HexPatch

HexPatch is a binary patcher and editor with terminal user interface (TUI), it's capable of disassembling instructions and assembling patches. It supports a variety of architectures and file formats. Also, it can edit remote files via SSH.

Take a look at GitHub Pages for more information and some screenshots.

Installation

Using cargo

If you already have the requirements installed, you only need to run the following command:

cargo install hex-patch

Requirements

• CMake
• Python
• MSVC on Windows
• GCC on Linux
• Xcode Command Line Tools on macOS
• Rust

Using your package manager

NetBSD

On NetBSD, a package is available from the official repositories. To install it, simply run:

pkgin install hexpatch

Build from source on NetBSD

If you prefer to build from source:

cd /usr/pkgsrc/devel/hexpatch
make install

Arch Linux

On Arch Linux, a package is available from the official repositories:

pacman -S hexpatch

Building from source with cargo

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Etto48/HexPatch.git
cd HexPatch

Build and install

cargo install --path .

SSH connection

In order to connect via SSH, you can use the following command:

hex-patch --ssh <user>@<host>[:<port>] [--password <password>] [additional arguments]

If you don't specify a password, the client must be set up with keypair authentication and you must have a key in your ~/.ssh directory.

Keys are searched in the following order:

• id_rsa
• id_ed25519
• id_ecdsa
• id_dsa

The first key found will be used.

Supported file formats and architectures

The following file formats are supported by default:

• Coff
• CoffBig
• Elf32
• Elf64
• MachO32
• MachO64
• Pe32
• Pe64
• Xcoff32
• Xcoff64

Other file formats can be added with plugins.

The following architectures are supported:

• Aarch64
• Aarch64_Ilp32
• Arm
• I386
• X86_64
• X86_64_X32
• Mips
• Mips64
• PowerPc
• PowerPc64
• Riscv32
• Riscv64
• S390x
• Sparc64

Settings

Read the settings documentation for more information.

Plugins

HexPatch supports plugins written in Lua. Plugins must be placed in the plugins directory in hex-patch's configuration directory. A different plugins directory can be specified with the --plugins flag.

You can find more information about the Plugin Lua API here.

Known issues

• Some key combinations may not work as expected, notably SHIFT + ENTER on VSCode terminal. Please refer to this issue for more information. Unfortunately, this behavior is out of my control.
• If you try to write an invalid relative jump instruction with more than one register (e.g. jmp [rip+rax]) in X86 architectures the program will crash. This problem depends on the keystone-engine crate, and it's out of my control.

Special thanks

Thanks to Lorenzo Colombini for the instruction highlighting.