Ghidra
Ghidra is a free software reverse-engineering framework released by the U.S. National Security Agency, with a disassembler, decompiler and scripting support.
Legal & ethical use. Analyse only software you are allowed to reverse engineer and examine malware only in isolated VMs. Use this tool only on systems, networks and data that you own or have explicit written permission to test. Unauthorised access or scanning can break computer-misuse laws (for example Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, and equivalents elsewhere). Practise in your own lab or in authorised environments such as CTFs.
What it is used for
- Analyse a crackme or practice malware sample in a VM
- Understand how a binary processes input
Key features
- Disassembler and decompiler
- Project/version tracking
- Java and Python scripting
Installation
Download a release from the GitHub releases page; it needs a supported JDK (see the release notes).
Beginner usage guide
Create a project, import a practice binary, let auto-analysis run, then open main in the Decompiler window and rename variables as you understand them.
Example commands
Run these only against your own lab or authorised targets. Placeholder addresses such as 192.0.2.x are documentation ranges.
Start Ghidra from the unpacked release folder
./ghidraRunLaunches the GUI on Linux/macOS (use ghidraRun.bat on Windows).
Keep learning
🎓 Learning path: Reverse Engineering
🚩 Practice challenge: License Check medium
References
Source verification
Last reviewed: 2026-10-27
Links checked over HTTP: 2026-10-27 07:51 UTC — official: 200, docs: 200, repo: 200
Commands were written from the official documentation and have not been executed on this site; test them in your lab.