Alright, so rizin 48. Yeah, I decided to give it a whirl. You hear things, you know? New version, new promises. I’ve been mucking about with these kinds of tools for ages, seen plenty of them. Always on the lookout for something that actually makes the job a bit less of a headache.
Getting it Going
First off, had to get the thing onto my system. Went the usual route: grabbed the source, ran the build scripts. Standard stuff, mostly. Did hit a snag with some missing library, classic, right? Always one little gremlin in the works. A bit of searching, a quick `apt install` later, and it was chugging along. Nothing too dramatic, just the usual dance.
Once it was built, firing it up was the next step. If you’ve ever poked around with its predecessor, radare2, then rizin will feel somewhat familiar. That’s a plus, I guess. Less new stuff to bang your head against immediately. But if you’re fresh to this whole scene? Man, it’s still a mountain to climb. They say they’ve polished it, and I can spot a few changes here and there, but it’s still got that “you better know what you’re doing” aura.
Kicking the Tires
So, what did I actually do with it? Well, I threw some of my usual test dummies at it. A few small binaries I keep around for this sort of thing.
- Basic Analysis: Ran the auto-analysis, `aaa` for those in the know. It crunched through them decently. Found functions, cross-references, the usual. Seemed alright, no major blow-ups.
- Digging Deeper: Tried to navigate around. Jumped to functions, looked at disassembly. The command-line interface is still king here. Lots of cryptic commands. If you like that, great. If not, well, tough luck.
- Visuals: Messed with the visual modes a bit. They have graph views, block views. They’re… there. Let’s just say I wasn’t blown away. Still found myself dropping back to the command line pretty quick. Old habits, maybe.
- Scripting: Took a peek at the scripting side. They’re pushing their Python stuff. Tried to whip up a tiny script to find a specific pattern. Got it working, eventually. Felt a bit like wrestling a squid, getting all the paths and environments just so. But it did the job, in the end.
The Good, The Bad, and The Quirky
So, after poking around, what’s the verdict? Well, it’s a mixed bag, as always.
On the plus side: It’s definitely powerful. There’s a lot under the hood if you can figure out how to use it. Being open source is a huge win. And I did notice some operations felt a bit snappier than I recall from older tools in this family. So, that’s something.
But then there’s the other side: Man, that learning curve. It’s steep. Like, Everest steep for a newcomer. Documentation is still a bit of a maze. You spend a lot of time just trying to find the right command for a simple task. Sometimes you just want things to work without consulting three different wikis and a forum post from 2017.
Why I Even Bothered with This Version
You might be asking, why put myself through this with rizin 48? Good question. Truth is, my trusty old setup for a specific, kinda niche reverse engineering task decided to just up and die on me. My main OS got an update, and this ancient piece of software I relied on for one particular thing threw a fit and refused to even start. Poof. Gone.
So there I was, stuck. Needed something to fill that gap. Heard rizin was trying to be more modern, more stable. Figured, okay, let’s see if version 48 can handle what I need without making me tear my hair out. It’s always like this in tech, right? You get your workflow all smooth, then one tiny update somewhere, and boom, you’re back to evaluating tools like it’s your first day. Frustrating, but what can you do?
So, What’s the Real Deal?
Look, rizin 48 isn’t going to magically solve all your problems. It’s not some silver bullet. But is it a capable tool if you’re willing to invest the time and energy to learn its ins and outs? Yeah, I’d say so. It’s got potential, especially with the community behind it.
I’ll probably keep it installed. Prod it a bit more when I have specific tasks. See if it grows on me, or if I end up grumbling and looking for something else. That’s the way it goes. For now, it’s another tool in the box. Maybe it’ll prove its worth, maybe it’ll just gather digital dust. We’ll see.
