Software Alternatives & Reviews

WinDbg VS Ghidra

Compare WinDbg VS Ghidra and see what are their differences

WinDbg logo WinDbg

WinDbg is a multipurposed debugger for Microsoft Windows, distributed on the web by Microsoft as...

Ghidra logo Ghidra

Software Reverse Engineering (SRE) Framework
  • WinDbg Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-18
  • Ghidra Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-08-25

WinDbg videos

Getting familiar with WinDbg Preview - THR3014

More videos:

  • Review - Analyzing Windows crash dump using WINDBG
  • Review - Analyzing User Mode Dumps With WinDbg

Ghidra videos

NSA Ghidra, A game changer ?

More videos:

  • Review - Ghidra Review
  • Tutorial - Ghidra quickstart & tutorial: Solving a simple crackme

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to WinDbg and Ghidra)
IDE
43 43%
57% 57
Software Development
42 42%
58% 58
OS & Utilities
100 100%
0% 0
Decompiler
15 15%
85% 85

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare WinDbg and Ghidra

WinDbg Reviews

We have no reviews of WinDbg yet.
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Ghidra Reviews

Reverse engineering tools review
It may not be entirely up to the functionality of HexRays at the moment (remember that Ghidra is a new project), but tools such as decompilers require a lot of work and it is rare to see a new product that someone offers for free.
Source: www.pelock.com
The 5 Best Reverse Engineering Software for 2022
Ghidra's graphical user interface (GUI) is built on Java's Swing framework with a decompiler written in C++ and plugins written in Python. Besides its reverse engineering capabilities, Ghidra features powerful debugging features for both Windows and Linux.6
Source: online.yu.edu

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Ghidra seems to be a lot more popular than WinDbg. While we know about 64 links to Ghidra, we've tracked only 6 mentions of WinDbg. 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.

WinDbg mentions (6)

  • Having Issues Deploying a Driver to my Test System - Windows Docs so confusing
    Windows 11, version 22H2 release of the WDK Installed + added to Visual Studio. Source: 10 months ago
  • Stack Trace / Thread Dump Analysis
    The stack frames will look cryptic, but if that's good enough for you -- there you go! If you want a clearer ST, you'll have to download and install Debug Tools and load Debug Symbols into the ProcessExplorer as shown in tutorials:. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Dagger: a new way to build CI/CD pipelines
    Okay, here’s an SDK I use. It’s 16GB. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/download-the-wdk#enterprise-wdk-ewdk Show me how to use this with GitHub actions, if it’s not too hard. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Creating a driver - Where to start, I have 0 knowledge or experience
    1) I have downloaded VScode, windows SDK, windows WDK, and the EWDK. The video only mentions downloading the first three items ^. However, the windows link I used to download the SDK and WDK had a 3rd step to download the EWDK. Link for Reference. What is an EWDK and do I need it? 2) I am using windows and the video says to download a VM. I assume I do not need to do that because I am already in windows. If my... Source: about 2 years ago
  • Open a dump file with MS studio?
    I also downloaded the " Windows Driver Kit (WDK). " Not really sure what to do next... Source: over 2 years ago
View more

Ghidra mentions (64)

  • I've figured out what 13 of the 16 enemy flags mean in Ultima V. Help me figure out the last three.
    I've got no experience with reverse-engineering executables, but I got a bunch of code-like stuff showing up when I fed ULTIMA.EXE to Ghidra and told it to analyze it with all the flags set. Source: 11 months ago
  • Modding SH2
    The whole game is written in C++ (game logic intertwined with graphics). Ghidra can help you deconstruct the game binaries, but you need to put in a GREAT great effort to even get a starting point. Cheat Engine has been successful for some purposes, including an AI enabling utility for multiplayer (use with great care!). Source: 11 months ago
  • You have probably heard of Temu right?
    What I think you’re talking about is reverse engineering. It’s basically taking a program and analysing the compiled code to attempt to find out how it works. It’s a fairly expansive topic, and fairly tricky to do but look at anything to do with Ghidra to get started. Source: 12 months ago
  • Asking for clarification ... How is learning C beneficial for becoming a Cyber security expert
    Oh also just as an aside Ghidra is a really cool free tool developed by the NSA which can reverse engineer software by looking at its executable and recreating the C code from the instructions and static data within. It's another way to get familiarized with the relationship between C code and the instructions it compiles to. Source: about 1 year ago
  • Super Smash Bros. Melee HD Port Will "Never Happen," According to Former Nintendo Employees
    There exist decompilers and other tools for helping make sense of assembly and that can automate some of the conversion back to higher level languages. In my brief involvement with Slippi I used Ghidra - a tool developed by the NSA, to do some of that kind of work, which I found a little amusing. Source: about 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing WinDbg and Ghidra, you can also consider the following products

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

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.

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

Immunity Debugger - Immunity Debugger is a powerful new way to write exploits, analyze malware, and reverse engineer...

Binary Ninja - A reverse engineering platform and GUI

SoftICE - SoftICE is a debugging software for windows and DOS that analyzes all your programs and repairs them.