Heros in Action: Analyzing Objective-C Binaries through Decompilation and IFDS

This paper demonstrates static taint analysis on Objective-C binaries through the integration of the Ghidra framework with the Heros IFDS solver, achieving an inter-procedural, field-sensitive and flow-sensitive analysis. Our contributions include two plugins: one extending Ghidra Objective-C capabilities to improve decompilation accuracy, and another integrating the Heros framework for inter-procedural taint analysis on Ghidra Intermediate Representation (IR).To assess our approach, we introduce a new benchmark suite tailored to Objective-C, covering diverse dataflow challenges and promoting further community-driven research. By leveraging existing frameworks, this work demonstrates how established static analysis techniques can be adapted to binary targets, laying a groundwork for advancements in Objective-C binary analysis.

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Publication Details

Published
2025-04-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/static66697.2025.00005
Citations
1
Primary Topic
Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.44

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article

Heros in Action: Analyzing Objective-C Binaries through Decompilation and IFDS

Florian Magin, Gwendal Patat, Fabian Scherf
1 citations
Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies
2.44
article

Heros in Action: Analyzing Objective-C Binaries through Decompilation and IFDS

Florian Magin, Gwendal Patat, Fabian Scherf
article en
1 citations

Abstract

This paper demonstrates static taint analysis on Objective-C binaries through the integration of the Ghidra framework with the Heros IFDS solver, achieving an inter-procedural, field-sensitive and flow-sensitive analysis. Our contributions include two plugins: one extending Ghidra Objective-C capabilities to improve decompilation accuracy, and another integrating the Heros framework for inter-procedural taint analysis on Ghidra Intermediate Representation (IR).To assess our approach, we introduce a new benchmark suite tailored to Objective-C, covering diverse dataflow challenges and promoting further community-driven research. By leveraging existing frameworks, this work demonstrates how established static analysis techniques can be adapted to binary targets, laying a groundwork for advancements in Objective-C binary analysis.

Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (DE)
Ministry of Higher Education
Openalex Percentile: Top 12%
Leadership, Courage, and Heroism Studies
2.44
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Heros in Action: Analyzing Objective-C Binaries through Decompilation and IFDS — Florian Magin, Gwendal Patat, et al. · (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS