IDA Pro MCP Server for AI-Assisted Reverse Engineering

A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that enables AI assistants to interact with IDA Pro for reverse engineering and binary analysis tasks.

Overview

This project provides a bridge between AI assistants and IDA Pro, a popular disassembler and debugger used for reverse engineering software. It consists of three main components:

1. IDA Pro Remote Control Plugin (ida_remote_server.py): An IDA Pro plugin that creates an HTTP server to remotely control IDA Pro functions.
2. IDA Remote Client (idaremoteclient.ts): A TypeScript client for interacting with the IDA Pro Remote Control Server.
3. MCP Server (index.ts): A Model Context Protocol server that exposes IDA Pro functionality to AI assistants.

Features

• Execute Python scripts in IDA Pro from AI assistants
• Retrieve information about binaries:
• Strings
• Imports
• Exports
• Functions
• Advanced binary analysis capabilities:
• Search for immediate values in instructions
• Search for text strings in the binary
• Search for specific byte sequences
• Get disassembly for address ranges
• Automate IDA Pro operations through a standardized interface
• Secure communication between components

Prerequisites

• IDA Pro 8.3 or later
• Node.js 18 or later
• TypeScript

Example usage ida_remote_server.py

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"script":"print(\"Script initialization...\")"}' http://127.0.0.1:9045/api/execute
{"success": true, "output": "Script initialization...\n"}

Example usage MCP Server

Installation

1. Install the IDA Pro Remote Control Plugin

1. Copy ida_remote_server.py to your IDA Pro plugins directory:
2. Windows: %PROGRAMFILES%\IDA Pro\plugins
3. macOS: /Applications/IDA Pro.app/Contents/MacOS/plugins
4. Linux: /opt/idapro/plugins
5. Start IDA Pro and open a binary file.
6. The plugin will automatically start an HTTP server on 127.0.0.1:9045.

2. Install the MCP Server

1. Clone this repository:

shell git clone <repository-url> cd ida-server

1. Install dependencies:

shell npm install

1. Build the project:

shell npm run build

1. Configure the MCP server in your AI assistant's MCP settings file:

json { "mcpServers": { "ida-pro": { "command": "node", "args": ["path/to/ida-server/dist/index.js"], "env": {} } } }

Usage

Once installed and configured, the MCP server provides the following tool to AI assistants:

run_ida_command

Executes an IDA Pro Python script.

Parameters:

• scriptPath (required): Absolute path to the script file to execute
• outputPath (optional): Absolute path to save the script's output to

Example:

# Example IDA Pro script (save as /path/to/script.py)
import idautils

# Count functions
function_count = len(list(idautils.Functions()))
print(f"Binary has {function_count} functions")

# Get the first 5 function names
functions = list(idautils.Functions())[:5]
for func_ea in functions:
    print(f"Function: {ida_name.get_ea_name(func_ea)} at {hex(func_ea)}")

# Return data
return_value = function_count

The AI assistant can then use this script with:

<use_mcp_tool>
<server_name>ida-pro</server_name>
<tool_name>run_ida_command</tool_name>
<arguments>
{
  "scriptPath": "/path/to/script.py"
}
</arguments>
</use_mcp_tool>

search_immediate_value

Searches for immediate values in the binary's instructions.

Parameters:

• value (required): Value to search for (number or string)
• radix (optional): Radix for number conversion (default: 16)
• startAddress (optional): Start address for search
• endAddress (optional): End address for search

Example:

<use_mcp_tool>
<server_name>ida-pro</server_name>
<tool_name>search_immediate_value</tool_name>
<arguments>
{
  "value": "42",
  "radix": 10
}
</arguments>
</use_mcp_tool>

search_text

Searches for text strings in the binary.

Parameters:

• text (required): Text to search for
• caseSensitive (optional): Whether the search is case sensitive (default: false)
• startAddress (optional): Start address for search
• endAddress (optional): End address for search

Example:

<use_mcp_tool>
<server_name>ida-pro</server_name>
<tool_name>search_text</tool_name>
<arguments>
{
  "text": "password",
  "caseSensitive": false
}
</arguments>
</use_mcp_tool>

search_byte_sequence

Searches for a specific byte sequence in the binary.

Parameters:

• bytes (required): Byte sequence to search for (e.g., "90 90 90" for three NOPs)
• startAddress (optional): Start address for search
• endAddress (optional): End address for search

Example:

<use_mcp_tool>
<server_name>ida-pro</server_name>
<tool_name>search_byte_sequence</tool_name>
<arguments>
{
  "bytes": "90 90 90"
}
</arguments>
</use_mcp_tool>

get_disassembly

Gets disassembly for an address range.

Parameters:

• startAddress (required): Start address for disassembly
• endAddress (optional): End address for disassembly
• count (optional): Number of instructions to disassemble

Example:

<use_mcp_tool>
<server_name>ida-pro</server_name>
<tool_name>get_disassembly</tool_name>
<arguments>
{
  "startAddress": "0x401000",
  "count": 10
}
</arguments>
</use_mcp_tool>

get_functions

Gets the list of functions from the binary.

Parameters:

• None required

Example:

<use_mcp_tool>
<server_name>ida-pro</server_name>
<tool_name>get_functions</tool_name>
<arguments>
{}
</arguments>
</use_mcp_tool>

get_exports

Gets the list of exports from the binary.

Parameters:

• None required

Example:

<use_mcp_tool>
<server_name>ida-pro</server_name>
<tool_name>get_exports</tool_name>
<arguments>
{}
</arguments>
</use_mcp_tool>

get_strings

Gets the list of strings from the binary.

Parameters:

• None required

Example:

<use_mcp_tool>
<server_name>ida-pro</server_name>
<tool_name>get_strings</tool_name>
<arguments>
{}
</arguments>
</use_mcp_tool>

IDA Pro Remote Control API

The IDA Pro Remote Control Plugin exposes the following HTTP endpoints:

• GET /api/info: Get plugin information
• GET /api/strings: Get strings from the binary
• GET /api/exports: Get exports from the binary
• GET /api/imports: Get imports from the binary
• GET /api/functions: Get function list
• GET /api/search/immediate: Search for immediate values in instructions
• GET /api/search/text: Search for text in the binary
• GET /api/search/bytes: Search for byte sequences in the binary
• GET /api/disassembly: Get disassembly for an address range
• POST /api/execute: Execute Python script (JSON/Form)
• POST /api/executebypath: Execute Python script from file path
• POST /api/executebody: Execute Python script from raw body

Security Considerations

By default, the IDA Pro Remote Control Plugin only listens on 127.0.0.1 (localhost) for security reasons. This prevents remote access to your IDA Pro instance.

If you need to allow remote access, you can modify the DEFAULT_HOST variable in ida_remote_server.py, but be aware of the security implications.

Development

Building from Source

npm run build

Running Tests

npm test

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.

Author

Florian Drechsler (@fdrechsler) [email protected]