Coding

edb – graphical debugger inspired by OllyDbg

edb is a graphical debugger for AArch32, x86 and x86-64 applications. The project was inspired by OllyDbg and provides a traditional low-level debugging environment centred around disassembly, registers, memory and process state.

The main interface presents the information needed when investigating a running executable at machine-code level. Users can examine disassembled instructions, registers, stack contents and memory while controlling program execution with breakpoints and stepping commands.

edb is useful both for conventional debugging and reverse engineering. The disassembly-oriented interface lends itself to examining binaries when source code is unavailable, while its memory and register views make it possible to inspect program state directly as execution progresses.

The debugger uses Capstone for disassembly and Qt for its graphical interface. Its architecture also supports plugins, allowing additional debugging and analysis functionality to be added without putting everything into the core application. Optional Graphviz integration is available for functionality which benefits from graph visualisation.

Users can build edb with either GCC or Clang. Current development supports modern Qt 5 and Qt 6 releases, and recent work has included compatibility improvements for newer versions of Qt and Capstone.

edb has been under development for many years and has a substantial user base. It remains one of the more established free graphical low-level debuggers available for Linux.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

  • Graphical low-level debugging environment.
  • AArch32, x86 and x86-64 architecture support.
  • Disassembly of executable code.
  • Register inspection.
  • Stack inspection.
  • Memory inspection and editing.
  • Software and hardware breakpoints.
  • Single stepping and execution control.
  • Process and thread inspection.
  • Plugin architecture.
  • Capstone disassembly engine integration.
  • Optional Graphviz integration.
  • Qt graphical interface.
  • Qt 5 and Qt 6 support.

Website: github.com/eteran/edb-debugger
Support:
Developer: Evan Teran
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

edb in action

edb is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.


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