Hydra Engine 12.3-hydra.1

Released 2026-10-26. The first release. Based on upstream Ghidra master (12.3 DEV) as of
2026-10-26, commit 057a646233edfb21768a42a0aabc1d1a7709da19.

Downloads

One zip, hydra-engine-12.3-hydra.1-win_x86_64.zip: the headless install for Windows x64
(gradle zipHeadless), on which the release workflow ran both test suites after unzipping it.
You need a JDK 25 and Python 3.10 or later; the install has no JDK.

Known limits

• Projects saved by this build cannot be opened by Ghidra 12.2 or 12.1.4. Upstream master
  writes data type databases at version 3; 12.2 and 12.1.4 read version 2. A project opened
  read-only is not written; open older projects writable only from a copy. The
  legacy-12.1.4 branch serves projects that must stay on 12.1.4.
• Based on a development snapshot. Upstream master is Ghidra's next version under work
  (12.3 DEV), not a Ghidra release.
• Windows only. CI and releases build and test on Windows. The module and launcher have no
  Windows-only path, and a one-off dry run of the release workflow on 2026-10-26 built Linux x64
  and macOS arm64 installs that passed both test suites, but neither is released or tested
  routinely; build from source there (gradle buildHeadless).
• Headless only. No window, help, javadoc or Python type stubs; the full Ghidra build is
  still gradle buildGhidra, from source.

Added

• HeadlessSession module (Ghidra/Features/HeadlessSession): a shared, per-user headless
  session daemon. One JVM serves many projects and many clients over JSON lines on an
  authenticated loopback socket (or stdio), with protocol version 2.
  • Projects opened in place: read-only without a lock, or writable with one.
  • Programs opened and switched without importing; imports with any Ghidra loader,
    deduplicated by SHA-256.
  • Analysis, decompiling, renames, comments, saves, and GhidraScripts (Java or Python) with
    arguments; scripts on programs a client does not own run contained and are rolled back.
  • Fair scheduling (quick and long lanes, round-robin by client), one writer and many readers
    per program, per-client cancel, clean release when a client dies, idle shutdown, warm
    programs kept open for the next client.
• ghidra_session.py: a standard-library-only Python launcher, daemon manager and client
  (connect()), with no .bat or .sh launcher. Fast start with a class search cache and,
  on JDK 25+, an AOT cache.
• Tests: examples/session_smoke.py and examples/daemon_tests.py.
• Headless build (gradle buildHeadless, gradle/hydra/headless.gradle): an install
  without the window-only modules, the help, javadoc and Python stubs, and with a check that no
  module of the install depends on one it leaves out. The full build is still gradle buildGhidra.
• Repository: this README (Ghidra's original is README-GHIDRA.md), NOTICE-HYDRA, a
  security policy and contributor guide in .github/, issue and pull request templates, and CI
  (.github/workflows/ci.yml) that builds the headless install and runs both test suites.
• Releases (.github/workflows/release.yml): a tag v<version> builds the headless zip on
  Windows, runs both test suites on the unzipped install, and publishes the zip, SHA256SUMS
  and this file's section as a GitHub Release.

Branches

• main: the above, on upstream master.
• legacy-12.1.4: the same module on Ghidra 12.1.4, kept for projects analysed with 12.1.4.

Download and testing

Built by the release workflow from 83b082ca9931f7d870a0a3372f775e96c8c8b2b7, then unzipped and tested there.

File	Size	Built and tested on	Result
hydra-engine-12.3-hydra.1-win_x86_64.zip	361 MiB	windows-latest (Windows-2025Server, openjdk version "25.0.4.1" 2026-08-18 LTS)	built; session_smoke.py and daemon_tests.py passed on the unzipped install

SHA-256 (also in SHA256SUMS):

4102c5dffbb7e26a90adfd20e025b4a0dd461ae147179082fb112562f3af6c47  hydra-engine-12.3-hydra.1-win_x86_64.zip