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https://github.com/ergrelet/windiff

Web-based tool that allows comparing symbol, type and syscall information of Microsoft Windows binaries across different versions of the OS.
https://github.com/ergrelet/windiff

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Web-based tool that allows comparing symbol, type and syscall information of Microsoft Windows binaries across different versions of the OS.

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README 

        
# WinDiff



## About



WinDiff is an open-source web-based tool that allows browsing and comparing

symbol, type and syscall information of Microsoft Windows binaries across

different versions of the operating system. The binary database is automatically

updated to include information from the latest Windows updates (including

Insider Preview).



It was inspired by [ntdiff](https://github.com/ntdiff/ntdiff) and made possible

with the help of [Winbindex](https://github.com/m417z/winbindex).



## Screenshot



Screenshot of WinDiff



## How It Works



WinDiff is made of two parts: a CLI tool written in Rust and a web frontend

written in TypeScript using the Next.js framework.



The CLI tool is used to generate compressed JSON databases out of a

configuration file and relies on `Winbindex` to find and download the required

PEs (and PDBs). Types are reconstructed using `resym`. The idea behind the CLI

tool is to be able to easily update and regenerate databases as new versions of

Windows are released. The CLI tool's code is in the `windiff_cli` directory.



The frontend is used to visualize the data generated by the CLI tool, in a

user-friendly way. The frontend follows the same principle as `ntdiff`, as it

allows browsing information extracted from official Microsoft PEs and PDBs for

certain versions of Microsoft Windows and also allows comparing this information

between versions. The frontend's code is in the `windiff_frontend` directory.



A scheduled GitHub action fetches new updates from `Winbindex` every day and

updates the configuration file used to generate the live version of WinDiff.

Currently, because of (free plans) storage and compute limitations, **only KB**

**and Insider Preview updates less than one year old are kept** for the live

version. You can of course rebuild a local version of WinDiff yourself, without

those limitations if you need to. See the next section for that.



Note: `Winbindex` doesn't provide unique download links for 100% of the indexed

files, so it might happen that some PEs' information are unavailable in WinDiff

because of that. However, as soon as these PEs are on VirusTotal, `Winbindex`

will be able to provide unique download links for them and they will then be

integrated into WinDiff automatically.



## How to Build



### Prerequisites



- Rust 1.68 or superior

- Node.js 16.8 or superior



### Command-Line



The full build of WinDiff is "self-documented" in `ci/build_frontend.sh`, which

is the build script used to build the live version of WinDiff. Here's what's inside:



```bash

# Resolve the project's root folder

PROJECT_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)



# Generate databases

cd "$PROJECT_ROOT/windiff_cli"

cargo run --release "$PROJECT_ROOT/ci/db_configuration.json" "$PROJECT_ROOT/windiff_frontend/public/"



# Build the frontend

cd "$PROJECT_ROOT/windiff_frontend"

npm ci

npm run build

```



The configuration file used to generate the data for the live version of WinDiff

is located here: `ci/db_configuration.json`, but you can customize it or use

your own. PRs aimed at adding new binaries to track in the live configuration

are welcome.