Installation & Setup

This guide will help you set up your environment for Rust malware analysis and detection research.

Prerequisites

Required Software

  1. Rust Toolchain
    • Install the latest stable Rust toolchain from rustup.rs 
      curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
  2. Binary Analysis Tools (choose based on your needs)
    • IDA Pro - Commercial disassembler and debugger
    • Ghidra - Free and open-source reverse engineering tool
    • Binary Ninja - Commercial binary analysis platform
    • radare2 - Free and open-source reverse engineering framework
  3. Build Tools
    • Windows: Visual Studio Build Tools or MinGW-w64
    • Linux: GCC, build-essential
    • macOS: Xcode Command Line Tools

Optional Tools

  • Docker - For consistent build environments
  • Git - Version control (required for cloning the repository)
  • Python 3.8+ - For analysis scripts
  • IDA Python / Ghidra Script environments

Installation Steps

1. Install Rust

# Install rustup (Rust toolchain manager)
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

# Verify installation
rustc --version
cargo --version

2. Install Cross-Compilation Targets

For cross-platform analysis, install additional targets:

# Windows targets
rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
rustup target add i686-pc-windows-msvc
rustup target add x86_64-pc-windows-gnu
rustup target add i686-pc-windows-gnu

# Linux targets
rustup target add x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
rustup target add i686-unknown-linux-gnu

# macOS targets (if on macOS)
rustup target add x86_64-apple-darwin
rustup target add aarch64-apple-darwin

3. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/Yen-Coder/The-State-of-Rust-in-Malware-Programming.git
cd The-State-of-Rust-in-Malware-Programming

4. Build Sample Projects

# Navigate to a sample project
cd docs/01-Rust-Binary-Analysis/01-basic_pl_concepts

# Build with default settings
cargo build --release

# Build with aggressive optimizations
cargo build --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc

Platform-Specific Setup

Windows

  1. Install Visual Studio Build Tools 
    # Using winget
winget install Microsoft.VisualStudio.2022.BuildTools
  2. Install MinGW-w64 (for GNU targets) 
    # Using chocolatey
choco install mingw

Linux

# Ubuntu/Debian
sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential gcc-multilib

# Fedora/RHEL
sudo dnf install gcc gcc-c++ glibc-devel.i686

macOS

# Install Xcode Command Line Tools
xcode-select --install

# Install mingw-w64 for Windows cross-compilation
brew install mingw-w64

Verify Installation

Run the following commands to verify your setup:

# Check Rust version
rustc --version

# Check installed targets
rustup show

# Check compiler toolchains
rustup toolchain list

# Build a test project
cd docs/01-Rust-Binary-Analysis/01-basic_pl_concepts
cargo build --release

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Issue: linker 'cc' not found

  • Solution: Install build tools for your platform (see Platform-Specific Setup)

Issue: error: linking with 'link.exe' failed

  • Solution: Install Visual Studio Build Tools on Windows

Issue: Cross-compilation fails

  • Solution: Ensure you’ve installed the target and necessary cross-compilation toolchain

Getting Help

If you encounter issues:

  1. Check the FAQ
  2. Search existing GitHub Issues
  3. Open a new issue with detailed error information

Next Steps