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The radare2 search engine is based on work done by esteve, plus multiple features implemented on top of it. It supports multiple keyword searches, binary masks, and hexadecimal values. It automatically creates flags for search hit locations to ease future referencing.
Searching is accessed with `/` command.
[0x00000000]> /? |Usage: /[!bf] [arg]Search stuff (see 'e??search' for options) |Use io.va for searching in non virtual addressing spaces | / foo\x00 search for string 'foo\0' | /j foo\x00 search for string 'foo\0' (json output) | /! ff search for first occurrence not matching, command modifier | /!x 00 inverse hexa search (find first byte != 0x00) | /+ /bin/sh construct the string with chunks | // repeat last search | /a jmp eax assemble opcode and search its bytes | /A jmp find analyzed instructions of this type (/A? for help) | /b search backwards, command modifier, followed by other command | /B search recognized RBin headers | /c jmp [esp] search for asm code matching the given string | /ce rsp,rbp search for esil expressions matching | /C[ar] search for crypto materials | /d 101112 search for a deltified sequence of bytes | /e /E.F/i match regular expression | /E esil-expr offset matching given esil expressions %%= here | /f search forwards, command modifier, followed by other command | /F file [off] [sz] search contents of file with offset and size | /g[g] [from] find all graph paths A to B (/gg follow jumps, see search.count and anal.depth) | /h[t] [hash] [len] find block matching this hash. See ph | /i foo search for string 'foo' ignoring case | /m magicfile search for matching magic file (use blocksize) | /M search for known filesystems and mount them automatically | /o [n] show offset of n instructions backward | /O [n] same as /o, but with a different fallback if anal cannot be used | /p patternsize search for pattern of given size | /P patternsize search similar blocks | /r[erwx][?] sym.printf analyze opcode reference an offset (/re for esil) | /R [grepopcode] search for matching ROP gadgets, semicolon-separated | /s search for all syscalls in a region (EXPERIMENTAL) | /v[1248] value look for an `cfg.bigendian` 32bit value | /V[1248] min max look for an `cfg.bigendian` 32bit value in range | /w foo search for wide string 'f\0o\0o\0' | /wi foo search for wide string ignoring case 'f\0o\0o\0' | /x ff..33 search for hex string ignoring some nibbles | /x ff0033 search for hex string | /x ff43:ffd0 search for hexpair with mask | /z min max search for strings of given size
Because everything is treated as a file in radare2, it does not matter whether you search in a socket, a remote device, in process memory, or a file.
Note that '/\*' is not a command - it starts a multiline comment. Type '\*/' to end the comment after it's opened.
Options are controlled by the `search.` variables.
[0x00000000]> e??search
search.align: only catch aligned search hits
search.chunk: chunk size for /+ (default size is asm.bits/8
search.contiguous: accept contiguous/adjacent search hits
search.distance: search string distance
search.esilcombo: stop search after N consecutive hits
search.flags: all search results are flagged, otherwise only printed
search.from: search start address
search.in: specify search boundaries
search.kwidx: store last search index count
search.maxhits: maximum number of hits (0: no limit)
search.overlap: look for overlapped search hits
search.prefix: prefix name in search hits label
search.show: show search results
search.to: search end address
search.verbose: make the output of search commands verbose
Perhaps the most important search variable is `search.in` - it controls where your search is occurring. If you aren't finding hits you expect, check this variable first. Note the difference between `map` and `maps` - `map` will only search the map that you are currently in, while `maps` will search all memory maps, with options to narrow the search by permissions.
[0x00000000]> e search.in=? raw block bin.section bin.sections bin.sections.rwx bin.sections.r bin.sections.rw bin.sections.rx bin.sections.wx bin.sections.x io.map io.maps io.maps.rwx io.maps.r io.maps.rw io.maps.rx io.maps.wx io.maps.x dbg.stack dbg.heap dbg.map dbg.maps dbg.maps.rwx dbg.maps.r dbg.maps.rw dbg.maps.rx dbg.maps.wx dbg.maps.x anal.fcn anal.bb