Introduction to yara-ctypes-python

What's in yara-ctypes:

• A ctypes libyara wrapper module which exposes libyara's exports into the Python runtime (see: yara-project's libyara v1.7).
• A thread safe Rules object with an interface that is compatible with the interface exposed in the yara-project CPython extension module.
• namespace management to allow easy loading of multiple YARA rules into a single Rules matching object.
• Various Scanner class types to enable thread or process pool execution of matching requests over a Rules object.
• A feature rich command line interface that gives the user many options to control how they may wish to perform a scan.

Why:

• ctypes releases the GIL on system function calls... Run your PC to its true potential.
• It simplifies things a lot by keeping high order logic such as managing rules paths, filtering paths, controlling pooled execution, etc. inside of a language such as Python.
• No more building the PyC extension...
• I found a few bugs and memory leaks and wanted to make my life simple.

As a reference and guide to yara-ctypes see: yara-ctypes documentation

For additional tips / tricks with this wrapper feel free to post a question at the github yara-ctypes/issues page.

Project hosting provided by github.com.

[[email protected]]

Install and run

Simply run the following:

> python setup.py install
> python setup.py test
> yara-ctypes -h

or PyPi:

> pip install yara
> yara-ctypes -h

Note

If the package does not contain a pre-compiled libyara library for your platform you will need to build and install it. See notes on building.

Compatability

yara-ctypes is implemented to be compatible with Python 2.6+ and Python 3.x. It has been tested against the following Python implementations:

Ubuntu 12.04:

• CPython 2.7 (32bit, 64bit)
• CPython 3.2 (32bit, 64bit)

Ubuntu 11.10 :

• CPython 2.6 (32bit)
• CPython 2.7 (32bit)
• CPython 3.2 (32bit)
• CPython 3.3 (32bit)

Windows 7:

• CPython 2.6 (32bit, 64bit)
• CPython 3.2 (32bit, 64bit)

OS X Mountain Lion

• CPython 2.7 (64bit)

Continuous integration testing is provided by Travis CI.

Issues

Source code for yara-ctypes is hosted on GitHub. Please file bug reports with GitHub's issues system.

Change log

version 1.7.7 (27/05/2014)

• str conversion fix (contribution by David Cannings @olliencc)

version 1.7.6 (26/10/2013)

• now using setuptools for distribution

version 1.7.5 (13/09/2013)

• added CLI status thread
• improved process and thread completion code

version 1.7.4 (12/09/2013)

• added yar preprocessor
• fixed asynchronous counter bug
• solved the unyielded results issue

version 1.7.3 (28/04/2013)

• scan using a process pool or thread pool
• bug fixes and more testing

version 1.7.2 (19/04/2013)

• cli improvements
• bug fixes

version 1.7.1 (17/04/2013)

• StdinScanner
• overlap control for stream chunk enqueueing

version 1.7.0 (15/04/2013)

• ships with builds of libyara-1.7
• compatibility issues solves with yara-1.7's interface changes
• major change up and improvement to the scan command line interface.
• a lot more testing

version 1.6.5 (12/04/2013)

• more tech in scan
• improved test
• bug fixes

version 1.6.4 (11/04/2013)

• supports py3.3
• additional test
• improved scan interface
• bug fixes

version 1.6.3 (08/03/2013)

• bug fix to yara.py (callback callable check)

version 1.6.2 (28/02/2013)

• support for OS X Mountain Lion

version 1.6.1 (06/09/2012)

• Support for 64bit Windows
• Bug fixes
• Added documentation

version 1.6.0 (01/09/2012)

• Initial release