The United States’ National Security Agency is planning to open-source an internally developed reverse-engineering framework for popular operating systems this spring.

The framework, called GHIDRA, is best described as a “disassembler,” which works by breaking down software into its assembly code so it can be analyzed by humans. The main idea is that developers and others can use the tool to analyze malware and other suspect software.

GHIDRA is built in Java, features a graphical user interface and runs on Linux, Mac and Windows operating systems.

The tool has never officially been a secret, but the NSA did keep rather quiet about its existence until March 2017 when WikiLeaks published allegedly stolen files that revealed the agency was using the tool. Those documents show that GHIDRA was first built by the NSA in the early 2000s, and that it has been shared with several other government agencies.

With GHIDRA, it’s also possible to analyze the binaries of all major operating systems, including mobile platforms such as Android and iOS. Thanks to its modular architecture, users can use the tool to add new features to these platforms via new packages.

The news that the NSA is planning to open source GHIDRA came Friday via the 2019 RSA Security Conference sessions page, where it was announced that the software will be introduced in a talk by senior NSA adviser Robert Joyce scheduled for March 5.

Discussions on forums such as Hacker News, Reddit and Twitter compare GHIDRA with a commercial reverse engineering tool called IDA. Most agree that IDA is the more stable and reliable platform, but note that it also costs thousands of dollars to license. The NSA may be hoping that the open-source community can help iron out some of GHIDRA’s bugs and make it a much more reliable competitor, analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE.

“The NSA wants to leverage the key benefits of open source, which is more eyes and hands on a set of code,” Mueller said. “Reverse engineering tools are key for assessing software cleanliness in regards to malware. With more and more business depending on software all players need to have good tools to validate software.”

Surprisingly, the NSA has quite a long history of open-sourcing internally developed software. The agency even has a GitHub page that lists some 32 projects. They include Apache NiFi, which is software that’s used to automate the transfer of large amounts of data between web applications.

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