capa: add Ghidra Explorer plugin

[AdityaPatadiya]

Hi @mike-hunhoff from @mandiant/flare-gsoc team,

I’m Aditya, as a cybersecurity student, I have over 1 years of experience with different tool one of it's Ghidra and also I've experience with reverse engineering, python and git&github.
and I’m interested in contributing to capa for GSoC 2025. I’d love to work on integrating capa’s rule engine into Ghidra.

The goal is to:

• Develop a Ghidra plugin that extracts relevant disassembly features for capa.
• Enable capa’s rule execution and result visualization directly in Ghidra.
• Ensure seamless interaction between capa’s engine and Ghidra’s APIs.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this idea! Are there any prior discussions or technical constraints I should be aware of?

Looking forward to collaborating!

[mike-hunhoff]

Hi @AdityaPatadiya , thanks for reaching out. First, if you haven't already, please review our contributor guidance for applying and contributing. You have a good initial understanding of this project's overall goal, which is to develop a new Ghidra extension that enables capa users to view and interact with results. To your points,

Develop a Ghidra plugin that extracts relevant disassembly features for capa.

This is already done, see https://github.com/mandiant/capa/tree/master/capa/features/extractors/ghidra

Enable capa’s rule execution and result visualization directly in Ghidra.

This is the primary focus of the project.

Ensure seamless interaction between capa’s engine and Ghidra’s APIs.

This is already done, see https://github.com/mandiant/capa/tree/master/capa/features/extractors/ghidra

To all extents possible, we'd like this new Ghidra extension to mirror the functionality of our existing IDA Pro plugin, capa explorer.. Please reach out here if you have any specific questions 😄

[AdityaPatadiya]

Thank you @mike-hunhoff for the response.
I need to ask that, do I need to have the IDA Pro license or binary ninja license?
actually I want to focus on capa: add Ghidra Explorer plugin project idea for Gsoc 2025.
so, do I still need to have it?

[mike-hunhoff]

You do not need an IDA Pro or Binary Ninja license for this project.