Pwndbg

中文说明

An MCP tool endows AI agent with the capability to debug ELF. This tool is designed for regular CTF challenges, especially pwn ones.

[!IMPORTANT] It's recommended to use a tmux skill and pwndbg skill, and provide AI agent with a tmux session instead. Controlling pwndbg with MCP requires lots of tokens, and it's hard to support debugging with python script. Reference our 0RAYS/codex-pwner. (Though AI agent tends to use raw tools like reading /proc/mem to get information...)

Quickstart

As currently this repo has not been published on PyPI, clone this repo with

$ git clone https://github.com/RocketMaDev/pwndbg-mcp.git

Then use uv (install it if you don't have it) to pull dependencies and build venv, or install it as a tool.

$ uv tool install pwndbg-mcp
$ pwndbg-mcp
# or clone pwndbg-mcp and run it with uv manually

[!CAUTION] DON'T EXPOSE YOUR MCP SERVICE TO PUBLIC IF YOU DON'T DO ISOLATION! The tool load_executable, execute_command (GDB command) and eval_to_send_to_process may lead to remote code execution.

By default starting pwndbg-mcp without args launch a mcp server at localhost:8780 with gdb as main pwndbg binary, /mcp as mcp connection end point, and HTTP streamable as transport. Here is some help information:

usage: main.py [-h] [--transport {stdio,http,sse}] [--host HOST] [--port PORT] [--pwndbg BIN] [--d2dname NAME] [--d2dhost HOST] [--d2dport PORT]

pwndbg-mcp: An MCP tool endows AI agent with the capability to debug ELF

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --transport {stdio,http,sse}, -t {stdio,http,sse}
                        Transport mode: stdio, http (streamable HTTP, default), or sse
  --host HOST, -H HOST  Host for HTTP/SSE modes (default: localhost)
  --port PORT, -p PORT  Port for HTTP/SSE modes (default: 8780)
  --pwndbg BIN, -b BIN  pwndbg binary to launch (default: gdb)
  --d2dname NAME, -d NAME
                        Decomp2dbg section display name. Set this to enable decomp2dbg support
  --d2dhost HOST, -D HOST
                        Decomp2dbg connection host
  --d2dport PORT, -P PORT
                        Decomp2dbg connection port

It is recommended to wrap pwndbg-mcp in minimal container like bwrap since some agents like Claude Code wants to execute binary under the same directory as where it runs. Putting pwndbg-mcp in regular container like docker may lead to file path change.

The following line ro-bind your root, map your home as writable but temporary (any write action will not affect your home directory on disk), then bind common file systems, start a new pid namespace and finally start a bash.

$ bwrap --ro-bind / / --overlay-src ~ --tmp-overlay ~ --dev-bind /dev /dev --proc /proc --tmpfs /tmp --unshare-pid bash

Screenshot

Preview tools

• GDB related
  1. load_executable
  2. execute_command
  3. pwndbg_status (may be incorrect)
  4. debug_control
  5. connect_decomp2dbg
  6. pwndbg_hard_reset
• Interact with process
  1. send_to_process
  2. eval_to_send_to_process (has access to pwntools)
  3. read_from_process
  4. interrupt_process (the same as press Ctrl-C)
• pwndbg aliases
  1. telescope
  2. context
  3. heap
  4. bins
  5. backtrace
  6. vmmap
  7. xinfo

Use TOON as return format as it's both human-readable and token-saving.

Pros & Cons

This project draw some inspiration from pwno-mcp, and has some advantages and disadvantages.

Pros

1. pwndbg-mcp utilizes GDB/MI for direct communication with GDB, no echo hacks
2. Interrupts are sent via tty, just like typing Ctrl-C on keyboard, no need to keep pid
3. eval_to_send_to_process provides AI with the ability to send any binary data

Cons

1. All communication are encapsulated and user can not observe gdb status
2. This project targets local debugging, thus each instance only keep one GDB session
3. Focused on debugging, requires other MCP to work together, e.g. IDA Pro MCP
4. Sometimes Ctrl-C kills process or can't wake up GDB. No idea how this happens

Future roadmap

Please click :star: STAR and open issues (but don't spam) to push me developing these excellent features!

• Integrate with decomp2dbg
• Integrate with pwntools (gdb.debug/gdb.attach)
• Attach to local process (untested)
• Attach to remote gdbserver (untested)

Credits

pwno-mcp: Provides great bootstrap framework for pwndbg-mcp

Contribution

Contributions are welcome! But no vibe coding (sending content all generated by AI is not allowed) and spams.

LICENSE

Copyright (C) 2025-present, RocketDev, distributed under MIT License.