is not imported by default)
# from headless_ida.ida_headers import *

# Have Fun
for func in idautils.Functions():
    print(f"{hex(func)} {ida_name.get_ea_name(func)}")

Use it as a command line tool.

# Interactive Console
$ headless-ida /path/to/idat64 /path/to/binary
Python 3.8.10 (default, Nov 14 2022, 12:59:47) 
[GCC 9.4.0] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
(InteractiveConsole)
>>> import idautils
>>> list(idautils.Functions())[0:10]
[16384, 16416, 16432, 16448, 16464, 16480, 16496, 16512, 16528, 16544]
>>> 


# Run IDAPython Script
$ headless-ida /path/to/idat64 /path/to/binary idascript.py


# One-liner
$ headless-ida /path/to/idat64 /path/to/binary -c "import idautils; print(list(idautils.Functions())[0:10])"


# In case you like IPython
$ headless-ida /path/to/idat64 /path/to/binary -c "import IPython; IPython.embed();"

Advanced Usage

Remote Server

Start a Headless IDA server

$ headless-ida-server /path/to/idat64 localhost 1337 &

Connect to the server in Python script

# Initialize HeadlessIda
from headless_ida import HeadlessIdaRemote
headlessida = HeadlessIdaRemote("localhost", 1337, "/path/to/local/binary")

# Import IDA Modules (make sure you have initialized HeadlessIda first)
import idautils
import ida_name

# Have Fun
for func in idautils.Functions():
    print(f"{hex(func)} {ida_name.get_ea_name(func)}")

Connect to the server in command line

# Interactive Console
$ headless-ida localhost:1337 /path/to/local/binary
# Run IDAPython Script
$ headless-ida localhost:1337 /path/to/local/binary idascript.py
# One-liner
$ headless-ida localhost:1337 /path/to/local/binary -c "import idautils; print(list(idautils.Functions())[0:10])"

Resources

• Headless IDA Examples
• IDAPython Official Documentation
• IDAPython Official Examples: 1, 2

Known Issues

from XXX import *

• Using from XXX import * syntax with certain ida modules (like idaapi, ida_ua, etc.) is currently unsupported due to SWIG and RPyC compatibility issues. We recommend importing specific items with from XXX import YYY, ZZZ, or importing the entire module using import XXX.
• The issue arises because SWIG, employed for creating Python bindings for C/C++ code, generates intermediary objects (SwigVarlink) that RPyC, our remote procedure call mechanism, cannot serialize or transmit correctly.