Been working with Function ID databases lately to speed up RE work on Windows binaries — especially ones that are statically linked and stripped. For those unfamiliar, it’s basically a way to match known function implementations in binaries by comparing their signatures (not just hashes — real structural/function data). If you’ve ever wasted hours trying to identify common library functions manually, this is a solid shortcut.
A lot of Windows binaries pull in statically linked libraries, which means you’re left with a big mess of unnamed functions. No DLL imports, no symbols — just a pile of code blobs. If you know what library the code came from (say, some open source lib), you can build a Function ID database from it and then apply it to the stripped binary. The result: tons of auto-labeled functions that would’ve otherwise taken forever to identify.
What’s nice is that this approach works fine on Windows, and I ended up putting together a few PowerShell scripts to handle batch ID generation and matching. It's not a silver bullet (compiler optimisations still get in the way), but it saves a ridiculous amount of time when it works.
A lot of Windows binaries pull in statically linked libraries, which means you’re left with a big mess of unnamed functions. No DLL imports, no symbols — just a pile of code blobs. If you know what library the code came from (say, some open source lib), you can build a Function ID database from it and then apply it to the stripped binary. The result: tons of auto-labeled functions that would’ve otherwise taken forever to identify.
What’s nice is that this approach works fine on Windows, and I ended up putting together a few PowerShell scripts to handle batch ID generation and matching. It's not a silver bullet (compiler optimisations still get in the way), but it saves a ridiculous amount of time when it works.