IDA SDK

A Software Development Kit for extending IDA, the state-of-the-art binary code analysis tool. The C++ SDK allows you to build custom plugins, loaders, processors, and scripts that integrate directly into IDA. This project also includes IDAPython SDK allowing you to write plugins using Python.

Documentation

• IDA Documentation
• C++ Developer’s Guide
• SDK reference
• Additional README files in subdirectories provide details for processor modules, loaders, and other components.

Contributing

The SDK is currently closed to external contributions, as it requires tight integration with our proprietary IDA Pro workflows and follows an internal roadmap with specific architectural decisions.

However, feel free to report bugs or suggest features via Issues.

Versioning

Git tags use semver-compatible syntax to track both IDA product releases and independent SDK updates:

X.Y.Z matches the IDA version that the SDK targets. The pre-release suffix distinguishes the type of change:

• -release marks the exact SDK state shipped with a given IDA version.
• -sdk.N marks subsequent SDK improvements that still target the same IDA version. N increments with each update.

Sort order. Semver compares pre-release identifiers lexically, so -release sorts before -sdk.N (r < s), which gives the correct chronological order:

v9.3.0-release        ← IDA 9.3.0 ships, SDK updated to match
v9.2.0-sdk.2          ← second SDK-only update for IDA 9.2.0
v9.2.0-sdk.1          ← first SDK-only update (e.g., CMake support added)
v9.2.0-release        ← IDA 9.2.0 ships (initial commit)

Note: In strict semver, a pre-release version (e.g., v9.3.0-release) has lower precedence than the corresponding normal version (v9.3.0). Since this repository never publishes bare vX.Y.Z tags, the ordering among tagged versions is unambiguous and correct.

Requirements

To build:

• CMake 3.25 or later
• C++ compiler that fully supports C++17 compatible with your platform:
  • GCC or LLVM/Clang (Linux/macOS)
  • Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC) 2022 or later (Windows)

To use the SDK:

• IDA 9.2

Repository fundamentals

• src/module/ — Processor modules
• src/ldr/ — Loader modules
• src/include/ — Core IDA SDK headers
• src/lib/ — Stub libraries for linking against IDA kernel
• src/dbg/ — Debugger server integration
• src/bin/ — Build helpers & binaries
• src/idalib/ — IDA as a library examples
• src/plugins/ — Sample plugin modules (including IDAPython)

Getting Started

CMake is the supported build system for the IDA SDK.

To install the project on your local machine, refer to the instructions in src/readme.txt. Additional README files in subdirectories provide more details about:

• Processor module templates
• Loaders
• Other components

Building

Basic build:

Linux/macOS/Windows:

cd src/
cmake -B build -G Ninja
cmake --build build

Generator choice (use Ninja). Ninja is the recommended generator on every platform, including Windows. It is a single-config generator: the build type is fixed at configure time (this SDK defaults CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE to Release), and build outputs land directly in bin/plugins, bin/procs, etc. On Windows, run the configure/build from a Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt (or any shell where cl.exe is on PATH); the SDK also auto-detects MSVC via cmake/find_msvc.cmake.

Known issue - the default "Visual Studio" generator. If you omit -G on Windows, CMake picks the multi-config Visual Studio generator, which behaves differently and is not recommended for this SDK:

• It ignores CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE; you must pass --config Release at build time. Without it the build defaults to Debug, whose debug-CRT objects (/MDd, _ITERATOR_DEBUG_LEVEL=2) fail to link against the Release-only stub libs shipped in src/lib/ (LNK2038 / LNK1120, __imp__CrtDbgReport).
• Even with --config Release, it nests outputs under a per-config subfolder (bin/plugins/Release/...) instead of bin/plugins/..., which can confuse tooling and scripts that expect the flat layout.

Both problems disappear with -G Ninja.

Presets (optional): src/CMakePresets.json defines ready-made configurations:

Each preset is only offered when its host condition matches, so unavailable cross-compile presets are hidden on the current host.

cd src/
cmake --preset dbgserver
cmake --build --preset dbgserver

The cross-compile toolchains live under src/cmake/toolchains/. Targeting ARM Linux from an x64 Linux host additionally needs an aarch64 sysroot, for example:

cd src/
cmake --preset arm -DCMAKE_SYSROOT=/usr/aarch64-linux-gnu
cmake --build --preset arm

Qt samples. The Qt-based samples (such as plugins/qwindow) call find_package(Qt6 ...) and are built only when a matching Qt6 is discoverable through the usual CMake mechanisms (CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH, Qt6_DIR, or a system install). If no Qt6 is found the target is skipped silently - the rest of the build is unaffected.

Cross-compiling Qt plugins does not work out of the box: Qt's build tools (moc, rcc, uic) must run on the build host, so a target-only Qt in the sysroot is not enough - you also need a host Qt of the same version, pointed to with QT_HOST_PATH:

cd src/
cmake --preset arm -DCMAKE_SYSROOT=$HOME/arm64-cr-sysroot \
      -DQT_HOST_PATH=/path/to/host/Qt/6.8.0/<host-arch>
cmake --build --preset arm

If you do not need the Qt samples, skip them entirely instead with -DIDACMAKE_SKIP_QT=ON:

cd src/
cmake --preset arm -DCMAKE_SYSROOT=$HOME/arm64-cr-sysroot -DIDACMAKE_SKIP_QT=ON
cmake --build --preset arm

Build options can be passed with -D, for example -DIDA_WARNINGS=all (one of none, default, all), or -DIDA_BUILD_IDA=OFF -DIDA_BUILD_DBGSRV=ON to build only the debugger server tree. The CMake package and its options live under src/cmake/ (entry point src/cmake/idasdkConfig.cmake).

Building your own plugin, loader, or processor module

The build API - ida_add_plugin, ida_add_loader, ida_add_procmod, ida_add_idalib - is the same whether you build inside the SDK tree or from a separate project of your own. Choose whichever fits your workflow.

1. In-tree (alongside the bundled examples).

Put your sources in a folder under the matching example tree and add a CMakeLists.txt next to them. For a plugin in src/plugins/myplugin/:

# src/plugins/myplugin/CMakeLists.txt
ida_add_plugin(myplugin SOURCES myplugin.cpp)

Then register that folder by adding one line to the parent listfile, src/plugins/CMakeLists.txt:

add_subdirectory(myplugin)

Loaders live under src/ldr/ and processor modules under src/module/, each registered the same way from the respective parent CMakeLists.txt. A regular SDK build then picks the new component up automatically.

2. Out-of-tree, using the init helper (recommended).

Keep your component in its own repository/folder and point it at an SDK checkout. Include idasdk_init.cmake before project() - it resolves the SDK location, makes find_package(idasdk) reachable, and preselects MSVC on Windows (so no Developer Command Prompt is required):

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.25)

include("$ENV{IDASDK}/src/cmake/idasdk_init.cmake")  # before project()

project(myplugin CXX)
find_package(idasdk REQUIRED)

ida_add_plugin(myplugin SOURCES myplugin.cpp)

Build it with IDASDK pointing at your SDK checkout (the directory that contains src/):

IDASDK=/path/to/ida-sdk cmake -B build -G Ninja
cmake --build build

By default the result is written to $IDASDK/bin/{plugins,loaders,procs}. To direct it elsewhere, set IDABIN (environment variable or -DIDABIN=/your/out).

3. Out-of-tree, using find_package directly.

If you would rather not use the init helper, add the package directory to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH yourself. In this form MSVC must already be configured in the shell (e.g. a Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt) on Windows:

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.25)
project(myplugin CXX)

list(PREPEND CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH "$ENV{IDASDK}/src/cmake")
find_package(idasdk REQUIRED)

ida_add_plugin(myplugin SOURCES myplugin.cpp)

Run

Depending on your build process, some binaries in src/bin may run out of the box. Others may need to be moved to your IDA installation directory.

To use custom-built plugins, you must place them in a location recognized by IDA. You can do this in one of the following ways:

• Copy plugins manually

  Copy the contents of src/bin/plugins/ to:

  • ~/.idapro/plugins/ on Linux/macOS
  • %APPDATA%\Hex-Rays\IDA Pro\plugins\ on Windows

  Be careful not to overwrite existing plugins.

• Use the IDAUSR environment variable

  Set or extend the IDAUSR environment variable to include the src/bin path.

• Install directly to the IDA directory

  Copy the contents of src/bin/plugins/ to <your IDA installation>/plugins/. Be cautious about overwriting existing files.

For more details, see the Getting Started Documentation.

Build Documentation

To build the documentation locally:

Install Tools

macOS

brew install doxygen graphviz

Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt install doxygen graphviz

Windows

• Download Doxygen installer from doxygen.nl.
• Install Graphviz separately and add it to PATH.

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Building Documentation

From docs folder:

doxygen Doxyfile

Output will appear in:

• docs/build/

Online Documentation

The latest documentation is available at: https://cpp.docs.hex-rays.com/

Related Projects

Python SDK

The following previous IDAPython repositories have now been archived and moved into this project IDAPython:

• https://github.com/idapython/src
• https://github.com/HexRaysSA/IDAPython

For more information, refer to the IDAPython documentation

Support

For commercial support or licensing inquiries, contact: [email protected]

For community help, visit: IDA Users Forum

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

The SDK CMake support is based on Elias Bachaalany's allthingsida/ida-cmake project (commit 06e2b64), and maintains compatibility with its interface. Thanks, Elias!