ghidra
by NationalSecurityAgency
Ghidra is a free reverse engineering toolkit from the US National Security Agency. It lets you take compiled programs apart to see how they work, which is useful for studying malware and finding security flaws.
- Stars
- 94.9k
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Runs on
- Your computer
- Setup
- Moderate
- Language
- Java
- Age
- 2797 days
What you can do with it
- Disassemble and decompile executable files to read their logic
- Analyse suspicious software for malicious behaviour or vulnerabilities
- Write Java or Python scripts and extensions to automate analysis
Could replace
- IDA Pro
- Binary Ninja
Our suggestion based on what it does, not a feature-by-feature comparison.
Make money with it
An individual with reverse engineering skills could offer freelance software security reviews or malware analysis reports.
An idea, not financial advice. Check the licence before charging for anything built on it.
Ways a business could use it
- Check third-party or legacy software for security weaknesses before relying on it, avoiding paid audit tools
- Offer malware analysis or security review services to clients using a free professional-grade toolkit
Can you use it commercially?
Free to use, change and sell, including in paid products. Keep the copyright notice.
Not legal advice. Read the project's licence file before building a product on it.
Getting it running
Install JDK 25, download the release zip from GitHub, extract it and run ghidraRun (or ghidraRun.bat on Windows).
Follow the official instructions in the project README.
Things to check
- Known security vulnerabilities exist in certain versions, so check the security advisories and use a current release
- Needs reverse engineering knowledge, so there is a steep learning curve
- Analysing other people's software may be restricted by licence terms or local law
Who's talking about it
Checked 27 Oct 2026. Summary drafted by AI from the project's README.
