Windows User Space Emulator
A high-performance Windows process emulator that operates at syscall level, providing full control over process execution through comprehensive hooking capabilities.
Perfect for security research, malware analysis, and DRM research where fine-grained control over process execution is required.
Built in C++ and powered by the [Unicorn Engine](https://github.com/unicorn-engine/unicorn) (or the [icicle-emu](https://github.com/icicle-emu/icicle-emu) ๐).
## Key Features
* ๐ __Syscall-Level Emulation__
* Instead of reimplementing Windows APIs, the emulator operates at the syscall level, allowing it to leverage existing system DLLs
* ๐ __Advanced Memory Management__
* Supports Windows-specific memory types including reserved, committed, built on top of Unicorn's memory management
* ๐ฆ __Complete PE Loading__
* Handles executable and DLL loading with proper memory mapping, relocations, and TLS
* โก __Exception Handling__
* Implements Windows structured exception handling (SEH) with proper exception dispatcher and unwinding support
* ๐งต __Threading Support__
* Provides a scheduled (round-robin) threading model
* ๐พ __State Management__
* Supports both full state serialization and ~~fast in-memory snapshots~~ (currently broken ๐)
* ๐ป __Debugging Interface__
* Implements GDB serial protocol for integration with common debugging tools (IDA Pro, GDB, LLDB, VS Code, ...)
##
> [!NOTE]
> The project is still in a very early, prototypical state. The code still needs a lot of cleanup and many features and syscalls need to be implemented. However, constant progress is being made :)
## Preview
## YouTube Overview
[](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY9Q0DhodOQ)
Click here for the slides.
## Quick Start (Windows + Visual Studio)
> [!TIP]
> Checkout the [Wiki](https://github.com/momo5502/emulator/wiki) for more details on how to build & run the emulator on Windows, Linux, macOS, ...
1\. Checkout the code:
```bash
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/momo5502/emulator.git
```
2\. Run the following command in an x64 Development Command Prompt in the cloned directory:
```bash
cmake --preset=vs2022
```
3\. Build the solution that was generated at `build/vs2022/emulator.sln`
4\. Create a registry dump by running the [grab-registry.bat](https://github.com/momo5502/emulator/blob/main/src/tools/grab-registry.bat) as administrator and place it in the artifacts folder next to the `analyzer.exe`
5\. Run the program of your choice:
```bash
analyzer.exe C:\example.exe
```