Radare2 Reference Card
This chapter is based on the Radare 2 reference card by Thanat0s, which is under the GNU GPL. Original license is as follows:
This card may be freely distributed under the terms of the GNU
general public licence — Copyright by Thanat0s - v0.1 -
Survival Guide
Those are the basic commands you will want to know and use for moving around a binary and getting information about it.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| s (tab) | Seek to a different place |
| x [nbytes] | Hexdump of nbytes, $b by default |
| aa | Auto analyze |
| pdf@fcn(Tab) | Disassemble function |
| f fcn(Tab) | List functions |
| f str(Tab) | List strings |
| fr [flagname] [newname] | Rename flag |
| psz [offset]~grep | Print strings and grep for one |
| arf [flag] | Find cross reference for a flag |
Flags
Flags are like bookmarks, but they carry some extra information like size, tags or associated flagspace. Use the f command to list, set, get them.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| f | List flags |
| fd $$ | Describe an offset |
| fj | Display flags in JSON |
| fl | Show flag length |
| fx | Show hexdump of flag |
| fC [name] [comment] | Set flag comment |
Flagspaces
Flags are created into a flagspace, by default none is selected,
and listing flags will list them all. To display a subset of flags
you can use the fs command to restrict it.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| fs | Display flagspaces |
| fs * | Select all flagspaces |
| fs [sections] | Select one flagspace |
Information
Binary files have information stored inside the headers. The i
command uses the RBin api and allows us to the same things rabin2
do. Those are the most common ones.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| ii | Information on imports |
| iI | Info on binary |
| ie | Display entrypoint |
| iS | Display sections |
| ir | Display relocations |
| iz | List strings (izz, izzz) |
Print string
There are different ways to represent a string in memory. The ps command
allows us to print it in utf-16, pascal, zero terminated, .. formats.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| psz [offset] | Print zero terminated string |
| psb [offset] | Print strings in current block |
| psx [offset] | Show string with scaped chars |
| psp [offset] | Print pascal string |
| psw [offset] | Print wide string |
Visual mode
The visual mode is the standard interactive interface of radare2.
To enter in visual mode use the v or V command, and then you'll only
have to press keys to get the actions happen instead of commands.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| V | Enter visual mode |
| p/P | Rotate modes (hex, disasm, debug, words, buf) |
| c | Toggle (c)ursor |
| q | Back to Radare shell |
| hjkl | Move around (or HJKL) (left-down-up-right) |
| Enter | Follow address of jump/call |
| sS | Step/step over |
| o | Go/seek to given offset |
| . | Seek to program counter |
| / | In cursor mode, search in current block |
| :cmd | Run radare command |
| ;[-]cmt | Add/remove comment |
| x+-/[] | Change block size, [] = resize hex.cols |
| >||< | Seek aligned to block size |
| i/a/A | (i)nsert hex, (a)ssemble code, visual (A)ssembler |
| b/B | Toggle breakpoint / automatic block size |
| d[f?] | Define function, data, code, .. |
| D | Enter visual diff mode (set diff.from/to) |
| e | Edit eval configuration variables |
| f/F | Set/unset flag |
| gG | Go seek to begin and end of file (0-$s) |
| mK/’K | Mark/go to Key (any key) |
| M | Walk the mounted filesystems |
| n/N | Seek next/prev function/flag/hit (scr.nkey) |
| o | Go/seek to given offset |
| C | Toggle (C)olors |
| R | Randomize color palette (ecr) |
| t | Track flags (browse symbols, functions..) |
| T | Browse anal info and comments |
| v | Visual code analysis menu |
| V/W | (V)iew graph (agv?), open (W)ebUI |
| uU | Undo/redo seek |
| x | Show xrefs to seek between them |
| yY | Copy and paste selection |
| z | Toggle zoom mode |
Searching
There are many situations where we need to find a value inside a binary
or in some specific regions. Use the e search.in=? command to choose
where the / command may search for the given value.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| / foo\00 | Search for string ’foo\0’ |
| /b | Search backwards |
| // | Repeat last search |
| /w foo | Search for wide string ’f\0o\0o\0’ |
| /wi foo | Search for wide string ignoring case |
| /! ff | Search for first occurrence not matching |
| /i foo | Search for string ’foo’ ignoring case |
| /e /E.F/i | Match regular expression |
| /x ff0.23 | Search for hex string |
| /x ff..33 | Search for hex string ignoring some nibbles |
| /x ff43 ffd0 | Search for hexpair with mask |
| /d 101112 | Search for a deltified sequence of bytes |
| /!x 00 | Inverse hexa search (find first byte != 0x00) |
| /c jmp [esp] | Search for asm code (see search.asmstr) |
| /a jmp eax | Assemble opcode and search its bytes |
| /A | Search for AES expanded keys |
| /r sym.printf | Analyze opcode reference an offset |
| /R | Search for ROP gadgets |
| /P | Show offset of previous instruction |
| /m magicfile | Search for matching magic file |
| /p patternsize | Search for pattern of given size |
| /z min max | Search for strings of given size |
| /v[?248] num | Look for a asm.bigendian 32bit value |
Saving
By default, when you open a file in write mode (r2 -w) all changes
will be written directly into the file. No undo history is saved by
default.
Use e io.cache.write=true and the wc command to manage the write cache
history changes. To undo, redo, commit them to write the changes on the file..
But, if we want to save the analysis information, comments, flags and
other user-created metadata, we may want to use projects with r2 -p and the P command.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| Po [file] | Open project |
| Ps [file] | Save project |
| Pi [file] | Show project information |
Usable variables in expression
The ?$? command will display the variables that can be used in any math
operation inside the r2 shell. For example, using the ? $$ command to evaluate
a number or ?v to just the the value in one format.
All commands in r2 that accept a number supports the use of those variables.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
| $$ | here (current virtual seek) |
| $$$ | current non-temporary virtual seek |
| $? | last comparison value |
| $alias=value | alias commands (simple macros) |
| $b | block size |
| $B | base address (aligned lowest map address) |
| $f | jump fail address (e.g. jz 0x10 => next instruction) |
| $fl | flag length (size) at current address (fla; pD $l @ entry0) |
| $F | current function size |
| $FB | begin of function |
| $Fb | address of the current basic block |
| $Fs | size of the current basic block |
| $FE | end of function |
| $FS | function size |
| $Fj | function jump destination |
| $Ff | function false destination |
| $FI | function instructions |
| $c,$r | get width and height of terminal |
| $Cn | get nth call of function |
| $Dn | get nth data reference in function |
| $D | current debug map base address ?v $D @ rsp |
| $DD | current debug map size |
| $e | 1 if end of block, else 0 |
| $j | jump address (e.g. jmp 0x10, jz 0x10 => 0x10) |
| $Ja | get nth jump of function |
| $Xn | get nth xref of function |
| $l | opcode length |
| $m | opcode memory reference (e.g. mov eax,[0x10] => 0x10) |
| $M | map address (lowest map address) |
| $o | here (current disk io offset) |
| $p | getpid() |
| $P | pid of children (only in debug) |
| $s | file size |
| $S | section offset |
| $SS | section size |
| $v | opcode immediate value (e.g. lui a0,0x8010 => 0x8010) |
| $w | get word size, 4 if asm.bits=32, 8 if 64, ... |
| ${ev} | get value of eval config variable |
| $r{reg} | get value of named register |
| $k{kv} | get value of an sdb query value |
| $s{flag} | get size of flag |
| RNum | $variables usable in math expressions |