google
Move functionality from plugins to a BinDiff server process
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
- Diffing multiple times with the same primary from a disassembler is inefficient, as the export process needs to repeated each time
- The IDA Pro plugin has a lot of functionality that has to be rewritten for each disassembler with few opportunities to share code (also C++ vs. Java in Ghidra)
- The standalone UI also reimplements a lot of functionality of the IDA plugin, leading to subtle differences.
Describe the solution you'd like Implement a local BinDiff RPC server using gRPC that get started on demand (similar to how Gradle/Bazel start build processes). The UI and other plugins can then start diffs (and the .BinExport will stay loaded in memory) and request flow graphs for view. This would help with implementing #16 as well. It would also enable BinDiff-as-a-service style deployments.
The plugins would become simpler and could be implemented in the repective disassembler's favoured scripting language (Python and PyQt for IDA Pro and Binary Ninja, Java Swing for Ghidra).
Describe alternatives you've considered N/A
Additional context It should be possible to implement this and adopt it gradually.
Hii @cblichmann, I found this issue under this year's gsoc project tasks and I see that It's not been taken and seems interesting to work on. :D I am currently exploring and trying to understand how the project works. Unfortunately, I was not able to build the java frontend since the yfiles version of library that's utilized seems to be discontinued, upon requesting the version on their site. They said that it would only be possible to share if anyone is willing to work on upgrading the version of yFiles. But I did notice another github issue to move to a web frontend ( #16 ).
If I've gotten this right, The Ida pro plugin or the needs to be taken as a reference for the implementation of grpc server. Ghidra and Binary ninja plugins only export the disassembled data which is imported separately onto the current Java GUI. Though GSoC applications are over, I'd love to work on this if you could help/mentor me on this task. :D
