Press releases

The IDA Pro Book, 2nd Edition--New from No Starch Press: The Definitive Guide to the World's Most Popular Disassembler

Press release: June 8, 2011

The IDA Pro Book, 2nd Edition

Request Review copy

San Francisco, CA, June 9, 2011—IDA Pro, the world's most popular commercial disassembler and debugger, helps hackers, reverse engineers, and malware analysts dissect computer programs when source code is unavailable. IDA Pro can automatically analyze executables and present a disassembly. But then what? How can that mountain of information be turned into something that's actually useful?

Hailed by Ilfak Guilfanov, the creator of IDA Pro, as "profound, comprehensive, and accurate," the second edition of The IDA Pro Book (No Starch Press, June 2011, 672 pp., $69.95, ISBN 9781593272890) covers everything from the basic first steps to advanced automation techniques. In this completely revised and updated second edition, renowned expert Chris Eagle tackles an array of real-world reverse engineering challenges and offers strategies for dealing with them. Readers will find coverage of IDA's new Qt-based debugger, the Bochs debugger, and IDA scripting (especially using IDAPython), and learn how to use IDA's latest interactive and scriptable interfaces.

"The IDA Pro Book is an exceptionally clean and thorough look at an often hairy topic that is, nonetheless, a key weapon in the hands of many a security researcher," said Bill Pollock, No Starch Press Founder. "We're excited to be releasing the second edition of such a landmark work."

Readers will save time and effort as they learn how to:

  • Navigate, comment, and modify disassembly
  • Identify known library routines in order to focus their analysis on other areas of the code
  • Use code graphing to quickly understand cross references and function calls
  • Extend IDA to support new processors and filetypes using the SDK
  • Explore popular plug-ins that make writing IDA scripts easier and allow collaborative reverse engineering
  • Use IDA's built-in debugger to tackle hostile and obfuscated code

Whether analyzing malware, conducting vulnerability research, or reverse engineering software, a mastery of IDA Pro is crucial to the success of the serious security researcher. The IDA Pro Book, 2nd Edition makes that task easier, faster, and more efficient.

For more information or to request a review copy of The IDA Pro Book, 2nd Edition, contact Travis Peterson at No Starch Press (nostarchpr@oreilly.com, +1.415.863.9900, x100), or visit www.nostarch.com.

About the Author

Chris Eagle is a Senior Lecturer of Computer Science at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. He is the author of many IDA plug-ins and co-author of Gray Hat Hacking (McGraw-Hill), and he has spoken at numerous security conferences, including Black Hat, Defcon, ToorCon, and ShmooCon.

Praise for the first edition of The IDA Pro Book
"I wholeheartedly recommend The IDA Pro Book to all IDA Pro users."
ILFAK GUILFANOV, CREATOR OF IDA PRO

"Chris Eagle delivers a very concise, well laid out book in The IDA Pro Book."
CODY PIERCE, TIPPINGPOINT DVLABS

"Chris Eagle is clearly an excellent educator, as he makes the sometimes very dense and technically involved material easy to read and understand and also chooses his examples well."
DINO DAI ZOVI, TRAIL OF BITS BLOG

"Chris Eagle's The IDA Pro Book provides a significantly better understanding not just of IDA Pro itself, but of the entire RE process."
RYAN LINN, THE ETHICAL HACKER NETWORK

"This is the densest, most accurate, and, by far, the best IDA Pro book ever released."
PIERRE VANDEVENNE, OWNER AND CEO OF DATARESCUE SA

"I highly recommend this book to anyone, from the person looking to begin using IDA Pro to the seasoned veteran."
DUSTIN D. TRAMMELL, SECURITY RESEARCHER

Additional Resources
Chapter 24: "The IDA Debugger" (PDF)
Table of Contents
Detailed Table of Contents (PDF)
Index (PDF)
No Starch Press Catalog Page

The IDA Pro Book, 2nd Edition The IDA Pro Book, 2nd Edition
Publisher: No Starch Press
By Chris Eagle
ISBN 9781593272890, $69.95 USD  
June 2011, 672 pp.
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938
1-707-827-7000

Request Review copy

Available in fine bookstores everywhere, from http://www.oreilly.com/nostarch, or directly from No Starch Press (http://www.nostarch.com, orders@nostarch.com, 1-800-420-7240).

About No Starch Press
Founded in 1994, No Starch Press is one of the few remaining independent computer book publishers. We publish the finest in geek entertainment—unique books on technology, with a focus on open source, security, hacking, programming, alternative operating systems, LEGO, science, and math. Our titles have personality, our authors are passionate, and our books tackle topics that people care about. Visit http://www.nostarch.com for a complete catalog.

About O’Reilly

O’Reilly Media spreads the knowledge of innovators through its books, online services, magazines, and conferences. Since 1978, O’Reilly Media has been a chronicler and catalyst of cutting-edge development, homing in on the technology trends that really matter and spurring their adoption by amplifying “faint signals” from the alpha geeks who are creating the future. An active participant in the technology community, the company has a long history of advocacy, meme-making, and evangelism.

Email a link to this press release