This repository holds solutions for experiments with binary file visualization and reverse engineering of binary data. It is inspired by TED talk by Chris Domas.
In the context of directed graphs, commonly referred to as digraphs, data can be processed and visualized in a unique manner. Specifically, binary files containing relevant data are read into the system, and this data is subsequently extracted in the form of tuples. These tuples represent ordered pairs of values that can be utilized to denote specific points or coordinates. Once the tuples have been extracted, they are then translated onto a Cartesian plane.
The application is written in C and should work with most compilers. I tested it with GCC, Clang and TinyCC.
# compile first
CC=clang make digraph -B
CC=clang make trigraph -BIf this step is successful I provide couple of example that can be executed with
bash payload.sh digraph payload.image.txt. Check payload.image.txt to see what is
happening there.
But you can also execute it directly.
$ ./digraph
Usage: ./digraph -t type -i <input file> -o <output file>
Usage: ./trigraph -t type -i <input file> -o <output file>There are two types of inputs. One is image and the other one is
other. Image is a special case because most of the modern formats compress
images and the result is nothing like interpreting raw images. So in this case
image is being decompressed and then visualized.
Same goes with audio files. Mp3 files I provided for example are also by nature of Mp3's compressed and that is why I also converted them into WAV files.
Folder www contains 3d-point-cloud.html. This reads *.pc files from out
folder and generates 3D point cloud.
This can also be seen at https://mitjafelicijan.github.io/binary-visualization/.
All data, but binaries (since they are system programs) is available in data
folder in this repository so feel free to browse.
- All images are from https://unsplash.com/ and resized to 512x512. But you can use any size possible for testing. I resized them to keep tests quick and filesizes small.
- For x86-64 binaries I choose binaries from Fedora 38
/bin/folder. - For darwin-arm64 binaries I choose binaries from Macbook Air M1
/bin/folder. - Audio was selected from Open Music Archive and
songs in Public Domain was chosen. I extracted 10 seconds from 30th second on
to keep WAV files small. Mp3 and WAV was tested.
- Clara Smith - Court House Blues
- Virginia Liston - I'm Gonna Get Me A Man That's All
- Pine Top Smith - Jump Steady Blues
- Virginia Liston - Night Latch Key Blues
- Edna Hicks - Poor Me Blues
- Blind Lemon Jefferson - One Dime Blues
- Jim Jackson - Old Dog Blue
- Coley Jones - Drunkard's Special
- Johnny Dodds Trio - Little Bits
- The Masked Marvel - Mississippi Boweavil Blues
- Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers - Wake Up Jacob
- George Lewis & His New Orleans Stompers - Don't Go 'Way Nobody
- All the text for testing ASCII was used from Project
Gutenberg since this material is
in Public Domain.
- Frankenstein; Or, The Modern Prometheus by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (4234)
- Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare (1908)
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1907)
- The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1787)
- Dracula by Bram Stoker (1320)
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1237)
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1196)
- A Doll's House: a play by Henrik Ibsen (1042)
- Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (963)
- The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (962)
- The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (927)
- A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift (924)
- Sean Barrett for creating STB libraries.
- Tsoding for introducing me to this method.