LLEF

LLEF (pronounced ɬɛf - "hlyeff") is an LLDB plugin to make it more usable for low-level RE and VR. Similar to GEF, but for LLDB.

It uses LLDB's Python API to add extra status output and a few new commands, so that security researchers can more easily use LLDB to analyse software as it's running.

💻 Supported Architectures

• x86_64
• arm
• aarch64 / arm64
• i386

📓 Requirements

• LLDB 15+ (https://apt.llvm.org/) On macOS this is bundled with Xcode 14.3+

⚙ Installation

The instructions below will install LLEF so that it is used by LLDB by default.

1. Clone the repository.
2. cd <repo>
3. Run ./install.sh
4. Select automatic (overwrites ~/.lldbinit) or manual installation.

LLDB uses AT&T disassembly syntax for x86 binaries by default. The installer provides an option to override this.

▶ Usage

Launch LLDB

lldb-15 <optional binary to debug>

Use commands:

llefsettings

Various commands for setting, saving, loading and listing LLEF specific commands:

(lldb) llefsettings --help
list                list all settings
save                Save settings to config file
reload              Reload settings from config file (retain session values)
reset               Reload settings from config file (purge session values)
set                 Set LLEF settings

Settings are stored in a file .llef located in your home directory formatted as following:

[LLEF]
<llefsettings> = <value>

Available Settings

Setting	Type	Description
color_output	Boolean	Enable/disable color terminal output

Context

Refresh the LLEF GUI with:

(lldb) context

Pattern Create

(lldb) pattern create 10
[+] Generating a pattern of 10 bytes (n=4)
aaaabaaaca
[+] Pattern saved in variable: $8
(lldb) pattern create 100 -n 2
[+] Generating a pattern of 100 bytes (n=2)
aabacadaea
[+] Pattern saved in variable: $9

Pattern Search

(lldb) pattern search $rdx
[+] Found in $10 at index 45 (big endian)
(lldb) pattern search $8
[+] Found in $10 at index 0 (little endian)
(lldb) pattern search aaaabaaac
[+] Found in $8 at index 0 (little endian)
(lldb) pattern search 0x61616161626161616361
[+] Found in $8 at index 0 (little endian)

Breakpoint hook

This is automatic and prints all the currently implemented information at a break point.

👷‍♂️ Troubleshooting LLDB Python support

LLDB comes bundled with python modules that are required for LLEF to run. If on launching LLDB with LLEF you encounter ModuleNotFoundError messages it is likely you will need to manually add the LLDB python modules on your python path.

To do this run the following to establish your site-packages location:

python3 -m site --user-site

Then locate the LLDB python modules location. This is typically at a location such as /usr/lib/llvm-15/lib/python3.10/dist-packages but depends on your python version.

Finally, modify and execute the following to add the above LLDB module path into a new file lldb.pth in the site-packages location discovered above.

echo "/usr/lib/llvm-15/lib/python3.10/dist-packages" > ~/.local/lib/python3.10/site-packages/lldb.pth

👏 Thanks

We’re obviously standing on the shoulders of giants here - we’d like to credit hugsy for GEF in particular, from which this tool draws heavy inspiration! Please consider this imitation as flattery 🙂

If you'd like to read a bit more about LLEF you could visit our launch blog post.