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How to Share Files with Hex-Rays Support

This guide shows you how to securely upload and share files with Hex-Rays support team when reporting bugs or requesting assistance.

Problem Statement

You've encountered a bug or crash in IDA Pro and need to share files (IDB files, crash dumps, screenshots) with Hex-Rays support to help them reproduce and fix the issue.

Prerequisites

Quick Start

For the impatient, here's the essential workflow:

# 1. Upload your file
hcli share put crash_sample.idb --acl authenticated

# 2. Copy the share code (e.g., "abc123")
# 3. Email support@hex-rays.com with the code
# 4. Delete when resolved
hcli share delete abc123

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Authenticate with HCLI

Verify you're logged in:

hcli whoami

Expected output:

You are logged in as user@example.com using an API key from HCLI_API_KEY environment variable

If not authenticated, see Authentication.

Step 2: Prepare Your Files

Gather the files needed to reproduce the issue:

For Crashes or Bugs:

  • IDB database files
  • The original binary (if possible)
  • Log files from %APPDATA%\Hex-Rays\IDA Pro\ (Windows) or ~/.idapro/ (Linux/macOS)
  • Screenshots showing the issue
  • Any relevant crash dumps

Best Practices:

  • Include only files necessary to reproduce the issue
  • Compress large files before uploading (optional, but recommended)
  • Remove sensitive data if possible
  • Note the IDA Pro version and platform in your support email

Step 3: Upload Files

Upload each file using the share put command:

hcli share put crash_sample.idb

You'll be prompted to choose a visibility level:

? Pick a visibility
  [private] Just for me
  [domain] Anyone from my domain
» [authenticated] Anyone authenticated with the link

For support requests, choose authenticated. This allows Hex-Rays support staff to access the file.

Step 4: Choose the Right Visibility Level

Understanding access control levels:

Level Who Can Access Use Case
private Only you Personal backups, testing
domain Anyone with your email domain (@company.com) Internal team collaboration
authenticated Anyone with the link and valid Hex-Rays authentication Sharing with Hex-Rays support

For support requests, always use authenticated:

hcli share put crash_sample.idb --acl authenticated

Step 5: Record the Share Code

After successful upload, HCLI displays the file details:

Upload Complete 100% 2.4/2.4 MB 5.2 MB/s 0:00:00
✓ File uploaded successfully!
Share Code: efja98
Share URL: https://my.hex-rays.com/share/efja98
Download URL: https://api.eu.hex-rays.com/api/assets/s/efja98

Copy the Share Code (e.g., efja98) - you'll need this for your support email.

Step 6: Verify the Upload

List your shared files to confirm:

hcli share list --no-interactive

Output:

┏━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┳━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓
┃ Index ┃ Code                 ┃ Version ┃ Size     ┃ Created            ┃ ACL           ┃
┡━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━╇━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┩
│ 1     │ efja98               │ 1       │ 2.4 MB   │ 2025-10-24 14:30   │ authenticated │
└───────┴──────────────────────┴─────────┴──────────┴────────────────────┴───────────────┘

Verify:

  • The file appears in the list
  • ACL is authenticated
  • File size looks correct

Step 7: Contact Hex-Rays Support

Email support@hex-rays.com with:

Subject: [HCLI Share: efja98] Brief description of issue

Body:

Hello,

I've encountered [brief description of the issue] while using IDA Pro.

Shared Files:
- Share Code: efja98 (crash_sample.idb)
- Share Code: xyz789 (crash.log)

Environment:
- IDA Pro Version: 9.2
- Platform: Windows 11 x64
- HCLI Version: [run: hcli --version]

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open the shared IDB file
2. Navigate to address 0x401000
3. Click "Create Function"
4. IDA crashes

Please let me know if you need any additional information.

Best regards,
Your Name

Important:

  • Include all share codes
  • Describe the issue clearly
  • Provide steps to reproduce
  • Mention your IDA Pro version and platform

Step 8: Hex-Rays Accesses Your Files

Support staff can download your files using:

hcli share get efja98

They'll see:

Downloading crash_sample.idb 100%
✓ File downloaded successfully!
File: crash_sample.idb
Size: 2.4 MB
Saved to: crash_sample.idb

No action needed from you - the support team has the necessary authentication.

Step 9: Clean Up After Resolution

Once the issue is resolved, delete the shared files:

hcli share delete efja98

Confirm deletion:

File to delete:
  Name: crash_sample.idb
  Code: efja98
  Size: 2.4 MB

Delete file crash_sample.idb ? [y/n]: y
✓ Deleted: efja98

Or delete without confirmation:

hcli share delete efja98 --force

Advanced Workflows

Sharing Multiple Files

Upload multiple files at once:

# Upload each file
hcli share put crash_sample.idb --acl authenticated
hcli share put crash.log --acl authenticated
hcli share put screenshot.png --acl authenticated

# List all to get share codes
hcli share list --no-interactive

Updating a Shared File

If support needs an updated version:

# Upload new version using existing code
hcli share put crash_sample_v2.idb --code efja98

This creates version 2 of the same share code.

Interactive Management

Use interactive mode to manage multiple files:

hcli share list

Then:

  1. Select files using checkboxes (Space to toggle)
  2. Choose action: Delete selected files or Download selected files
  3. Confirm the action

Batch Upload

Upload all files in a directory:

for file in crash_files/*; do
  echo "Uploading: $file"
  hcli share put "$file" --acl authenticated
done

Troubleshooting

Best Practices

Do's

  1. Use authenticated ACL for support requests
  2. Include descriptive email with share codes and reproduction steps
  3. Verify uploads by listing your shared files
  4. Remove sensitive data when possible
  5. Compress large files before uploading

Don'ts

  1. Don't use private ACL - support won't be able to access
  2. Don't share codes publicly (forums, GitHub issues)
  3. Don't upload unnecessary files - focus on reproduction
  4. Don't email large files - use hcli share instead

Reference Documentation

For more detailed information:

Security Notes

  • All uploads use HTTPS encryption
  • Access control is enforced at the API level
  • Files are associated with your user account
  • Share codes are unique and unpredictable
  • Only authenticated users can access authenticated files
  • You can delete your files at any time

Support Contact Information

  • Email: support@hex-rays.com
  • Response Time: Typically 1-2 business days
  • Include: Share codes, IDA version, platform, and reproduction steps