I'm always curious about what is hidden inside those files, like pdf, mid, mp3, mkv, etc.
I can read the spec in the wikipedia, but it is hard to understand. Tools like wireshark can extract data information from packages. Is there a tool like wireshark
can extract all information from a binary file? I know there is a tool name file
can get some information, but it is far from enough.
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For most of these files, the information in the file is the file. You can display or play the file, or convert it into another format; but what do you mean with "extract"? What exactly is the desired result?– CL.Feb 4, 2015 at 7:43
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@CL. You can see my answer. There are the tools I expected.– linjunhalidaFeb 5, 2015 at 0:25
3 Answers
You want to read a file, but not use the programs made to read the files? Like a pdf viewer for .pdf files, a music player (like vlc) for .mid .mp3 .mkv files? Using the proper program to read the files would be the best idea.
But, you could open the file in a hex editor (any one should work) and look through every byte of the binary data yourself...
Or if you have the gnu tool strings
it would do this:
strings - print the strings of printable characters in files.
I've found some tools, but looks like none of them support enough file formats.
- Hex Editor Neo http://www.hhdsoftware.com/hex-editor
- Binary File Schema http://www.andersriggelsen.dk/binaryfileschema.php
- Data Format Description Language (DFDL) https://opensource.ncsa.illinois.edu/confluence/display/DFDL/Daffodil%3A+Open+Source+DFDL
- hexedit http://www.catch22.net/software/hexedit
- synalysis http://www.synalysis.net/
- python library hachoir https://bitbucket.org/haypo/hachoir/wiki/Home
- Online http://icebuddha.com/
- hexworkshop http://www.hexworkshop.com/
- 010 Editor http://www.sweetscape.com/010editor/
MRIP280 exists since MS-DOS times and could extract from any file a lot of other stuff starting with pictures, audio, etc. Give it a test to see what it supports and try to find an updated alternative to it.