Tag: Release

We’re proud to announce the release of Cerbero Suite 4.0!

There are many new features, especially in the advanced version. Support for ARM32/ARM64 in Carbon and the inspection of Windows crash dumps stand out as two major additions.

All of our customers can upgrade at a 50% discount their licenses for the next 3 months! We value our customers and everyone who has bought a license since June should have already received a free upgrade for Cerbero Suite 4! If you fall in that category and haven’t received a new license, please check your spam folder and in case contact us at sales@cerbero.io. Everyone who has acquired a license before June, but in the last 3 months, will get an additional discount.

Starting today we’ll be contacting all of our existing customers and provide them with a discount coupon. If you don’t get an email from us in the next two days, please contact us at sales@cerbero.io!

This is the full list of news:

+ added Carbon loader for Windows user address space
+ added Carbon loader for Windows DMP files
+ added Carbon support for ARM32 and ARM64
+ added Carbon support for PDB symbols
+ added support in Carbon to define data types
+ added memory analysis support for latest Windows 10 versions
– added Windows x64 setup
– added UI hook extensions
+ improved Windows memory analysis support
+ improved Windows DMP support
+ improved Carbon disassembly
+ improved Ghidra plugin and setup
+ improved decompiler output
– improved Hex Editor
– improved file stats view
– improved symbol demangling
– improved Python speed
– improved headers
– improved PE debug directory support
– improved PDB support
– improved dark mode support on macOS
– improved update check
– improved single view mode
– improved settings
– improved Python SDK
– updated SQLite to 3.32.0
– fixed bugs

Windows crash dumps

Inspecting Windows crash dumps is important for many software developers. Cerbero Suite lets you easily inspect both kernel and mini-dumps. You can view the code, load PDB symbols, inspect the call stack, threads, exception information, bug check information, memory and much more.

This feature does not rely on WinDBG and works on every supported platform!

Carbon support for ARM32 and ARM64

ARM32 and ARM64 are now supported in Carbon and naturally also in the Sleigh decompiler!

Carbon loader for Windows user address space

Every Windows address space can now be explored in Carbon, be it from a physical image or from a crash dump.

Carbon support for PDB symbols

PDB files can be automatically downloaded and imported into Carbon. This feature does not rely on Windows APIs and works on every supported platform.

Defining data types in Carbon

Data types can be defined in Carbon by pressing “D” or via the context menu.

The same data type can be reapplied by pressing “W”.

Memory analysis on the latest Windows 10 versions

We added the headers necessary to perform memory analysis on the latest Windows 10 versions.

Throughout the lifetime of the 4.x series, we’ll continue improving on the support for Windows 10!

Windows x64 edition

A Windows x64 edition has been long overdue, but we didn’t want to deprive our users from being able to run Cerbero Suite on older 32-bit versions of Windows, so we decided to keep both x86 and x64 editions!

UI hook extensions

A new type of extension has been introduced. The purpose of this extension type is to provide additional UI elements for specific parts of the UI. We currently use it to create Python plugins in our settings page.

Improved Carbon disassembly

We have improved Carbon all over the place: the analysis, UI, lists. The experience is now much more refined.

Improved Ghidra plugin and setup

We improved the native UI for Ghidra. By default now the assembly is shown in lower case, as we think it’s easier to read (this feature is configurable).

We also added one more toolbar button in Ghidra for the Cerbero Launcher, a way to launch Cerbero tools on the file currently open in Ghidra.

Setting up the native UI for Ghidra is now easier than ever: just go to the settings in Cerbero under ‘Ghidra’ and click on ‘Install Ghidra plugin’, select the root folder of Ghidra and that’s it! Cerbero will take care of the installation for you!

Improved decompiler output

We have improved the decompiler output by inferring the detection of deferred calls and literals from Carbon to it. A before/after screenshot comparison is worth more than a thousand words!

Hex Editor

Apart from fixing some bugs, we have improved the hex editor by providing a wait dialog with progress and abort to every major data operation.

File stats view

We tried to improve the file stats view by providing additional useful information for all the file formats which warranted it.

Improved symbol demangling

We have greatly improved symbols demangling both for Visual C++ and GCC. All type of mangled symbols are supported now!

Improved speed of Python

We now deploy the bytecode files for all our Python plugins in order to decrease their load time.

Improved updates

Cerbero Suite 4 makes the update process even easier than before. Hashes for updates have always been cryptographically verified, but now you can opt to download the update directly from the UI and that too is verified.

Improved PDB support

More PDB strucutres are now explorable from the UI.

Improved settings

Apart from the Ghidra plugin installer, there’s a new tab in the settings to create a portable distribution of Cerbero Suite 4.

Improved SDK

We have increased the amout of exposed SDK and added new APIs. Among the many things we have exposed is the Sleigh decompiler. Here’s a small code sample:

from Pro.UI import *
from Pro.Carbon import *

v = proContext().getCurrentView()
c = v.getCarbon()
d = CarbonSleighDecompiler(c)
s = d.decompileToString(0x004028C9)
print(s)

A Carbon instance can be created entirely from Python of course.

Improved single view mode

Single view mode is perhaps a barely known feature in Cerbero, but a rather useful one. If you press “Ctrl+Alt+S” while in a view, it will hide all other views. Pressing the shortcut again restores the previous state.

In Cerbero Suite 4 we have introduced the concept of dependent views and have updated single view mode to include them.

We can see an example of this by looking at a crash dump. When we are in the disassembly we would like to keep dependent views (like the call stack or the decompiler) visible when switching to single view mode.

Normal state:

Single view mode:

Apart from the news listed here, we have added many refinements and fixed many bugs.

We hope you enjoy this new release!

Happy hacking!

Version 3.1 is out with many improvements! The main news is the support in Carbon for ELF files and the improved deployment of the Linux edition.

This is the full list of news:

+ added ELF Carbon loader
+ added edit bytes command to Carbon
+ added write method to Carbon
+ added detection of 16-bits wide strings in Carbon
+ added open in hex editor action in Carbon
+ added filters to Carbon
+ added Carbon Monokai theme
– added single view mode (Ctrl+Alt+S)
– improved deployment on Linux
+ improved x86/x64 disassembly
– improved hex workspace
– updated capstone to 4.0.1
– fixed misidentified object crash
– fixed some bugs

Carbon: ELF loader

Here we can see an ELF x64 file in Carbon. As we can see we have an entry point with a call to __libc_start_main.

We can follow the first argument which will bring us to the main function.

.text:0x000007BA main                    proc start
.text:0x000007BA                                                                ; EXPORT
.text:0x000007BA                                                                ; DATA XREF: 0x000006CD
.text:0x000007BA   55                    push   rbp
.text:0x000007BB   48 89 E5              mov    rbp, rsp
.text:0x000007BE   8B 05 4C 08 20+       mov    eax, dword ptr [rip + 0x20084C]
.text:0x000007C4   89 C6                 mov    esi, eax
.text:0x000007C6   48 8D 3D B7 00+       lea    rdi, [rip + 0xB7]               ; "test is: %d\n"
.text:0x000007CD   B8 00 00 00 00        mov    eax, 0
.text:0x000007D2   E8 B9 FE FF FF        call   plt_002 -> printf
.text:0x000007D7   B8 00 00 00 00        mov    eax, 0
.text:0x000007DC   E8 9F FE FF FF        call   plt_001 -> libfunc
.text:0x000007E1   89 C6                 mov    esi, eax
.text:0x000007E3   48 8D 3D A7 00+       lea    rdi, [rip + 0xA7]               ; "libfunc result is: %d\n"
.text:0x000007EA   B8 00 00 00 00        mov    eax, 0
.text:0x000007EF   E8 9C FE FF FF        call   plt_002 -> printf
.text:0x000007F4   B8 00 00 00 00        mov    eax, 0
.text:0x000007F9   5D                    pop    rbp
.text:0x000007FA   C3                    ret
.text:0x000007FA
.text:0x000007FA main                    proc end

Carbon: detection of 16-bits wide strings

Simple 16-bit wide strings are now automatically detected in Carbon.

Carbon: open in hex editor action

It is now possible to open the hex editor from the disassembly. To demonstrate this feature I crafted a small executable which asks for a password and prints an error message if the password is wrong.

We can easily find the “wrong password” string in Carbon by pressing Ctrl+5.

Right before the referenced string, there’s a scanf followed by a strcmp.

We go to the jne which evaluates the result of the strcmp and we open the hex editor from the contextual menu. It will ask us to open a file (it must be a copy of the file we’re analysing).

We can just nop the two bytes representing the jne and then we save the file.

Whatever password we insert now, it will be accepted.

Carbon: filters

While filters are already accessible from hex views, it is now possible to access them from Carbon as well.

Let’s take the same sample analyzed in the previous blog post with xored strings. We select on of those xored strings and we open the filters from the contextual menu or by pressing Ctrl+T.

We can now test out a filter on the selected bytes. In this case we simply use a xor to see the string in plain.

Carbon: Monokai theme

The Monokai theme has been added to Carbon.

I have been using this theme for some development projects and wondered what it would look like in a disassembly. I don’t know about you, but I like it… 🙂

Single-view mode

While it has always been possible to trigger the full-screen mode via Ctrl+Alt+F, now there’s also single-view mode which can be triggered via Ctrl+Alt+S.

What it does is to hide all other views, leaving only the focused view open. Press the same shortcut to exit the mode and have all other views visible again.

Improved Linux deployment

The Linux edition has been drastically improved by simplifying its deployment. As a result it should now be compatible with many more versions of Linux, without having to adjust dependencies. It also comes with a built-in Python distribution, just like the Windows edition.

Carbon: improved x86/x64 disassembly

The disassembly in Carbon has been improved so that it now shows import forward calls. Let’s take this simple call to __crtTerminateProcess.

If we follow the call, we’ll see that it just calls a jumps which in turn jumps to the actual API.

These sort of calls to jumps or jumps to jumps are now automatically resolved to improve the readability of the code.

Improved hex workspace

The hex workspace comes with a number of small improvements, but mainly the initial layout doesn’t show the output view by default.

We hope you enjoy this version as we’re already working on the next one and I can’t wait to show you some of the cool things we’re working on. 🙂

Happy hacking!