LIEF

About

The purpose of this project is to provide a cross-platform library to parse, modify and abstract ELF, PE and MachO formats.

Main features:

• Parsing: LIEF can parse ELF, PE, MachO, COFF, OAT, DEX, VDEX, ART and provides a user-friendly API to access their internals.
• Modify: LIEF can be used to modify some parts of these formats (adding a section, changing a symbol's name, ...)
• Abstract: Three formats have common features like sections, symbols, entry point... LIEF factors them.
• API: You can use LIEF via C++, Python, Rust, and Node.js (unofficial, AI-generated)

Extended features:

• Runtime
• DWARF/PDB Support
• Objective-C Metadata
• Dyld Shared Cache with support for extracting Dylib
• Disassembler: AArch64, x86/x86-64, ARM, RISC-V, Mips, PowerPC, eBPF
• Assembler: AArch64, x86/x86-64, RISC-V

Plugins:

• Ghidra
• BinaryNinja

Sponsors

Content

• About
• Downloads / Install
• Getting started
• Blog
• Documentation
  • Rust
  • Sphinx
  • Doxygen
  • Tutorials:
    • Parse and manipulate formats
    • Play with ELF symbols
    • PE Resources
    • Transforming an ELF executable into a library
    • How to use frida on a non-rooted device
    • Android formats
    • Mach-O modification
    • ELF Coredump
    • PE Authenticode
• Contact
• About
  • Authors
  • License
  • BibTeX

Downloads / Install

C++

find_package(LIEF REQUIRED)
target_link_libraries(my-project LIEF::LIEF)

Rust

[package]
name    = "my-awesome-project"
version = "0.0.1"
edition = "2024"

[dependencies]
lief = "1.0.0"

Homebrew

brew install lief

Python

To install the latest version (release):

pip install lief

To install nightly build:

pip install [--user] --force-reinstall --index-url https://lief.s3-website.fr-par.scw.cloud/latest lief==2.0.0.dev0

Packages

• LIEF Extended: https://extended.lief.re (GitHub OAuth)
• Nightly:
  • SDK: https://lief.s3-website.fr-par.scw.cloud/latest/sdk
  • Python Wheels: https://lief.s3-website.fr-par.scw.cloud/latest/lief
• v1.0.0: https://github.com/lief-project/LIEF/releases/tag/1.0.0

Here are guides to install or integrate LIEF:

• Python
• Visual Studio
• Xcode
• CMake

Getting started

Python

import lief

# ELF
binary = lief.parse("/usr/bin/ls")
for section in binary.sections:
    print(section.name, section.virtual_address)

# PE
binary = lief.parse(r"C:\Windows\explorer.exe")
if (rheader := binary.rich_header) is not None:
    print(rheader.key)

# Mach-O
binary = lief.parse("/usr/bin/ls")
if (fixups := binary.dyld_chained_fixups) is not None:
    print(fixups)

Rust

use lief::Binary;
use lief::pe::debug::Entries::CodeViewPDB;

if let Some(Binary::PE(pe)) = Binary::parse(path.as_str()) {
    for entry in pe.debug() {
        if let CodeViewPDB(pdb_view) = entry {
            println!("{}", pdb_view.filename());
        }
    }
}

C++

#include <iostream>
#include <LIEF/LIEF.hpp>

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
  // ELF
  if (std::unique_ptr<const LIEF::ELF::Binary> elf = LIEF::ELF::Parser::parse("/bin/ls")) {
    for (const LIEF::ELF::Section& section : elf->sections()) {
      std::cout << section.name() << ' ' << section.virtual_address() << '\n';
    }
  }

  // PE
  if (std::unique_ptr<const LIEF::PE::Binary> pe = LIEF::PE::Parser::parse("C:\\Windows\\explorer.exe")) {
    if (const LIEF::PE::RichHeader* rheader = pe->rich_header()) {
      std::cout << rheader->key() << '\n';
    }
  }

  // Mach-O
  if (std::unique_ptr<LIEF::MachO::FatBinary> macho = LIEF::MachO::Parser::parse("/bin/ls")) {
    for (const LIEF::MachO::Binary& bin : *macho) {
      if (const LIEF::MachO::DyldChainedFixups* fixups = bin.dyld_chained_fixups()) {
        std::cout << *fixups << '\n';
      }
    }
  }

  return 0;
}

Documentation

• Main documentation
• Doxygen
• Rust

Contact

• Mail: contact at lief re
• Discord: LIEF

About

Authors

Romain Thomas (@rh0main) - Formerly at Quarkslab

License

Apache 2.0.

BibTeX

@MISC {LIEF,
  author       = "Romain Thomas",
  title        = "LIEF - Library to Instrument Executable Formats",
  howpublished = "https://lief.quarkslab.com/",
  month        = "apr",
  year         = "2017"
}