📚 OpenRCE is preserved as a read-only archive. Launched at RECon Montreal in 2005. Registration and posting are disabled.








Flag: Tornado! Hurricane!

 Forums >>  IDA Pro  >>  "Disappearing" functions when quitting IDA debugger?

Topic created on: January 17, 2012 20:22 CST by romandas .

Probably a silly question, but when I quit the IDA debugger after reversing some arbitrary packed file, the functions that are created in memory disappear. I figure this is because the memory no longer "exists" for static disassembly, but I'd like to keep those functions around. Is there any way to do this?

I tried using a database snapshot, but that didn't seem to matter. I'm using a licensed copy of IDA 6.2, if that makes a difference.

  charlie     January 29, 2012 13:21.29 CST
you can dump the memory using any dumping tools.
Also you can ask the question in IDA forum if you are a licensed user.

  NirIzr     January 30, 2012 06:35.04 CST
Actually there's a built-in solution for this.
using any relatively new IDA (I'm pretty sure it exists in IDA 5.7) in the debug menu there's a "Take memory snapshot" option (notice this is different than the IDB snapshots introduced in IDA 6.1/2) this command will order IDA to save the current memory to the IDB, overriding the original initial loaded image.
you'll have all the option to record all allocated memory regions as well as those created by the loader, or just the loader segments.
however, if parts of the loaded memory is destroyed (some packers destroy the memory they no longer need) it will also be destroyed in the snapshot-ed IDB, and all the comments anf stuff you did there will get lost.

what i recommend you to do is save two IDBs, one before unpacking and one after, if you've also revered parts of the unpacked (or partially packed) idb.

as to myself, i do some of my reversing inside a VM machine just for the pleasure of taking complete snapshots of debugged process + IDB. so this might be a better option if you find yourself using the "take snapshot" tool alot.

  Pinczakko     February 26, 2012 08:39.56 CST
This is hint to "dumping" the memory, it runs the code in virtual machine but I think should help.
http://www.hex-rays.com/products/ida/support/tutorials/debugging_gdb_qemu.pdf

  jduck     February 26, 2012 16:20.16 CST
I think the official IDA Pro Book recommends changing segments to "loader" segments while attached in the debugger. Then when detaching the segments will get cloned into the static database.

Note: Registration is required to post to the forums.

There are 31,328 total registered users.


Recently Created Topics
[help] Unpacking VMP...
Mar/12
Reverse Engineering ...
Jul/06
let 'IDAPython' impo...
Sep/24
set 'IDAPython' as t...
Sep/24
GuessType return une...
Sep/20
About retrieving the...
Sep/07
How to find specific...
Aug/15
How to get data depe...
Jul/07
Identify RVA data in...
May/06
Question about memor...
Dec/12


Recent Forum Posts
Finding the procedur...
rolEYder
Question about debbu...
rolEYder
Identify RVA data in...
sohlow
let 'IDAPython' impo...
sohlow
How to find specific...
hackgreti
Problem with ollydbg
sh3dow
How can I write olly...
sh3dow
New LoadMAP plugin v...
mefisto...
Intel pin in loaded ...
djnemo
OOP_RE tool available?
Bl4ckm4n


Recent Blog Entries
halsten
Mar/14
Breaking IonCUBE VM

oleavr
Oct/24
Anatomy of a code tracer

hasherezade
Sep/24
IAT Patcher - new tool for ...

oleavr
Aug/27
CryptoShark: code tracer ba...

oleavr
Jun/25
Build a debugger in 5 minutes

More ...


Recent Blog Comments
nieo on:
Mar/22
IAT Patcher - new tool for ...

djnemo on:
Nov/17
Kernel debugger vs user mod...

acel on:
Nov/14
Kernel debugger vs user mod...

pedram on:
Dec/21
frida.github.io: scriptable...

capadleman on:
Jun/19
Using NtCreateThreadEx for ...

More ...


Imagery
SoySauce Blueprint
Jun 6, 2008

[+] expand

View Gallery (11) / Submit