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analyzing-go-binaries

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Reverse engineer Go binaries by recovering function names and types from pclntab and moduledata using GoReSym, redress, and IDA/Ghidra Go plugins, and by reading Go's non-standard calling convention, interface dispatch, and string layout. Use when a binary contains Go runtime strings, when strings show runtime.main or go:buildid, when a stripped binary is unexpectedly large, or when analyzing Go malware or a Go-based service.

secskills-core/skills/analyzing-go-binaries/SKILL.md

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Sep 4, 2026
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# Analyzing Go Binaries

Go binaries look hostile — statically linked, tens of megabytes, no imports
you recognize, and "stripped" in a way that makes tools show thousands of
`sub_` functions. They are not. Go ships its own symbol table for runtime
reflection and panic traces, and `strip` does not remove it. Recover it and
the binary becomes one of the easiest targets there is.

## When to Use

- `strings` shows `runtime.main`, `go:buildid`, `go.buildinfo`, or
  `runtime.gopanic`
- A "stripped" binary is 5–50 MB with almost no dynamic imports
- The disassembler shows thousands of unnamed functions and unreadable strings
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