Are there IDA scripts/plugins to translate/comment instructions to/with pseudocode?

Question

I'm not asking for a decompiler, as I'm aware that it does not produce accurate results all the time. I've tried Googling but all I found were decompilers.

Problem

I found it extremely inefficient to be continuously referring to the instruction set manual to find out what various uncommon instructions do. Furthermore I deal only infrequently with assembly and I found I have to continuously make a conscious effort to interpret the mnemonic syntax, which slows things down tremendously.

Requirement

A per-line translation of the assembly instructions. As a very simple example, replacing add eax, ebx with eax += ebx in the disassembly view, or just commenting the instruction with the pseudocode. Be it replacement or commenting, having the pseudocode inline would help to preserve the graph view and other convenient functionalities provided by IDA.

Answer 1

Here's an incomplete script to do this, for x86:

#include <idc.idc>
/*
    Project name: Pseudo instruction adder 1.0

    Author: fastman92
*/

#define true 1
#define false 0


#define ARCHITECTURE_TYPE_X86 1
#define ARCHITECTURE_TYPE_X64 2

extern architectureType;
extern pointerSize;

static MakeInstructionComment_x86(ea)
{
    auto mnem = GetMnem(ea);

    auto op0 = GetOpnd(ea, 0);
    auto op1 = GetOpnd(ea, 1);

    auto comment = "";

    if(mnem == "push")
        comment = sprintf("ESP -= 4; *(int32_t*)ESP = %s;", op0);
    else if(mnem == "mov")
        comment = sprintf("%s = %s;", op0, op1);
    else if(mnem == "lea")
        comment = sprintf("%s = address(%s);", op0, op1);
    else if(mnem == "jmp")
        comment = sprintf("goto %s;", op0);
    else if(mnem == "pop")
        comment = sprintf("%s = *(int32_t*)ESP; ESP += 4;", op0);
    else if(mnem == "leave")
        comment = "EBP = *(int32_t*)ESP; ESP += 4;";
    else if(mnem == "retn")
        comment = "return;";
    else if(mnem == "sub")
        comment = sprintf("%s -= %s;", op0, op1);
    else if(mnem == "shr")
        comment = sprintf("%s = %s >> %s;", op0, op0, op1);
    else if(mnem == "shl")
        comment = sprintf("%s = %s << %s;", op0, op0, op1); 
    else if(mnem == "and")
        comment = sprintf("%s &= %s;", op0, op1);
    else if(mnem == "or")
        comment = sprintf("%s |= %s;", op0, op1);
    else if(mnem == "xor")
        comment = sprintf("%s ^= %s;", op0, op1);
    else if(mnem == "not")
        comment = sprintf("%s = ~%s;", op0, op0);
    else if(mnem == "cmp")
        comment = sprintf("EFL = cmp(%s, %s);", op0, op1);
    else if(mnem == "test")
        comment = sprintf("EFL = test(%s, %s);", op0, op1);

    else if(mnem == "jnb")
        comment = "goto, if A >= B;";
    else if(mnem == "jz")
        comment = "goto, if A == B;";
    else if(mnem == "jnz")
        comment = "goto, if A != B;";
    else if(mnem == "jb")
        comment = "goto, if A < B;";
    else if(mnem == "jbe")
        comment = "goto, if A <= B;";
    else if(mnem == "jl")
        comment = "goto, if A < B;";
    else if(mnem == "ja")
        comment = "goto, if A > B;";
    else if(mnem == "js")
        comment = "goto, if A < 0;";


    else if(mnem == "pusha")
        comment = "saveAllGeneralRegisterValues()";
    else if(mnem == "popa")
        comment = "restoreAllGeneralRegisterValues()";

    else if(mnem == "stc")
        comment = "setCarryFlag();";
    else if(mnem == "clc")
        comment = "clearCarryFlag();";
    else if(mnem == "cmps")
        comment = "memcmp;";
    else if(mnem == "movs")
        comment = "memset;";

    else if(mnem == "nop")
        comment = ";";

    else if(mnem == "call")
        comment = sprintf("call %s", op0);  
    else if(mnem == "inc")
        comment = sprintf("%s++;", op0);
    else if(mnem == "dec")
        comment = sprintf("%s--;", op0);
    else if(mnem == "add")
        comment = sprintf("%s += %s;", op0, op1);
    else
    {
        // Message("unknown: 0x%X mnem: %s\n", ea, mnem);
        return true;
    }

    MakeComm(ea, comment);

    // Message("0x%X: %s\n", ea, comment);
    return true;
}

static MakeInstructionComment(ea)
{
    if(architectureType == ARCHITECTURE_TYPE_X86)
        return MakeInstructionComment_x86(ea);      
}

static main()
{
    architectureType = ARCHITECTURE_TYPE_X86;

    if(architectureType == ARCHITECTURE_TYPE_X86)
    {
        pointerSize = 4;
    }


    Message("Start of pseudo instruction adder by fastman92\n");

    auto seg, loc;

    Message("========================================\n");

    seg = FirstSeg();   // Get address pointed by a first segment

    auto shouldBreak = false;

    while(seg != BADADDR )
    {   
        Message("----------------------------------------\n");

        loc = SegStart(seg);        

        Message("Adding pseudo code comments in segment %s\n", SegName(seg));


        while(loc != BADADDR && loc < SegEnd(seg))
        {                           
            if(isCode(GetFlags(loc)))
            {
                shouldBreak = !MakeInstructionComment(loc);

                if(shouldBreak)
                    break;
            }

            loc = NextHead(loc, BADADDR);           
        }


        if(shouldBreak)
            break;

        seg = NextSeg(seg);     // get address of the next segment
    }

    Message("End of pseudo instruction adder by fastman92\n");
}

Answer 2

You can enable the auto-comment option in IDA, to have something like this:

Or also give a try to snowman, a free decompiler for IDA Pro, that is able to transform this compiled program:

#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
        printf("Hello, World!\n");
        return 0;
}

into

int64_t main() {
    puts("Hello, World!");
    return 0;
}