NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra · error · IllegalArgumentException

Address string should have at most one colon (:)

Error message

Address string should have at most one colon (:)

What it means

Thrown by DBTraceStaticMapping.parseSpace when an address string contains more than one colon character. Ghidra's trace static-mapping address format is 'space:offset' (space name + hex offset) or just 'offset' (hex offset with no space). More than one colon makes the string ambiguous and unparseable.

Source

Thrown at Ghidra/Debug/Framework-TraceModeling/src/main/java/ghidra/trace/database/module/DBTraceStaticMapping.java:58

 * <ul>
 * <li>1: Change {@link #traceAddress} to 10-byte fixed encoding</li>
 * <li>0: Initial version and previous unversioned implementation</li>
 * </ul>
 */
@DBAnnotatedObjectInfo(version = 1)
public class DBTraceStaticMapping extends DBAnnotatedObject
		implements TraceStaticMapping, DecodesAddresses {
	public static final String TABLE_NAME = "StaticMappings";

	protected static String parseSpace(String addrStr) {
		String[] parts = addrStr.split(":");
		if (parts.length == 1) {
			return null;
		}
		if (parts.length == 2) {
			return parts[0];
		}
		throw new IllegalArgumentException("Address string should have at most one colon (:)");
	}

	protected static long parseOffset(String addrStr) {
		String[] parts = addrStr.split(":");
		assert parts.length <= 2;
		return Long.parseUnsignedLong(parts[parts.length - 1], 16); // TODO: Use BigInteger?
	}

	static final String TRACE_ADDRESS_COLUMN_NAME = "TraceAddress";
	static final String LENGTH_COLUMN_NAME = "Length";
	static final String START_SNAP_COLUMN_NAME = "StartSnap";
	static final String END_SNAP_COLUMN_NAME = "EndSnap";
	static final String STATIC_PROGRAM_COLUMN_NAME = "StaticProgram";
	static final String STATIC_ADDRESS_COLUMN_NAME = "StaticAddress";

	@DBAnnotatedColumn(TRACE_ADDRESS_COLUMN_NAME)
	static DBObjectColumn TRACE_ADDRESS_COLUMN;
	@DBAnnotatedColumn(LENGTH_COLUMN_NAME)

View on GitHub (pinned to d5f144c24d)

Solutions

1. Format static addresses as 'spaceName:hexOffset' or plain 'hexOffset' only, ensuring at most one colon.
2. Strip protocol/host prefixes from URLs before building the address string; only pass the address-space-and-offset portion.
3. Validate with addrStr.split(":").length <= 2 before calling the mapping API.

Example fix

// before
String staticAddress = "ram:0x00401000:extra";
mappingManager.add(range, lifespan, programURL, staticAddress);

// after
String staticAddress = "ram:00401000";
mappingManager.add(range, lifespan, programURL, staticAddress);

// Ensure the address string has at most one colon before passing to mapping APIs
static String sanitizeAddr(String addrStr) {
    long colons = addrStr.chars().filter(c -> c == ':').count();
    if (colons > 1) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Address has " + colons + " colons: " + addrStr);
    }
    return addrStr;
}

When it happens

Trigger: Passing a staticAddress or traceAddress string with two or more colons to DBTraceStaticMapping.set or any code path that calls parseSpace/parseOffset (e.g. DBTraceStaticMappingManager.add with a malformed toAddress).

Common situations: Using a full URL-like string ('file:/path:offset') instead of the expected 'space:offset' format. Including a namespace separator or port-style colon in the offset. Passing an address from another tool that embeds colons.

Related errors

• More than one state is present in
• Section path must be a successor of this module's path
• endpoint cannot be -1
• Another mapping would conflict
• Given bookmark is not present at this view's snap

AI-assisted analysis of NationalSecurityAgency/ghidra@d5f144c24d (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/b7ce1aa19335326e. Report an issue: GitHub.