binary-parsing

Kaitai is one of many different tools that do this, there is a list of them here: https://github.com/dloss/binary-parsing Personally I like GNU Poke.

Here's a list: https://github.com/dloss/binary-parsing

Great list! Will incorporate some of those into my list of tools for binary parsing: https://github.com/dloss/binary-parsing

Other tools for parsing and analyzing binary data are listed here: https://github.com/dloss/binary-parsing

When these tools come up, I like to post my little list of similar tools, for those interested. Apparently it's a hobby of mine: * fq - like jq for binary data: https://github.com/wader/fq * Kaitai Struct - https://kaitai.io/ * visualizer, for the above: https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_visualizer/ * HexFiend - a hex editor, but with "binary templates" feature : https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend * binary templates, for the above: https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend/blob/master/templates/T... * binspector - https://github.com/binspector/binspector * binary-parsing - a collection of links to similar such tools : https://github.com/dloss/binary-parsing * unblob - https://github.com/onekey-sec/unblob * ImHex - https://github.com/WerWolv/ImHex * GNU Poke - https://www.gnu.org/software/poke/ * dtrx - https://github.com/dtrx-py/dtr

Just piggybacking here to mention a variety of other "interpret structured binary data" tools. Apparently I collect links to these (: * fq - like jq for binary data: https://github.com/wader/fq * Kaitai Struct - https://kaitai.io/ ** visualizer, for the above: https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_visualizer/ * HexFiend - a hex editor, but with "binary templates" feature : https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend ** binary templates, for the above: https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend/blob/master/templates/T... * binspector - https://github.com/binspector/binspector * binary-parsing - a collection of links to similar such tools : https://github.com/dloss/binary-parsing * unblob - https://github.com/onekey-sec/unblob * ImHex, which you mention

Oh, this is one I hadn't heard of. There are several different takes on this idea, and I've had the notion to make my own for some years, too (not enough free time...) I feel like a good "how powerful is this tool, really?" test would be to model the Adobe PSD format with it. That format is bananas, and is what got me into this topic in the first place. But for those interested, here are some other tools in this vein: * fq - like jq for binary data: https://github.com/wader/fq * Kaitai Struct - https://kaitai.io/ ** visualizer, for the above: https://github.com/kaitai-io/kaitai_struct_visualizer/ * HexFiend - a hex editor, but with "binary templates" feature : https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend ** binary templates, for the above: https://github.com/HexFiend/HexFiend/blob/master/templates/T... * binspector - https://github.com/binspector

There are a few hex/disk editors that support "templates" (but you need most times to create those yourself). Here is a sort of "curated list" of related tools: https://github.com/dloss/binary-parsing The most complete/populated I know of is Kaitai: http://kaitai.io/ http://formats.kaitai.io/ that you can use with Hiew with Kiewtai https://github.com/taviso/kiewtai If the question is slightly different, i.e. which bytes are used to identify a given file format, there is Trid: https://mark0.net/soft-trid-e.html Which has also a database of known headers/patterns.

Nice! Some other tools and parsers: https://github.com/dloss/binary-parsing