How can I convert a binary file to another binary representation, like an image

Question

I want to take a binary file (exe, msi, dll, whatever) and be able to actually \"see\" the binary code or whatever base I\'d like (hexadecimal whatever). Figured the easiest

Answer 1

Here's a way to pack the bytes into an image... the fun part is if you record the original file length and use a lossless image format you could safely extract the binary data later.

Packed as ARGB...

var exefile = Directory.GetFiles(".", "*.exe").First();
var fi = new FileInfo(exefile);

var dimension = (int)Math.Sqrt((fi.Length + 1d) / 4);

using (var bitmap = new Bitmap(dimension, dimension + 2))
{
    //store the file length in the first pixel.
    bitmap.SetPixel(0, 0, Color.FromArgb((int)fi.Length));

    var buffer = new byte[fi.Length + 4 - fi.Length % 4];
    Array.Copy(File.ReadAllBytes(exefile), buffer, fi.Length);

    int x = 1, y = 0;
    for (var offset = 0; offset < buffer.Length; offset += 4)
    {
        var colorValue = BitConverter.ToInt32(buffer, offset);
        bitmap.SetPixel(x, y, Color.FromArgb(colorValue));

        x++;
        if (x >= dimension)
        {
            x = 0;
            y++;
        }
    }

    bitmap.Save(Path.ChangeExtension(exefile, ".png"), ImageFormat.Png);
}

Packed as Black & White Binary...

var width = (int)Math.Sqrt(fi.Length * 8);
width = width + 8 - (width % 8);
var length = (int)(fi.Length * 8 / width);

Func<byte, int, Color> getcolor =
        (b, m) => (b & m) == m ? Color.Black : Color.White;

using (var bitmap = new Bitmap(width, length + 1))
{
    var buffer = File.ReadAllBytes(exefile);

    int x = 0, y = 0;
    foreach (var @byte in buffer)
    {
        bitmap.SetPixel(x + 0, y, getcolor(@byte, 0x80));
        bitmap.SetPixel(x + 1, y, getcolor(@byte, 0x40));
        bitmap.SetPixel(x + 2, y, getcolor(@byte, 0x20));
        bitmap.SetPixel(x + 3, y, getcolor(@byte, 0x10));

        bitmap.SetPixel(x + 4, y, getcolor(@byte, 0x8));
        bitmap.SetPixel(x + 5, y, getcolor(@byte, 0x4));
        bitmap.SetPixel(x + 6, y, getcolor(@byte, 0x2));
        bitmap.SetPixel(x + 7, y, getcolor(@byte, 0x1));

        x += 8;
        if (x >= width)
        {
            x = 0;
            y++;
        }
    }

    bitmap.Save(Path.ChangeExtension(exefile, ".tif"), ImageFormat.Tiff);
}

... and yeah, it looks like noise

Answer 2

Here's the code to print out the bytes at 1's and 0's in C:

#include <stdio.h>

void putbits(unsigned char byte)
{
    unsigned char mask = 0x01;

    for (int bit = 7; bit >= 0; bit--)
    {
        if ((mask << bit) & byte)
        {
            printf("1");
        }
        else
        {
            printf("0");
        }
    }

    // Uncomment the following line to get each byte on it's own line.
    //printf("\n");
}

int main (int argc, const char * argv[])
{
    int c;

    while ((c = getchar()) != EOF)
    {
        putbits(c);
    }

    return 0;
}

You can build and run it on the command line like this:

gcc main.c --std=c99 -o printer
./printer < printer > printer.txt

It will then output it's 1's and 0's to printer.txt.

Answer 3

Already done for you! Very convieniently a binary file is already stored in binary!

Answer 4

You can read all bytes of a file in C# or any .NET language by calling the static method ReadAllBytes.

byte[] allBytes = File.ReadAllBytes("YourPath");

It will put all the bytes into an array.

If you want to covert it to HexaDecimal see here.

Answer 5

I'm not quite sure what you are trying to do, but it sounds a bit like you're looking for a hex editor.

Answer 6

Just triggered by your question, I come in a bit late in the discussion, but wondered how easy it could be done. Here's a minimal implementation that gives you the binary output of the currently executing assembly (i.e. your current running EXE):

byte[] bytes = File.ReadAllBytes(Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location);

// this can get large, we know how large, so allocate early and try to be correct
// note: a newline is two bytes
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(bytes.Length * 3 + (bytes.Length / 16) * 4);

for (int i = 0; i < bytes.Length; i++)
{
    sb.AppendFormat("{0:X2} ", bytes[i]);
    if (i % 8 == 0 && i % 16 != 0)
        sb.Append("  ");
    if (i % 16 == 0)
        sb.Append("\n");

}

If you output the StringBuilder contents, you see the following (which is my test executable) for the first some bytes:

5A 90 00 03 00 00 00 04   00 00 00 FF FF 00 00 B8 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 40   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   00 00 00 80 00 00 00 0E 
1F BA 0E 00 B4 09 CD 21   B8 01 4C CD 21 54 68 69 
73 20 70 72 6F 67 72 61   6D 20 63 61 6E 6E 6F 74 
20 62 65 20 72 75 6E 20   69 6E 20 44 4F 53 20 6D 
6F 64 65 2E 0D 0D 0A 24   00 00 00 00 00 00 00 50