Ghidra is a free tool from the US National Security Agency for taking apart compiled programs and firmware to understand how they work. It is mainly for security researchers and professional analysts who study software for vulnerabilities or malicious code.
Has 4 of 5
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does the whole job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
Cutter is a free program for studying how existing software and firmware work by taking them apart without the original source code. It is aimed at security researchers and reverse engineers who analyze programs.
Has 2 of 5
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does the whole job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
ImHex is a free program for viewing and editing the raw bytes inside files, with tools to decode and inspect their structure. It is aimed at reverse engineers, programmers and anyone who needs to look closely at binary data.
Has 2 of 5
How many people bookmarked its code on GitHub. It shows how popular it is, not how good it is or how well it replaces the app.
How hard it is to start using it. Easy: install it like a normal app, or use it in your browser. Advanced: you run it on your own server, use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Its code changed within the last year, so someone is still looking after it.
Does part of the job.
Ordered by how fully it replaces the app, Verified, setup and, when there are enough, people's votes.
None of these match. Try another device.
Help me choose
I want to pick an open-source replacement for Hopper. Below is a list from Open Source Everything (CC BY-SA 4.0), in the order its website shows it. The order is a starting point, not a verdict.
- Ghidra: Ghidra is a free tool from the US National Security Agency for taking apart compiled programs and firmware to understand how they work. It is mainly for security researchers and professional analysts who study software for vulnerabilities or malicious code. [Easy setup (It is a desktop program you download and open, though it is aimed at specialists.); Windows · Mac · Linux; replaces fully; Apache-2.0; https://github.com/NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra]
- Cutter: Cutter is a free program for studying how existing software and firmware work by taking them apart without the original source code. It is aimed at security researchers and reverse engineers who analyze programs. [Easy setup; Windows · Mac · Linux; replaces fully; GPL-3.0; https://github.com/rizinorg/cutter]
- ImHex: ImHex is a free program for viewing and editing the raw bytes inside files, with tools to decode and inspect their structure. It is aimed at reverse engineers, programmers and anyone who needs to look closely at binary data. [Easy setup; Windows · Mac · Linux; replaces partly; GPL-2.0; https://github.com/WerWolv/ImHex]
Setup rating: "Easy setup" means you can install it like a normal app, use it in a browser. "Advanced setup" means you must run it on your own server or use the command line, or it is a tool for developers.
Full details: https://opensourceeverything.org/data/groups/reverse-engineering.json
Before recommending anything, ask me these three questions (one at a time, in plain words): 1) Which device or devices will I use it on (Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iPhone)? 2) How comfortable am I with technical setup: only installing apps from a store, happy to follow a step-by-step guide, or comfortable with servers and the command line? 3) What is my budget: free only, or willing to pay for hosting or support? Then recommend one to three projects from this list only, and for each say why, using how fully it replaces the app, its setup rating, and the devices it runs on. If nothing on the list fits me, say so plainly instead of stretching.
Before you build
Read the list of open-source projects at https://opensourceeverything.org/data/groups/reverse-engineering.json. Compare it with my project or idea below. Tell me which projects overlap, what I could reuse instead of rewriting, and what mine does that none of them do.
My project or idea:
