Tool

McSema

Archived Trail of Bits executable lifter that translates 32- and 64-bit Linux ELF and Windows PE binaries into LLVM bitcode for analysis or recompilation. Control-flow recovery runs in mcsema-disass, which relies on IDA Pro to write a protobuf CFG, and mcsema-lift then translates instructions through the Remill library; the README lists most x86 and x86-64 integer, x87, MMX, SSE and AVX instructions plus subsets of AArch64, SPARC32 and SPARC64. Lifted bitcode can go through LLVM passes, KLEE or libFuzzer, or be compiled back into a runnable program.

Targets: Binary
Category: Native analysis tools
Relationship: Foundation tool
Sources reviewed: 2026-10-27

Stars: 2.8k
Last commit: 2022-04-26
Language: C++
License (GitHub): AGPL-3.0
Status: Archived

GitHub data as of 2026-11-09

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Requirements & limits

The archived repository is read-only. The README supports LLVM 9–11; v3.0.24 has prebuilt archives for Ubuntu 18.04 and 20.04 amd64.
Control-flow recovery requires IDA Pro 7.5+. The experimental DynInst frontend is unsupported. Builds need CMake 3.14+, Python 3.8 with protobuf and clang bindings, and pinned Remill and Anvill commits. macOS and Windows builds are experimental or untested.
Inputs are analyst-supplied compiler-generated ELF or PE binaries. Limitations.md excludes packed, encrypted, obfuscated and self-modifying code and raw firmware blobs; it also notes exception and floating-point limitations.
The repository includes Maze examples, prebuilt test CFGs and an encrypted Binary Ninja CI archive.
AGPL-3.0; IDA Pro, Binary Ninja and LLVM retain their own terms.

Cite

BibTeX

@misc{mcsema,
  title = {{McSema}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://github.com/lifting-bits/mcsema}},
  url = {https://github.com/lifting-bits/mcsema},
  urldate = {2026-10-27},
  note = {Awesome REA entry: \url{https://awesomerea.org/resources/mcsema/}}
}

Plain text

McSema. https://github.com/lifting-bits/mcsema (accessed 2026-10-27). Awesome REA entry: https://awesomerea.org/resources/mcsema/

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About this entry

The description was reviewed against primary sources.

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Primary sources

README.md GitHub · lifting-bits/mcsema · Revision 2636805
docs/Limitations.md GitHub · lifting-bits/mcsema · Revision 2636805
docs/McSemaWalkthrough.md GitHub · lifting-bits/mcsema · Revision 2636805
docs/CommandLineReference.md GitHub · lifting-bits/mcsema · Revision 2636805
tests/MakingTests.md GitHub · lifting-bits/mcsema · Revision 2636805
examples/Maze GitHub · lifting-bits/mcsema · Revision 2636805
tests/test_suite_generator/generated/prebuilt_cfg GitHub · lifting-bits/mcsema · Revision 2636805
.github/workflows/vcpkg_ci.yml GitHub · lifting-bits/mcsema · Revision 2636805
LICENSE GitHub · lifting-bits/mcsema · Revision 2636805
https://github.com/lifting-bits/mcsema/commit/1ef3ed2cd355f52d7ae28b336bdbc59c5ebad5b9
https://github.com/lifting-bits/mcsema/releases/tag/v3.0.26
https://github.com/lifting-bits/mcsema/releases/tag/v3.0.24