Allow unspaced string in binary search

IDA General Feature requests
1

Currently binary search only works with spaced strings like FF C3 AA. Could it possibly work with FFC3AA in the future ?

Thanks.

2

Thank you for the suggestion. Please note that currently, when you enter, for example, 1234, and the default Hex is selected, IDA will automatically convert 0x1234 into the byte sequence 34 12 (for little-endian processors), and search for that. This makes it easy to search for addresses or magic immediate values without having to swap bytes manually. Since our long-time users hate it when we break their workflows, we need to be careful when adding support for unspaced byte strings.

1 Like
3

Seems like I’m not familiar with the tool either. Didn’t notice it actually searches for the asked bytes but with swapped endianness. You’re clearly at right here. Maybe a checkbox to keep endianness ? Having to sometimes insert up to 30 spaces or swap bytes manually seems like a bit too much effort for a simple search.