IDA plugin with visual studio c++ 2019

Question

Hello all and sorry for my bad English

I am trying to test an example for developing plugin in C++ with IDA from the book :

http://www.binarypool.com/idapluginwriting/idapw.pdf

I am using Visual c++ 2019.

The plugin example source is :

#include <ida.hpp>
#include <idp.hpp>
#include <loader.hpp>


int IDAP_init(void)
{
    // Do checks here to ensure your plug-in is being used within
    // an environment it was written for. Return PLUGIN_SKIP if the
    // checks fail, otherwise return PLUGIN_KEEP.
    return PLUGIN_KEEP;
}

void IDAP_term(void)
{
    // Stuff to do when exiting, generally you'd put any sort
    // of clean-up jobs here.
    return;
}

// The plugin can be passed an integer argument from the plugins.cfg
// file. This can be useful when you want the one plug-in to do
// something different depending on the hot-key pressed or menu
// item selected.
void IDAP_run(int arg)
{
    // The "meat" of your plug-in
    msg("Hello world!");
    return;
}
// There isn't much use for these yet, but I set them anyway.
char IDAP_comment[] = "This is my test plug-in";
char IDAP_help[] = "My plugin";

// The name of the plug-in displayed in the Edit->Plugins menu. It can
// be overridden in the user's plugins.cfg file.
char IDAP_name[] = "My plugin";

// The hot-key the user can use to run your plug-in.
char IDAP_hotkey[] = "Alt-X";

// The all-important exported PLUGIN object

plugin_t PLUGIN =
{
    IDP_INTERFACE_VERSION, // IDA version plug-in is written for
    0, // Flags (see below)
    IDAP_init, // Initialisation function
    IDAP_term, // Clean-up function
    IDAP_run, // Main plug-in body
    IDAP_comment, // Comment – unused
    IDAP_help, // As above – unused
    IDAP_name, // Plug-in name shown in
    // Edit->Plugins menu
    IDAP_hotkey // Hot key to run the plug-in
};

When compiling, I got 2 errors :

Error C2440 'initializing': cannot convert from 'int (__cdecl *)(void)' to 'plugmod_t *(__cdecl *)(void)'   Sdk75Project1   F:\Developpement\IDA\Sdk75Project\Sdk75Project1\Sdk75Project1\main.cpp  48  
Error C2440 'initializing': cannot convert from 'void (__cdecl *)(int)' to 'bool (__cdecl *)(size_t)'   Sdk75Project1   F:\Developpement\IDA\Sdk75Project\Sdk75Project1\Sdk75Project1\main.cpp  50  

I found nothing about that on the Net... Can someone give me an idea of what is going wrong ?

Thanks you very much.

I have used the informations given in the readme.txt to configure VC++ :

How to set up Visual C++ 2017 for IDA Plugins
---------------------------------------------

This guide will help you set up a Visual C++ project that targets both ida32 and ida64 plugins.
Remember that, even though ida32 is used to work on 32-bit files, it is also an x64 application.
Therefore, both plugins (ida32 and ida64) must be built for the x64 platform.

1. File | New | Project From Existing Code...

2. What type of project would you like to create: Visual C++
   <next>

3. Project file location: <folder where you have your files>
   Project name: <your plugin's name>
   <finish>

Once the project is initialized, right-click on the project name and pick Properties.

4. Configuration Manager...
     Active solution platform: select "x64"
   <Close>

5. General | Project Defaults | Configuration Type
     Dynamic Library (.dll)
   <apply>

6. C/C++ | General | Additional Include Directories
     Enter the SDK's include folder in "Include search paths (/I)": eg. C:\idasdk\include;
   <apply>

7. C/C++ | Code Generation | Runtime library (visible only after you add one .cpp file to the project)
     Multi-threaded DLL (/MD)
   <apply>

8. Linker | Command Line | Additional options
     - for processor modules: /EXPORT:LPH
     - for plugins: /EXPORT:PLUGIN
     - for loaders: /EXPORT:LDSC
   <apply>

The steps above constituted the common configuration for both ida32 and ida64 configurations.

We will now create the separate configurations.

9. Still under "Configuration Manager..."

     - under the "Configuration" column, click on "Debug"
     - click "<Edit...>"
     - click "Rename"
     - add an "ida32" prefix to the configuration name, such as "ida32 Debug"
     - <Enter>
     - <Yes>
     - <Close>

     - under "Active solution configuration", click on "Debug"
     - click "<Edit...>"
     - click "Rename"
     - add an "ida32" prefix to the configuration name, such as "ida32 Debug"
     - <Enter>
     - <Yes>
     - <Close>

     - under "Active solution configuration", click on the new configuration name "ida32 Debug"
     - click "<New...>"
     - use a similar name, but with the "ida64" prefix, such as "ida64 Debug"
     - Copy settings from: "ida32 Debug"
     - <Ok>
     - <Close>

In the "Property Page", under "Configuration", select "ida32 Debug".

10. Debugging | Command
      - for ida32: C:\Program Files\IDA 7.2\ida.exe
      - for ida64: C:\Program Files\IDA 7.2\ida64.exe
    <apply>

11. C/C++ | Preprocessor | Preprocessor Definitions
      - for ida32: __NT__;
      - for ida64: __NT__;__EA64__;
    <apply>

12. Linker | General | Output File:
      - for ida32: $(OutDir)\$(ProjectName).dll
      - for ida64: $(OutDir)\$(ProjectName)64.dll
    <apply>

13. Linker | Input | Additional Dependencies
      - for ida32: C:\idasdk\lib\x64_win_vc_32\ida.lib
      - for ida64: C:\idasdk\lib\x64_win_vc_64\ida.lib
    <apply>

In the "Property Page", under "Configuration", select "ida64 Debug" and repeat the last three steps.


You should now be capable to easily switch between the "ida32 Debug" and "ida64 Debug" configurations and build your project.

Answer 1

For decades, IDA's plugin interface remained the same. Your plugin had to export a plugin_t structure named PLUGIN, which contained function pointers to its init, run, and optional term functions. You can see that in your snippets above.

IDA 7.5 introduced a new plugin interface for C++ plugins, based on inheritance from the plugmod_t interface, seemingly because future versions of IDA will support multiple databases being loaded at the same time. Download the IDA SDK and look in its plugins subdirectory. All of the existing example plugins have been updated to use the new interface.

TL;DR plugin source code developed for versions less than 7.5 is not going to work anymore for 7.5 and above; it needs to be modified to use the new plugmod_t interface.

Answer 2

Also as long as NO_OBSOLETE_FUNCS is not defined you can just cast the return result to PLUGIN_SKIP, PLUGIN_OK, or PLUGIN_KEEP just like the original C callback idiom. Or with NO_OBSOLETE_FUNCS defined you can just define #define PLUGIN_OK ((plugmod_t *)1) (copy - pasted from "loader.hpp") after you include your IDA and then your back to the old return PLUGIN_KEEP; to get around the madness they added.

Answer 3

Ok I change the retourned values and now I got other errors :

Error LNK2001 unresolved external symbol LDSC Sdk75Project1 F:\Developpement\IDA\Sdk75Project\Sdk75Project1\Sdk75Project1\LINK 1
Error LNK2001 unresolved external symbol LPH Sdk75Project1 F:\Developpement\IDA\Sdk75Project\Sdk75Project1\Sdk75Project1\LINK 1

My modified code is :

#include <ida.hpp>
#include <idp.hpp>
#include <loader.hpp>


plugmod_t* IDAP_init(void)
{
    // Do checks here to ensure your plug-in is being used within
    // an environment it was written for. Return PLUGIN_SKIP if the
    // checks fail, otherwise return PLUGIN_KEEP.
    return PLUGIN_KEEP;
}

void IDAP_term(void)
{
    // Stuff to do when exiting, generally you'd put any sort
    // of clean-up jobs here.
    return;
}

// The plugin can be passed an integer argument from the plugins.cfg
// file. This can be useful when you want the one plug-in to do
// something different depending on the hot-key pressed or menu
// item selected.
bool IDAP_run(size_t arg)
{
    // The "meat" of your plug-in
    msg("Hello world!");
    return true;
}
// There isn't much use for these yet, but I set them anyway.
char IDAP_comment[] = "This is my test plug-in";
char IDAP_help[] = "My plugin";

// The name of the plug-in displayed in the Edit->Plugins menu. It can
// be overridden in the user's plugins.cfg file.
char IDAP_name[] = "My plugin";

// The hot-key the user can use to run your plug-in.
char IDAP_hotkey[] = "Alt-X";

// The all-important exported PLUGIN object

plugin_t PLUGIN =
{
    IDP_INTERFACE_VERSION,              // IDA version plug-in is written for
    0,                                  // Flags (see below)
    IDAP_init,                          // Initialisation function
    IDAP_term,                          // Clean-up function
    IDAP_run,                           // Main plug-in body
    IDAP_comment,                       // Comment – unused
    IDAP_help,                          // As above – unused
    IDAP_name,                          // Plug-in name shown in
                                        // Edit->Plugins menu
    IDAP_hotkey                         // Hot key to run the plug-in
};

PS : It's ok now, I removed the EXPORTs..