Error while diffing: Export of the secondary database failed

[romanholidaypancakes]

log:

Error while diffing: Export of the secondary database failed: Error executing: '"E:\tools\reverse\IDA PRO 7.5\ida64.exe" "-A" "-OBinExportAutoAction:BinExportBinary" "-OBinExportModule:C:\Users\USER~3\AppData\Local\Temp\BinDiff\secondary\test.sys1.BinExport" "-OBinExportAlsoLogToStdErr:FALSE" "-OBinExportX86NoReturnHeuristic:FALSE" "E:\testbin\test.sys1.i64"'

maybe related :https://github.com/google/binexport/issues/71

I noticed that the path contains the user USER~3. Now my computer does not contain this user, so the path does not exist. Is it a better solution not to use the path of a specific user?

[cblichmann]

Hi there,

BinDiff uses BinExport's GetOrCreateTempDirectory() and then invokes the IdbExporter:

  auto temp_dir = GetOrCreateTempDirectory("BinDiff");
  // ...
  const std::string secondary_temp_dir = JoinPath(*temp_dir, "secondary");
  // ...
  const auto& config = config::Proto();
    auto options =
        IdbExporter::Options()
            .set_export_dir(secondary_temp_dir)
            .set_ida_dir(idadir(/*subdir=*/nullptr))
            .set_alsologtostderr(Plugin::instance()->alsologtostderr());
    // ...
    IdbExporter exporter(options);
    exporter.AddDatabase(secondary_idb_path);

    absl::Status status;
    std::thread export_thread(
        [&status, &exporter]() { status = exporter.Export(); });

Under the hood, on Windows, this calls into GetTempPathA(). This will likely return a per-user path, which may contain a shortened path based on the value of %USERPROFILE%.

I'm not sure what goes wrong here, but you can try to set the TEMP environment variable to, say, C:\TEMP (and create this dir). If the MSDN documentation for GetTempPathA() is correct, it should pick up this path first.

Are you running the new BinDiff 7? And which version of Windows?

[romanholidaypancakes]

win10 and bindiff7.

[cblichmann]

Did my suggestion to set the TEMP environment variable help at all?

Another thing to check: Are you using a non-US locale or non US-English settings for the user interface language?

[romanholidaypancakes]

I still get an error after trying,(i forgot to reply...

[cblichmann]

(back from vacation)

I still get an error after trying,(i forgot to reply...

Does that mean you set TEMP to a different value and it didn't help? Also (see above), this is sensitive to local and user interface settings. Are you on a non-US locale or non US-English interface language?

As is, I cannot reproduce (and hence fix) this issue, unfortunately.

[romanholidaypancakes]

steps: ida(load primary idb file) - file - bindiff - load secondary idb file

There is a correct path in the option BinExportModule now, but the binfile.BinExport file is not generated, here is the error log:

Error while diffing: Export of the secondary database failed: Error executing: '"E:\tools\reverse\IDA PRO 7.5\ida64.exe" "-A" "-OBinExportAutoAction:BinExportBinary" "-OBinExportModule:C:\temp\BinDiff\secondary\binfile.BinExport" "-OBinExportAlsoLogToStdErr:FALSE" "-OBinExportX86NoReturnHeuristic:FALSE" "C:\Users\user1\Desktop\test\filedir\binfile.i64"'

I'm using a non-English windows system.

[SiOuz]

Same error here on windows version

[cblichmann]

@SiOuz, what is your language locale? I'm guessing non-US also?

[babrath]

I get the same issue on Kali Linux (2021.3), for IDA Free 7.6 and BinDiff 7.

[cblichmann]

@babrath, what happens if you manually execute the command that is printed (try setting -OBinExportAlsoLogToStdErr:TRUE, though)?

[babrath]

@cblichmann So the command was printed nowhere, but I found it using an strace. So I executed:

/home/kali/tools/idafree-7.6/ida64 -A -OBinExportAutoAction:BinExportBinary -OBinExportModule:/tmp/bindiff/secondary/patched.BinExport -OBinExportAlsoLogToStdErr:TRUE -OBinExportX86NoReturnHeuristic:FALSE /home/kali/repos/task2/patched.i64

And got the following output:

Gtk-Message: 11:09:48.254: Failed to load module "gail"

** (ida64:1638): WARNING **: 11:09:48.261: (../atk-adaptor/bridge.c:1018):atk_bridge_adaptor_init: runtime check failed: (root)
/usr/share/themes/Kali-Dark/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:39: Unable to find include file: "apps.rc"
/usr/share/themes/Kali-Dark/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:40: Unable to find include file: "hacks.rc"
/usr/share/themes/Kali-Dark/gtk-2.0/gtkrc:41: Unable to find include file: "hacks-dark.rc"
I1021 11:09:48.507509    1638 main_plugin.cc:353] BinExport 12 (@377499286, Jun  4 2021), (c)2004-2011 zynamics GmbH, (c)2011-2021 Google LLC.

None of which seem relevant? No new files appeared in /tmp/bindiff/secondary/, and the exit code is 1.

[shmily-ou]

Thanks