libds VS rizin

I may as well throw my hat into the ring: https://github.com/lelanthran/libds

I decided that I wanted to be able to simply drop a single .h file and a single .c file into any project without have to build a `libBlah.so` and link it to every project that needed (for example) a hashmap.

The practical result is that using the hashmap only requires me to copy the header and source files into the calling project.

It does build as a standalone library too, so you can link it if you want.

My primary reason for starting this is that I was pretty unsatisfied with all of the string libraries for C. When all I want to do is concatenate multiple strings together, I don't want to have to convert between `char ` and `struct stringtype ` everywhere.

The string functions are very useful as they all operate on the standard `char *` (nul-terminated) type.

That would be nice, then I wouldn't have to use non-standard stuff.

I made my own easy-to-incorporate-into-any-project library - https://github.com/lelanthran/libds - just copy the ds_*.h and ds_*.c into a project and you're good to go.

I'm not saying it will work for you, but it works for me.

> Is there a good string-manipulation C library?

You will have to define "good". My string library[1][2] is "good" for me because:

1. It's compatible with all the usual string functions (doesn't define a new type `string_t` or similar, uses existing `char `).

2. It does what I want: a) Works on multiple strings so repeated operations are easy, and b) Allocates as necessary so that the caller only has to free, and not calculate how much memory is needed beforehand.

The combination of the above means that many common* string operations that I want to do in my programs are both easy to do and easy to visually inspect for correctness in the caller.

Others will say that this is not good, because it still uses and exposes `char *`.

[1] https://github.com/lelanthran/libds/blob/master/src/ds_str.h

[2] Currently the only bug I know of is the quadratic runtime in many of the functions. I intend to fix this at some point.

As an example of an opaque pointer library, see https://github.com/lelanthran/libds/blob/v1.0.5/src/ds_ll.h - See line 7 for the typedef. - Lines 9, 10, 11 and 67, 68 and 69 for making it callable from C++.

Just for the record, for nicer inspection of files with such debug information, including compressed sections, and debuginfod support, Rizin[1] can be used, since starting from the 0.7.0 release[2] all of those were added.

[1] https://rizin.re

[2] https://github.com/rizinorg/rizin/releases/tag/v0.7.0

Rizin[1] is also able to uplift native code to the new RzIL, which is based on the BAP Core Theory[2] and is essentially an extension of SMT theories of bitvectors, bitvector-indexed arrays of bitvectors and effects[3].

[1] https://rizin.re/

[2] https://binaryanalysisplatform.github.io/bap/api/master/bap-...

[3] https://github.com/rizinorg/rizin/blob/dev/doc/rzil.md

Everything Hiew can do, Rizin[1] can do too, and is completely free and open source[2] under LGPL3 license. Moreover, it supports more architectures, platforms, and file formats, as well as GUI in Qt - Cutter[3][4]. If something is missing in Rizin but presented in Hiew, please let us know by opening the issue with details.

[1] https://rizin.re

[2] https://github.com/rizinorg/rizin

[3] https://cutter.re

[4] https://github.com/rizinorg/cutter

This is precisely what we are trying to do at Rizin[1][2]. Though the primary goal of the tool/framework is static analysis. All that portability across OSes, their versions, platforms and architectures, etc is definitely hard. If anyone is interested in these subjects, all contributions are welcome. For example, check out our "RzDebug" label, marking debugging issues[3].

[1] https://rizin.re

[2] https://github.com/rizinorg/rizin

[3] https://github.com/rizinorg/rizin/labels/RzDebug

Okay, so, your comment about a "Dasher + Guitar Hero music theory/improvisation practice program" just sent me down a huge rabbit hole...

Well, rabbit hole(s) plural, I guess, most not directly related. :D

Largely because I made the "mistake" of looking at your HN profile & discovering you're also in NZ & we seem to have somewhat overlapping interests (and an affinity for "bacon" in account names, apparently), so, some thoughts[0]... :)

# Topic 1: Nissan Leaf VSP hacking

After reading your recent posts (https://ianrrees.github.io//2023/07/03/vsp-hacking.html & https://ianrrees.github.io//2023/08/05/voltage-glitch-inject...) on this topic & noting your remark about wanting to try reverse engineering a firmware image, I found the following thesis PDF (via a brief google search for `"reverse engineer" "firmware" "Renesas"`):

* "AUTOMOTIVE FIRMWARE EXTRACTION AND ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES" by Jan Van den Herrewegen https://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/11516/1/VandenHerrewege...

Not really what I was anticipating finding but seems relevant to your interests--I don't think it was already in your resource list.

While the thesis addresses the Renesas 78K0 rather than the Renesas 78K0R, from a brief look at the "Flash Protection" PDF Application Note in your resource list it seems there's a large overlap.

Perhaps most significantly the author presents "novel methods" that combine bootloader binary analysis with constraint-based power glitching in an effort to improve on the results described in "Shaping the Glitch".

While I haven't read the entire 186 pages :D they theorize that using their approach extracting 8kB firmware might only take ~10 hours.

And, most helpfully, they even published their source code under the GPL here: https://github.com/janvdherrewegen/bootl-attacks

So, an interesting adjacent read even if it turns out not to be directly applicable to your situation.

Given I have an interest in & a little experience with firmware reversing my original thought was to maybe provide some hopefully helpful references that more generically related to firmware reversing but more specific is good too, I guess. :)

In terms of reverse engineering tooling, I've used Rizin/Cutter/radare2 previously: https://rizin.re https://cutter.re

On the CAN tooling/info front, you might be interested in taking a look at my "Adequate CAN" list which I originally wrote-up for a client a couple years ago: https://gitlab.com/RancidBacon/adequate-can

Some other probably outdated reverse engineering tooling links of mine: https://web.archive.org/web/20200119074540/http://www.labrad...

In terms of how to approach RE, other than just "getting started & digging in" & learning by doing, I've sometimes found it informative to read other people's firmware reverse engineering write-ups to learn about potentially useful approaches/tools.

Anyway, hopefully some of this is helpful!

[0] I have a tendency to be a little... "verbose" and/or "thorough" (depending on one's POV :) ) so I'll probably split this over a couple of comments, in case I run out of steam while writing and for topic separation.

See our FAQ[1] on why we forked. As three years passed and both projects are actively developed, the divergence has grown a lot since. We aim for exposing the proper API instead of relying just commands, see e.g. our new Python bindings and rz-bindgen[2]. We have completely different concept of projects, new intermediate language - RzIL[3], and many other things. And under the new organization Cutter is a first-class citizen, not an afterthought as before.

[1] https://rizin.re/posts/faq/

[2] https://rizin.re/posts/gsoc-2022-rz-bindgen/

[3] https://github.com/rizinorg/rizin/blob/dev/doc/rzil.md