mandiant / mandiant/capa

Yield ELF module & module versions for imports and api calls

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enhancement question
Dominant language
Python
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

### Summary

Most backends seem to be able to identify the imported/linked library functions as well as which module and module version that the binary intends to use during runtime. Specifically for the Ghidra backend, the `.strtab` section holds this information and may be parsed to provide this output to the feature extractor.

image

The expected yielded output would be something like:
```
import(glibc_2.2.5.strncpy)
import(strncpy)
api(glibc_2.2.5.strncpy)
api(strncpy)
```

### Motivation

Including this extra information opens up an avenue for rule development to begin hunting for and identifying exploits that may be used in ELF malware. However, this proposal is definitely up for discussion :).

For example, see:
https://www.cvedetails.com/vulnerability-list.php?vendor_id=72&product_id=767&version_id=371647&page=1&hasexp=0&opdos=0&opec=0&opov=0&opcsrf=0&opgpriv=0&opsqli=0&opxss=0&opdirt=0&opmemc=0&ophttprs=0&opbyp=0&opfileinc=0&opginf=0&cvssscoremin=0&cvssscoremax=0&year=0&cweid=0&order=1&trc=17&sha=cd6c5400827bf3ce3acc8b59d9356fb4b7d92a87

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First steps

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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Inspect the Ghidra backend's feature-extraction path and how ELF .strtab data is currently exposed; the issue does not name a file or test. Clarify the output design, then verify that imported and API features include the requested module and version forms such as glibc_2.2.5.strncpy.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
python
Domain
reverse-engineering, security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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