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2026-02-26 12:56:24 -05:00
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2026-02-26 12:56:24 -05:00

IDAssist

AI-Powered Reverse Engineering Plugin for IDA Pro

Author: jtang613

Description

IDAssist is an IDA Pro plugin that integrates LLM-powered analysis directly into IDA's interface, providing AI-assisted binary reverse engineering through configurable LLM providers, semantic knowledge graphs, RAG document search, and collaborative symbol sharing via SymGraph.

Built with Python and PySide6, IDAssist runs as a dockable panel inside IDA Pro 9.0+ and communicates with LLM providers (OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, LiteLLM, and more) to analyze functions, suggest renames, answer questions about code, and build a searchable knowledge graph of an entire binary.

Core Features

Function Explanation — Generate detailed natural-language explanations of decompiled functions with automatic security analysis including risk level, activity profile, security flags, and API detection.

Interactive Query Chat — Ask questions about the binary with persistent chat history. Use context macros (#func, #addr, #line, #range) to inject function code, addresses, or disassembly ranges into queries.

Automated Actions — AI-powered rename suggestions for functions, variables, and types. Review proposed changes in a table with confidence scores, then apply selected actions back to the IDB.

Semantic Knowledge Graph — Build and explore a knowledge graph of the binary's functions, call relationships, data flows, and security characteristics. Includes visual graph rendering, semantic search, and community detection.

RAG Document Search — Upload reference documents (.txt, .md, .rst, .pdf) and use them as context during LLM queries. Supports hybrid text+vector search via Whoosh indexing.

SymGraph Integration — Push and pull function names, variable names, types, and graph data to the SymGraph collaborative platform. Includes a multi-step wizard with conflict resolution for pulls.

Settings Management — Configure multiple LLM and MCP providers, manage SymGraph API credentials, customize the system prompt, and set database paths.

Advanced Capabilities

ReAct Agent

The Query tab supports an autonomous ReAct (Reasoning + Acting) agent mode. When enabled, the LLM plans an investigation strategy, executes tools to gather information, reflects on findings, and synthesizes a comprehensive answer — all automatically across multiple reasoning rounds.

Extended Thinking

Configure reasoning effort levels to control how much the LLM "thinks" before responding:

Level Thinking Budget Best For
None Disabled Fast, simple queries
Low ~2K tokens Straightforward analysis
Medium ~10K tokens Moderate complexity
High ~25K tokens Deep analysis, complex code

MCP Integration

IDAssist includes a built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) server and can connect to external MCP servers. This enables tool-augmented LLM interactions where the model can programmatically inspect functions, read disassembly, query cross-references, and modify the IDB during reasoning.

Function Calling

LLM providers with tool-calling support can invoke IDA analysis functions mid-conversation, enabling iterative investigation without manual intervention.

RLHF Feedback

Provide thumbs-up/thumbs-down feedback on explanations and query responses. Feedback is stored locally and can be used to improve prompt engineering and model selection.

Architecture

IDAssist follows an MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern:

  • Views (src/views/) — PySide6 tab widgets that emit signals on user interaction
  • Controllers (src/controllers/) — Connect view signals to service calls, manage state
  • Services (src/services/) — Business logic, LLM providers, database access, graph analysis
  • MCP Server (src/mcp_server/) — Built-in SSE server exposing IDA functionality as MCP tools

Key design principles:

  • All IDA API calls execute on the main thread via execute_on_main_thread()
  • LLM responses stream incrementally to the UI
  • Local SQLite databases for persistence (no external database required)
  • Singleton service registry with thread-safe initialization

Quick Start

  1. Install dependencies:

    pip install -r requirements.txt
    
  2. Install the plugin: Copy idassist_plugin.py and the src/ directory to your IDA plugins folder:

    cp idassist_plugin.py ~/.idapro/plugins/
    cp -r src ~/.idapro/plugins/
    

    Or create file-level symlinks for development:

    ln -s /path/to/IDAssist/idassist_plugin.py ~/.idapro/plugins/idassist_plugin.py
    ln -s /path/to/IDAssist/src ~/.idapro/plugins/src
    
  3. Open IDAssist: Launch IDA Pro, open a binary, and press Ctrl+Shift+A (or Edit > Plugins > IDAssist).

  4. Configure a provider: Go to the Settings tab, click Add under LLM Providers, and configure your preferred provider.

  5. Analyze a function: Navigate to any function, click the Explain tab, and press Explain Function.

For detailed setup instructions, see Getting Started.

LLM Provider Setup

IDAssist supports the following provider types:

Type Auth Method Notes
anthropic_platform API Key Anthropic API direct
anthropic_oauth OAuth (browser) Browser-based authentication
anthropic_claude_cli Local CLI Uses the claude CLI binary
openai_platform API Key OpenAI API direct
openai_oauth OAuth (browser) Browser-based authentication
ollama None (local) Self-hosted models
litellm Proxy URL Multi-provider proxy
Provider Model Strengths
Anthropic claude-sonnet-4-6 Strong code analysis, extended thinking
OpenAI gpt-4o Fast, good general analysis
OpenAI o1 Deep reasoning with extended thinking
Ollama qwen2.5-coder:32b Local, no API key needed

Using the Built-in MCP Server

IDAssist runs an MCP server on port 8765 (SSE transport) that exposes IDA functionality as tools. External LLM clients can connect to http://localhost:8765/sse to use these tools:

Tool Description
ida_get_function_name Get function name at address
ida_get_disassembly Get disassembly snippet
ida_get_pseudocode Get Hex-Rays decompilation
ida_get_xrefs Get cross-references
ida_set_function_name Rename a function
ida_add_comment Add comment at address

Resources are also available: binary/info, binary/functions, function/{address}.

Using the Semantic Graph

The Semantic Graph tab provides a knowledge graph of the binary:

  1. ReIndex Binary — Extracts function structure, call graph, and cross-references
  2. Semantic Analysis — Generates LLM summaries for each function
  3. Security Analysis — Detects vulnerability patterns and security-relevant APIs
  4. Network Flow — Tracks network operations across the call graph
  5. Community Detection — Groups related functions into modules

Explore the graph via the List View (callers, callees, edges, flags), Visual Graph (interactive node diagram with N-hop expansion), or Search (7 query types including semantic search, similar functions, and call context).

Context Menu Actions

Right-click in any Disassembly or Pseudocode view to access:

Action Hotkey Effect
Explain Function Ctrl+Shift+E Opens Explain tab and generates explanation
Ask About Selection Ctrl+Shift+Q Opens Query tab with #func context
Rename Suggestions — Opens Actions tab and generates suggestions

Requirements

  • IDA Pro 9.0+ with Python 3 and PySide6
  • Hex-Rays Decompiler (recommended for pseudocode features)
  • Python packages listed in requirements.txt

Documentation

Homepage

https://symgraph.io

License

See LICENSE file for details.

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