Rebuilding Native ARM64 Binaries

Building native M1/M2 ARM64 binaries via Ghidra requires a bit different approach than traditional Ghidra’s **Export Program** option. Unlike Export Program option which can be invoked from Ghidra explorer menu to create a binary file containing bytes of file block and respective changes or patches to the target, this approach will use Gradle instead.

Start by installing Gradle via Homebrew:

# install gradle with all deps
$ brew install gradle       # requires XCode CLI Tools installed

$ clang -v                  # clang is included in the XCode CLI Tools
# Homebrew clang version 15.0.7
# Target: arm64-apple-darwin22.3.0
# ...

Navigate to Ghidra’s support folder, and run the script; use oneliner below and just paste it in the Terminal shell:

# Setting ENV via oneliner that finds Ghidra Homebrew path
$ GHIDRADIR="$(brew info ghidra | grep -i "homebrew/Caskroom" | grep "PUBLIC" | sed s/ghidraRun// | sed s/Binary// | sed s/\(// | sed s/\)// | sed 's/ //g')support"
$ cd $GHIDRADIR

Run buildNatives script in above directory to complete proper Ghidra installation. This will keep usability of Ghidra performant, without Apple’s Gatekeeper fizzling or throwing warnings:

$ pwd               # => $GHIDRADIR
                    # tty should be in previously setted GHIDRADIR ENV directory

$ ./buildNatives    # => this will build native Ghidra utils for arm
Building natives in Ghidra...
Welcome to Gradle 8.0.2!
> Configure project :Debugger-swig-lldb
> Configure project :Decompiler
> Configure project :PDB
> Configure project :DemanglerGnu
# BUILD SUCCESSFUL ...

You can also check instructions on Ghidra Scripting pagenotes.