pwndbg/pwndbg

heap tracker: display object type or a symbol from backtrace?

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#3,092 opened on Jun 7, 2025

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featuregood first issueheaphelp wanted

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Description

Currently the track-heap enable shows us only that a malloc/calloc/free etc. happened and which size/address it was passed or returned, but it would be awesome to show where in the program the allocation or deallocation happened - or - for what kind of object.

This would need to be smart somehow so it is useful, as we probably don't want to display the whole backtrace for each malloc/calloc/free etc. but just one symbol - like "SomeObject::SomeMethod".

This could also work e.g. only if sources are available or maybe the user should pass some regex for the backtrace and we should only show a symbol that matches?

Contributor guide

Research direction
Implement a mechanism to capture the backtrace at allocation points and filter to show a relevant symbol (e.g., function name) based on user configurable regex.
Tech stack
python
Domain
security
Issue type
Feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
2
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
Active
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
Mostly clear
Prerequisites
GDBPython
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
45