Awesome Reverse Engineering / Instrumentation & Emulation
Instrumentation & Emulation
Hook, trace or emulate code without a full debugger session.
| Tool | Use it when | Cost | Last push · Stars |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frida | Inject JavaScript into running processes on every major platform. frida-server listens on the device: test devices only. ▶ runs | Free | 2026-10 · ★ 22k |
| Unicorn | CPU emulator for running a snippet (a decode loop) without running the program. ▶ runs | Free | 2026-10 · ★ 9.5k |
| Qiling | Whole-binary emulation with OS-level hooks; PyPI lags GitHub releases. ▶ runs | Free | 2026-10 · ★ 6.2k |
| DynamoRIO | Dynamic binary instrumentation for tracing and coverage. ▶ runs | Free | 2026-10 · ★ 3.2k |
| QBDI | Dynamic binary instrumentation framework for x86, x86-64, ARM and AArch64. ▶ runs | Free | 2026-09 · ★ 1.8k |
| QEMU | Full-system and user-mode emulation; user mode forwards syscalls to the host kernel, so only inside a VM. ▶ runs | Free | 2026-10 · ★ 14k |