Merge pull request #310 from fireeye/ida_plugin_documentation

ida plugin: update documentation

README.md

@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ Alternatively, you can fetch a nightly build of a standalone binary from one of
 
 To use capa as a library or integrate with another tool, see [doc/installation.md](doc/installation.md) for further setup instructions.
 
-For more information about how to use capa, including running it as an IDA script/plugin see [doc/usage.md](doc/usage.md).
+For more information about how to use capa, see [doc/usage.md](doc/usage.md).
 
 # example
 
@@ -146,12 +146,11 @@ rule:
 The [github.com/fireeye/capa-rules](https://github.com/fireeye/capa-rules) repository contains hundreds of standard library rules that are distributed with capa.
 Please learn to write rules and contribute new entries as you find interesting techniques in malware.
 
-If you use IDA Pro, then you use can use the [IDA Pro plugin for capa](capa/ida/plugin/).
-This script adds new user interface elements to IDA, including an interactive tree view of rule matches and their locations within the current database.
-As you select the checkboxes, the plugin will highlight the addresses associated with the features.
-We use this plugin all the time to quickly jump to interesting parts of a program.
+If you use IDA Pro, then you use can use the [capa explorer IDA plugin](capa/ida/plugin/).
+capa explorer lets you quickly identify and navigate to interesting areas of a program and dissect capa rule matches at
+the assembly level.
 
-![capa + IDA Pro integration](.github/capa-ida.jpg)
+![capa + IDA Pro integration](doc/img/ida_plugin_intro.gif)
 
 # further information
 ## capa

capa/ida/plugin/README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+# capa explorer
+
+capa explorer is an IDA Pro plugin that integrates the FLARE team's open-source framework, capa, with IDA. capa is a framework that uses a well-defined collection of rules to 
+identify capabilities in a program. You can run capa against a PE file or shellcode and it tells you what it thinks the program can do. For example, it might suggest that 
+the program is a backdoor, can install services, or relies on HTTP to communicate. 
+
+The capa explorer IDA plugin brings capa's detection capabilities to IDA. You can use capa explorer to run capa directly on an IDA database without needing access
+to the source binary. Once a database has been analyzed, capa explorer can be used to quickly identify and navigate to interesting areas of a program 
+and dissect capa rule matches at the assembly level.
+
+To illustrate, we use capa explorer to analyze Lab 14-02 from [Practical Malware Analysis](https://nostarch.com/malware) (PMA) available [here](https://practicalmalwareanalysis.com/labs/). Our
+goal is to understand the program's functionality.
+
+After loading Lab 14-02 into IDA and analyzing the database with capa explorer, we see that capa detected a rule match for `self delete via COMSPEC environment variable`:
+
+![](../../../doc/img/ida_plugin_example_1.png)
+
+We can use capa explorer to navigate the IDA Disassembly view directly to the suspect function and get an assembly-level breakdown of why capa matched `self delete via COMSPEC environment variable` 
+for this particular function.
+
+![](../../../doc/img/ida_plugin_example_2.png)
+
+Using the `Rule Information` and `Details` columns capa explorer shows us that the suspect function matched `self delete via COMSPEC environment variable` because it contains capa rule matches for `create process`, `get COMSPEC environment variable`,
+and `query environment variable`, references to the strings `COMSPEC`, ` > nul`, and `/c del`, and a call to the Windows API function `GetEnvironmentVariableA`.
+
+For more information on the FLARE team's open-source framework, capa, check out the overview in our first [blog](https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2020/07/capa-automatically-identify-malware-capabilities.html).
+
+## Features
+
+![](../../../doc/img/ida_plugin_intro.gif)
+
+* Display capa results in an interactive tree view of rule matches and their locations in the current database
+* Search for keywords or phrases found in the `Rule Information`, `Address`, or `Details` columns
+* Display rule source content when a user hovers their cursor over a rule match
+* Double-click `Address` column to view associated feature in the IDA Disassembly view
+* Limit tree view results to the function currently displayed in the IDA Disassembly view; update results as a user navigates to different functions
+* Export results as formatted JSON by navigating to `File > Export results...`
+* Remember a user's capa rules directory for future runs; change capa rules directory by navigating to `Rules > Change rules directory...`
+* Automatically re-analyze database when user performs a program rebase
+* Automatically update results when IDA is used to rename a function
+* Select one or more checkboxes to highlight the associated addresses in the IDA Disassembly view
+* Right-click a function match to rename it; the new function name is propagated to the current IDA database
+* Right-click to copy a result by column or by row
+* Sort results by column
+* Reset tree view and IDA Disassembly view highlighting by clicking `Reset`
+
+## Getting Started
+
+### Requirements
+
+capa explorer supports the following IDA setups:
+
+* IDA Pro 7.4+ with Python 2.7 or Python 3.
+
+If you encounter issues with your specific setup, please open a new [Issue](https://github.com/fireeye/capa/issues).
+
+### Supported File Types
+
+capa explorer is limited to the file types supported by capa, which includes:
+
+* Windows 32-bit and 64-bit PE files
+* Windows 32-bit and 64-bit shellcode
+
+### Installation
+
+You can install capa explorer using the following steps:
+
+1. Install capa for the Python interpreter used by your IDA installation:
+    ```
+    $ pip install flare-capa
+    ```
+3. Download the [standard collection of capa rules](https://github.com/fireeye/capa-rules) (capa explorer needs capa rules to analyze a database)
+4. Copy [capa_explorer.py](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fireeye/capa/master/capa/ida/plugin/capa_explorer.py) to your IDA plugins directory
+
+### Usage
+
+1. Run IDA and analyze a supported file type (select `Manual Load` and `Load Resources` for best results)
+2. Open capa explorer in IDA by navigating to `Edit > Plugins > FLARE capa explorer` or using the keyboard shortcut `Alt+F5`
+3. Click `Analyze`
+
+When running capa explorer for the first time you are prompted to select a file directory containing capa rules. The plugin conveniently
+remembers your selection for future runs; you can change this selection by navigating to `Rules > Change rules directory...`. We recommend 
+downloading and using the [standard collection of capa rules](https://github.com/fireeye/capa-rules) when getting started with the plugin.
+
+#### Tips
+
+* Start analysis by clicking `Analyze`
+* Reset the plugin user interface and remove highlighting from IDA disassembly view by clicking `Reset`
+* Change your capa rules directory by navigating to `Rules > Change rules directory...`
+* Hover your cursor over a rule match to view the source content of the rule
+* Double-click the `Address` column to navigate the IDA Disassembly view to the associated feature
+* Double-click a result in the `Rule Information` column to expand its children
+* Select a checkbox in the `Rule Information` column to highlight the address of the associated feature in the IDA Dissasembly view
+
+## Development
+
+Because capa explorer is packaged with capa you will need to install capa locally for development.
+
+You can install capa locally by following the steps outlined in `Method 3: Inspecting the capa source code` of the [capa 
+installation guide](https://github.com/fireeye/capa/blob/ida_plugin_documentation/doc/installation.md#method-3-inspecting-the-capa-source-code). Once installed, copy [capa_explorer.py](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/fireeye/capa/master/capa/ida/plugin/capa_explorer.py) 
+to your IDA plugins directory to run the plugin in IDA.
+
+### Components
+
+capa explorer consists of two main components:
+
+* An IDA [feature extractor](https://github.com/fireeye/capa/tree/master/capa/features/extractors/ida) built on top of IDA's binary analysis engine
+  * This component uses IDAPython to extract [capa features](https://github.com/fireeye/capa-rules/blob/master/doc/format.md#extracted-features) from the IDA database such as strings, 
+disassembly, and control flow; these extracted features are used by capa to find feature combinations that result in a rule match
+* An [interactive plugin](https://github.com/fireeye/capa/tree/master/capa/ida/plugin) for displaying and exploring capa rule matches
+  * This component integrates the IDA feature extractor and capa, providing an interactive user interface to dissect rule matches found by capa using features extracted by the IDA feature extractor

doc/usage.md

@@ -12,27 +12,3 @@ See `capa -h` for all supported arguments and usage examples.
 Use the `-t` option to run rules with the given metadata value (see the rule fields `rule.meta.*`).
 For example, `capa -t william.ballenthin@mandiant.com` runs rules that reference Willi's email address (probably as the author), or
 `capa -t communication` runs rules with the namespace `communication`.
-
-### IDA Pro integrations
-You can run capa from within IDA Pro. Run `capa/main.py` via `File - Script file...` (or ALT + F7). 
-When running in IDA, capa uses IDA's disassembly and file analysis as its backend. 
-These results may vary from the standalone version that uses vivisect.
-IDA's analysis is generally a bit faster and more thorough than vivisect's, so you might prefer this mode.
-
-When run under IDA, capa supports both Python 2 and Python 3 interpreters.
-If you encounter issues with your specific setup, please open a new [Issue](https://github.com/fireeye/capa/issues).
-
-Additionally, capa comes with an IDA Pro plugin located in the `capa/ida/plugin` directory: the explorer.
-
-#### capa explorer
-The capa explorer allows you to interactively display and browse capabilities capa identified in a binary.
-As you select rules or logic, capa will highlight the addresses that support its analysis conclusions.
-We like to use capa to help find the most interesting parts of a program, such as where the C2 mechanism might be.
-
-![capa explorer](img/capa_explorer.png)
-
-The plugin currently supports IDA Pro 7.1 through 7.5 with either Python 2 or Python 3. To use the plugin, install capa
-by following method 2 or 3 from the [installation guide](installation.md) and copy [capa_plugin_ida.py](../capa/ida/plugin/capa_explorer.py)
-to the plugins directory of your IDA Pro installation. Following these steps you can run capa explorer in IDA Pro by navigating 
-to `Edit > Plugins > capa explorer`. The plugin will prompt you to select a rules directory to use for analysis. You can 
-use the [default rule set](https://github.com/fireeye/capa-rules/) or point the plugin to your own directory of rules.