BNDBs Cannot Be Saved Headless if Created By Project

[utkonos]

Version and Platform (required):

• Binary Ninja Version: 5.3.8837-dev Ultimate, d2d9934a
• OS: macos
• OS Version: 26.2.0
• CPU Architecture: arm64

Bug Description:
If a BNDB is created via one of the open functions inside a Project, and then opened headless, that database cannot be saved.

Steps To Reproduce:

1. Open a project
2. Create a bndb in the project
3. Close binary ninja
4. Open the bndb with headless python
5. Do something in the database
6. Try to save with bv.save_auto_snapshot()
7. Notice failure

Expected Behavior:
You can observe the expected behavior just by doing all the same, but rather than creating the database inside the project, just import any database that already exists into the project and do everything else the same. Under these conditions the database can be saved as expected.

Screenshots:

Database created in Project:

Database imported from outside Project:

[utkonos]

This is a partial, but unacceptable, workaround:

1. save to a new BNDB outside the project
2. delete the ProjectFile object in the project
3. create_file_from_path on the new bndb
4. delete the bndb that was outside the project.

the reason this is unacceptable is all the snapshots inside the bndb inside the project are data loss

[negasora]

In the first picture you’re accessing what looks like just the raw file, not the bndb. It does look like the sorting of the returned files is inconsistent, though.

Can you confirm this happens with a bndb as well?

Also, just call load() on the ProjectFile, not the path on disk. Loading files from the internal storage of the project directly is unsafe and honestly should be disallowed.

[utkonos]

@negasora I did make a mistake in that test case. I was opening from the raw. I'm not able to repro it in that test project. If I call binaryninja.load() on the ProjectFile object, this works. And if I call it on the path on disk it appears that it intermittently cannot save. I'm not able to repro it consistently.

I'll close this. Using the ProjectFile handle is the correct way.

[utkonos]

#7839