It’s been a little while since we last reviewed a book, but a lot of my team has been spending time with Ghidra this year. Craig Young taught a course on the subject, and I’ve used it with my students at Fanshawe College in their Malware Analysis course. Given our fascination with Ghidra, reviewing The Ghidra Book: The Definitive Guide by Chris Eagle and Kara Nance from No Starch Press made sense. I have a few of Chris’s books on my shelf, and I’ve always enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to digging into this one.

The book takes you from the beginning of your Ghidra journey to the end. From an introduction to disassembly and working with the basics of Ghidra to scripting in Ghidra to extend its capabilities, this book covers it all. One of my favorite aspects of the book is that it doesn’t read like a technical manual. When books are focused on a specific product, they can become very focused on a bland approach that can turn off readers. It feels more like reading the owner’s manual for your car than a book. Thankfully, that didn’t happen with this book, and it was enjoyable. I will admit that I did not read this book sequentially, instead jumping to topics that were relevant to my current work or that interested me. I think that’s the sign of a good technical book when you can move around freely and use it as reference material.

Here’s what others had to say about the book.

The Ghidra Book: The Definitive Guide by Chris Eagle and Kara Nance is an excellent choice for a reference book. This book provides explanations on how to modify the UI and other features that Ghidra provides. This allows any user to customize (Read more...)