Elfina: A Multi-Architecture ELF Loader

Elfina is a multi-architecture ELF loader supporting x86 and x86-64 binaries.

This project has been implemented in Rust since v2.0.0.

Background

Recently, I have been studying reverse engineering on Windows and the PE file format.
After that, I started exploring ELF binaries to learn more about Linux reverse engineering and rootkit development.

To better understand how ELF executables are loaded and executed, I developed Elfina as a learning project focused on the Linux kernel and the ELF file format.

If you find this project useful or informative, a ⭐ would be appreciated!

Disclaimer

This project is intended for educational and research purposes only.

It is designed to help understand:

• ELF file format
• Reverse engineering concepts

Features

• Multi-architecture ELF loader
• Support for x86 and x86-64 ELF binaries
• Multiple execution methods
  • --mmap loading
  • --memfd execution
• ELF probing
  • --info displays ELF metadata and structure
• ELF analysis utilities:
  • --hexdump : Display the hexadecimal representation of the ELF file.
  • --hexdump-out: Save --hexdump result into a specific file.
  • --entropy: Calculate entropy to help identify packed or compressed sections.
  • --entropy-out: Save --entropy result into a specific file.
  • --disasm: Disassemble the ELF binary.
  • --disasm-out: Save --disasm result into a specific file.

Supported ELF Architectures

Architecture	Bits	Common Devices
x86 (i386)	32-bit	Old PCs, 32-bit Linux
x86-64	64-bit	Modern PCs, servers
ARM32	32-bit	Raspberry Pi 2, older Android
AArch64 (ARM64)	64-bit	Raspberry Pi 3/4/5, modern Android
RISC-V 64	64-bit	SiFive boards, VisionFive, emerging Linux devices

Quick Start

Requirements

sudo apt install gcc-multilib

Download and extract the release package:

wget https://github.com/iss4cf0ng/Elfina/releases/latest/download/elfina-linux.tar.gz
tar -xzf elfina-linux.tar.gz
cd elfina
chmod +x ./elfina
chmod +x ./elfina32

The layout is shown as follows:

elfina/
 ├ elfina
 └ elfina32

Usage

// ---------- elfina (x64) ----------

./elfina --coffee
./elfina --info <x64_elf_path>
./elfina --mmap <x64_elf_path> [arguments]
./elfina --memfd <x64_elf_path> [arguments]

./elfina --hexdump <x64_elf_path>
./elfina --hexdump-out <x64_elf_path>

./elfina --entropy <x64_elf_path>
./elfina --entropy-out <output_file> <x64_elf_path>

./elfina --disasm <x64_elf_path>
./elfina --disasm-out <output_file> <x64_elf_path>

// ---------- elfina32 (x86) ----------

./elfina32 --coffee
./elfina32 --info <x86_elf_path>
./elfina32 --mmap <x86_elf_path> [arguments]
./elfina32 --memfd <x86_elf_path> [arguments]

./elfina32 --hexdump <x86_elf_path>
./elfina32 --hexdump-out <x86_elf_path>

./elfina32 --entropy <x86_elf_path>
./elfina32 --entropy-out <output_file> <x86_elf_path>

./elfina32 --disasm <x86_elf_path>
./elfina32 --disasm-out <output_file> <x86_elf_path>

Build from Source

C-lang

Clone the repository and compile the project:

git clone https://github.com/iss4cf0ng/Elfina
cd Elfina/C
make

or

chmod +x build.sh
./build.sh

Rust

git clone https://github.com/iss4cf0ng/Elfina
cd Elfina/Rust
chmod +x build.sh
./build.sh

Demonstration

elfina (x86-64)

---

elfina32 (32-bit)

On Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL2), Elfina cannot execute 32-bit ELF binary files. Probing (--info) and 64-bit execution work fine. For full 32-bit support, use a native Linux environment or a VM such as VirtualBox or VMWare.

--hexdump

--entropy

--disasm