Software Alternatives & Reviews

Kaitai Struct VS IDA

Compare Kaitai Struct VS IDA and see what are their differences

Kaitai Struct logo Kaitai Struct

Kaitai Struct is a formal language for binary format specification that can be compiled into parser code

IDA logo IDA

The best-of-breed binary code analysis tool, an indispensable item in the toolbox of world-class software analysts, reverse engineers, malware analyst and cybersecurity professionals.
  • Kaitai Struct Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-14
  • IDA Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-11-11

A powerful disassembler and a versatile debugger IDA Pro as a disassembler is capable of creating maps of their execution to show the binary instructions that are actually executed by the processor in a symbolic representation (assembly language). Advanced techniques have been implemented into IDA Pro so that it can generate assembly language source code from machine-executable code and make this complex code more human-readable.

The debugging feature augmented IDA with the dynamic analysis. It supports multiple debugging targets and can handle remote applications. Its cross-platform debugging capability enables instant debugging, easy connection to both local and remote processes and support for 64-bit systems and new connection possibilities.

Kaitai Struct

Website
kaitai.io
$ Details
Platforms
-
Release Date
-

IDA

$ Details
-
Platforms
Windows Linux Mac OSX
Release Date
1991 May

Kaitai Struct videos

Kaitai Struct in VSCode - an extension by fudgepop01

IDA videos

Mark Kermode reviews Ida

More videos:

  • Review - My Review for IDA (non-spoiler)
  • Review - The New Canon: 'Ida'

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Kaitai Struct and IDA)
IDE
18 18%
82% 82
Software Development
17 17%
83% 83
Text Editors
33 33%
67% 67
Decompiler
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Kaitai Struct and IDA

Kaitai Struct Reviews

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IDA Reviews

Reverse engineering tools review
IDA that is Interactive DisAssembler in an undpisupted king among tools used in reverse engineering. IDA is a disassembler and debugger with built-in code analysis for over 60 types of processors. It has its own script language, large base of signatures of the most popular programming libraries as well as support for plug-ins that additionally enhance functionality e.g. by...
Source: www.pelock.com
The 5 Best Reverse Engineering Software for 2022
The interactive nature of the IDA Pro disassembler means you can change elements of the displayed data in real-time, including functions, variables, names, and library functions. It's written in C++ and runs on Microsoft Windows, OS X, and Linux. The IDA Pro platform benefits from several plugins, the most notable of which is the Hex-Rays decompiler. With this tool, software...
Source: online.yu.edu

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Kaitai Struct should be more popular than IDA. It has been mentiond 33 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Kaitai Struct mentions (33)

  • Reverse-engineering an encrypted IoT protocol
    Just piggybacking here to mention a variety of other "interpret structured binary data" tools. Apparently I collect links to these (: * fq - like jq for binary data: https://github.com/wader/fq ** visualizer, for the above: https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_visualizer/ ** binary templates, for the above: https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend/blob/master/templates/Tutorial.md * binary-parsing - a collection... - Source: Hacker News / 2 months ago
  • Parsing an Undocumented File Format
    - ImHex [2], which has a pattern language [3] which allows parsing, and it seems more powerful than what Kaitai offers. I stumbled upon some limitations with it but it was still useful. [1]: https://kaitai.io/. - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • HTTPie Desktop: cross-platform API testing client for humans
    Beautiful. Didn't know something like this exists. Reminds me of Katai[0] [0]. https://kaitai.io/. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Hacking the LG Monitor's EDID
    An EDID override like this would be helpful for macOS as well, where the monitors swapping around after standby is a real annoyance [0] [1] EDID rewrites are 99% of the time blocked by the monitor firmware: https://notes.alinpanaitiu.com/Decoding-monitor-EDID-on-macOS By the way, one helpful tool that helped me navigate the EDID dump was Kaitai Struct [2]. It shows a side by side view with the hex view and the... - Source: Hacker News / 8 months ago
  • Fq: Jq for Binary Formats
    Kaitai Struct might be a good choice for that: https://kaitai.io/. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
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IDA mentions (11)

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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Kaitai Struct and IDA, you can also consider the following products

010 Editor - 010 Editor: Professional hex editor with Binary Templates. A fast, flexible, easy-to-use hex editor.

Ghidra - Software Reverse Engineering (SRE) Framework

HxD - HxD is a carefully designed and fast hex editor which, additionally to raw disk editing and...

OllyDbg - OllyDbg is a 32-bit assembler level analysing debugger.

WinHex - WinHex hex editor, disk editor, RAM editor. Binary editor for files, disks, and RAM. Download HEX EDITOR. Sector editor. Drive editor.

X64dbg - X64dbg is a debugging software that can debug x64 and x32 applications.