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 file does not give a meaningful answer, you may want to try TRiD by Marco Pontello to determine whether your data is stored in a known format.

Answer 2

The unix "file" command is really useful - I don't know if there is anything like it in windows. You run it like this:

file myfile.ext

And it spits out a text description based on the magic numbers and data contained therein.

Probably it is contained within cygwin.

Answer 3

Do you know the program that uses it? If so you can hook that programs write to file function and get an idea of what data its writing, the size of the data and where.

More Info: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/DLL/Win32APIHooking_Trouble.aspx

Answer 4

I've developed Hexinator (Window & Linux) and Synalyze It! (macOS) exactly for this purpose. These applications allow you to see the binary files like in other hex editors but additionally you can create a "grammar" with the specifics of a binary file format. The grammar contains all the building blocks and is used to parse the file automatically.

Thus you can keep the knowledge you gain in the analysis and apply it to multiple files simultaneously. You can also color-code the bits and pieces of file formats for a quick overview in the hex editor. The parsing results are displayed in a tree view where you can also modify the files easily (applying endianness et cetera).

Answer 5

Try to open it in a hex editor and analyse.

Answer 6

The "strings" program from GNU binutils is very useful. It will print the strings of printable characters in a file, quite often giving a clue to what a file contains or a program does.