GEF vs PEDA
GitHub Stats
About GEF
GEF (GDB Enhanced Features) is a comprehensive GDB plugin that transforms the standard GNU Debugger into a modern, feature-rich environment tailored for exploit developers and reverse engineers working on Linux systems. It provides colorized disassembly, register displays, stack visualization, heap analysis, automatic breakpoint commands, and dozens of exploit-development-specific commands that dramatically improve the debugging workflow. Binary exploitation practitioners, malware analysts, and CTF players use GEF as their primary debugging interface because it surfaces critical information like memory mappings, pattern generation, format string helpers, and ROP gadget searching directly within the GDB session. GEF supports multiple architectures including x86, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and SPARC, and integrates with tools like Binary Ninja, IDA Pro, and pwntools through its Python API.
About PEDA
PEDA (Python Exploit Development Assistance) enhances GDB with colorized disassembly, register display, stack/memory examination, and exploit development utilities. It provides commands for pattern generation and offset finding, ROP gadget searching, shellcode development assistance, heap analysis, and format string helpers. PEDA automatically displays context (registers, code, stack) at each breakpoint, dramatically improving the debugging experience for binary exploitation. It supports both x86 and x86_64 architectures and integrates with the standard GDB workflow while adding powerful automation for common exploit development tasks.
Platform Support
Tags
Shared
GEF only
PEDA only