How to analyze binary file?

Question

I have a binary file. I don\'t know how it\'s formatted, I only know it comes from a delphi code.

Does it exist any way to analyze a binary file?

Does it exist

Answer 1

If you have access to the application that creates the file, you can apply changes to the application, then save the file and see the effects (Keep in mind that numbers are probably stored in little endian):

• First create the file repeatedly. If the files are not binary equal, the current date/time is probably stored in the area where hte differences occur.
• Maybe you want to repeat that with the software running under different environments, to see if OS version etc are stored, but this is rather unusual.
• Next you can try to change single variables and create several files that only differ in the value of this variable. This helps you identify where this variable is stored.
• That way you can also exclude variables that are not stored in the file: If you change them, but the files created are identical, they are not stored.

In order to test the hypotheses you worked out with the steps above, edit one of the files and have the application read it.

If you don't have access to the application itself, I suggest that you forget about it and find another way to solve your problem. There is a very high probability that it will be faster...