Calltree

Author: Eric Biazo

Calltree and Callgraph generator for a function

Description:

Generates calltree and callgraph for a function.

Releases

• 3.0 -- Graph-backed call data + Python API (networkx), optimization, better search, big-binary support, call-graph export, recursion markers, colored/clickable graph nodes.
• 2.1 -- Bug Fix
• 2.0 -- Multiview Support
• 1.2 -- Bug Fixes
• 1.1 -- Refactoring
• 1.0 -- Public Release
• 0.0 -- Beta Release

Minimum Version

This plugin requires the following minimum version of Binary Ninja:

• 2966

License

This plugin is released under an MIT license.

Description

Calltree is a plugin that generates call tree for a function. It is an alternative view for callgraph. It is a multiview plugin, so you can have multiple calltree views open at the same time.

Features

Call trees

• Incoming Calls (callers) and Outgoing Calls (callees) panes, each rooted on the current function and updated as you navigate.
• Lazy, bounded rendering — trees load on demand and auto-expand only to a configurable depth, so even large binaries stay responsive; deeper levels load as you expand them.
• Recursion marker — a call back into an ancestor (e.g. _ping → _pong → _ping) is shown as a leaf with a recursion icon, so cycles are obvious and never expand forever.
• Clickable "… N more" — when a function has more children than the display cap, a "… N more" row loads all the remaining children on click.
• Manual deep-expand — clicking a node's expand arrow drills one level deeper even past the auto-expand depth, so you can follow a single path arbitrarily deep without expanding the whole tree.
• Horizontal scrolling with full, un-elided names.

Per-pane controls

Each pane has a header row and, below the tree, a search row:

• Header row — [<direction> Calls ········· [depth] [+] [−]]: the pane label plus the depth spinbox (how many levels auto-expand on navigation) and the + expand-all / − collapse buttons (+ reveals the entire reachable subtree, − collapses it).
• Search row — [search box ×] [x of y] [↑] [↓]: type a name and press Enter to search the entire call subtree by name (ignoring depth / node caps). The tree is pruned to just the paths leading to matches, each branch ending at its match (matches in bold). The built-in × clear button (or emptying the box) drops the search and restores the normal tree. The x of y counter (shown only while searching) and the ↑ / ↓ buttons cycle through matches, centering each; "No matches" is shown when nothing matches.

Panes also show explicit placeholders: "No functions" (no callers/callees in that direction), "Depth is 0" (depth set to 0), and "Loading…" while a large expand-all walk runs in the background.

Call graph export

• The graph button (on the current-function row, arranged as [graph] | [pin] [close]) opens a Binary Ninja flow graph of exactly what the two panes currently show.
• Nodes are color-coded — root (orange), incoming callers (blue), outgoing callees (green) — and clickable: double-click a node to navigate to that function. To narrow the graph, search or expand the trees first, then open it.

Navigation & tabs

• Single click previews (navigates the disassembly without re-rooting the Current tab); double click commits (navigates and re-roots the Current tab).
• Pin the current call tree into a new tab to keep a snapshot while you keep navigating; remove a pinned tab with the close button.

Settings

• Initial incoming/outgoing depth, max auto-expanded nodes, and pinned-tab name length are all configurable under the Calltree settings group.

Python API

As of 3.0, the caller/callee relationships are backed by a real graph (networkx.DiGraph) that is decoupled from the UI, so you can query the call graph programmatically from the Binary Ninja Python console. Nodes are function start addresses and every edge points from a caller to a callee.

The graph is expanded lazily around a function and cached per BinaryView, so it stays cheap even on large binaries.

from calltree import get_call_graph

# `bv` is the current BinaryView. `cg` is cached per BinaryView.
cg = get_call_graph(bv)

main = bv.get_functions_by_name("main")[0]

# Grow the graph around a function (direction: "callees", "callers" or "both").
cg.expand(main, direction="both", max_depth=6)

# --- Queries ---
cg.callees(main)          # functions main calls
cg.callers("malloc")      # functions that call malloc (accepts Function/addr/name)

# --- Search (substring by default; regex + mangled-name options available) ---
cg.search("alloc")
cg.search(r"^str.*cpy$", regex=True)

# --- Path finding ---
cg.reaches("main", "system")          # bool: can main reach system?
cg.shortest_path("main", "system")    # [Function, ...]
for path in cg.all_paths("main", "system", cutoff=8):
    print([f.name for f in path])

# --- Traversal ---
for func in cg.bfs(main, direction="callees", max_depth=3):
    print(func.name)

# --- Export ---
cg.to_networkx()   # the underlying networkx.DiGraph
cg.to_dict()       # serializable {"nodes": [...], "edges": [...]}
cg.to_edge_list()  # [(caller_addr, callee_addr), ...]

This plugin depends on networkx. Installing via the Binary Ninja plugin manager installs it automatically from requirements.txt; for manual installs, use the Install python3 module command palette action or pip install networkx against Binary Ninja's interpreter.

Manual / development checkouts

If you cloned this repo straight into your Binary Ninja plugins/ folder (instead of installing through the plugin manager), requirements.txt is not installed automatically, so you must add networkx to Binary Ninja's Python yourself:

• Easiest: command palette (CTRL/CMD-P) → Install python3 module → enter networkx.

• From a shell, install into Binary Ninja's user pythonXY folder, e.g. on macOS with the bundled Python 3.10:

  pip3 install --target \
    "$HOME/Library/Application Support/Binary Ninja/python310" networkx
  

  (Linux uses ~/.binaryninja/pythonXY; Windows uses %APPDATA%\Binary Ninja\pythonXY.)

Restart Binary Ninja afterwards — the plugin imports networkx at load time, so a running instance won't pick it up until relaunched. Without it, the call trees render empty and an error is logged.

Architecture

For a detailed design overview — modules, the call-graph data model, the threading model, lazy rendering, search, dirty-tracking, and key control flows — see doc/architecture.md.

Contributors

Thanks everyone that have contributed to calltree!

• galenbwill
• droogie
• bambu
• crimsonskylark
• SilentVoid13