- Only an application that has the means to store and interpret the rules that comprise binary file formats can actively support your reverse engineering work. Hexinator's Universal Parsing Engine applies grammars to files and thus can show you instantly the meaning of each bit in your files.
- UltraEdit includes a good hex-editor mode. It's not free, but not very expensive as editors go either. It's not free, but not very expensive as editors go either. The text editor part of it is also very good, I used it as my main editor for many years before I finally got around to learning vim properly.
Reverse engineering, the process of taking a software program's binary code and recreating it so as to trace it back to the original source code, is being widely used in computer hardware and software to enhance product features or fix certain bugs. For example, the programmer writes the code in a high-level language such as C, C++ etc. (you can learn basic C programming with this beginners course); as computers do not speak these languages, the code written in these programming languages needs to be assembled in a format that is machine specific. In short, the code written in high level language needs to be interpreted into low level or machine language.
010 Editor is a commercial hex editor for Microsoft Windows from SweetScape Software. Its core features are comparable to those of the commercial versions of Hex Editor Neo and FileHex: support for very large files, data manipulation, local resource editing, and so on. Like Hex Editor Neo, 010 Editor also supports scripting. Free Hex Editor Neo. The Free Hex Editor Neo is created by HDD software and is loaded with many features with a powerful engine. It can compile data of multi Giga-bytes in seconds, and the accuracy is mesmerizing. It readily supports Windows and is used by most professional reverse engineers. Reverse Engineering Disassembling Reverse Engineering Secrets. Download Hextreme 2.0 (Hextreme 1.0 is still available here) Powerful Color Coded 100% Free Hex Editor for Windows. Convenient tabbed interface for easy switching between files.
The process of converting the code written in high level language into a low level language without changing the original program is known as reverse engineering. It's similar to disassembling the parts of a vehicle to understand the basic functioning of the machine and internal parts etc. and thereafter making appropriate adjustments to give rise to a better performing or superior vehicle.
If we have a look at the subject of reverse engineering in the context of software engineering, we will find that it is the practice of analyzing the software system to extract the actual design and implementation information. A typical reverse engineering scenario would comprise of a software module that has been worked on for years and carries the line of business in its code; but the original source code might be lost, leaving the developers only with the binary code. In such a case, reverse engineering skills would be used by software engineers to detect probable virus and malware to eventually protect the intellectual property of the company. Learn more protecting Intellectual Property in this course.
At the turn of the century, when the software world was hit by the technology crisis Y2K, programmers weren't equipped with reverse engineering skills. Since then, research has been carried out to analyse what kind of development activities can be brought under the category of reverse engineering so that they can be taught to the programmers. Researchers have revealed that reverse engineering basically comes under two categories-software development and software testing. A number of reverse engineering exercises have been developed since then in this regard to provide baseline education in reversing the machine code.
Reverse Engineering
Reverse engineering can be applied to several aspects of the software and hardware development activities to convey different meanings. In general, it is defined as the process of creating representations of systems at a higher level of abstraction and understanding the basic working principle and structure of the systems under study. With the help of reverse engineering, the software system that is under consideration can be examined thoroughly. There are two types of reverse engineering; in the first type, the source code is available, but high-level aspects of the program are no longer available. The efforts that are made to discover the source code for the software that is being developed is known as reverse engineering. In the second case, the source code for the software is no longer available; here, the process of discovering the possible source code is known as reverse engineering. To avoid copyright infringement, reverse engineering makes use of a technique called clean room design.
In the world of reverse engineering, we often hear about black box testing. Even though the tester has an API, their ultimate goal is to find the bugs by hitting the product hard from outside. Learn more about different software testing techniques in this course.
Apart from this, the main purpose of reverse engineering is to audit the security, remove the copy protection, customize the embedded systems, and include additional features without spending much and other similar activities.
Where is Reverse Engineering Used?
Reverse engineering is used in a variety of fields such as software design, software testing, programming etc.
- In software design, reverse engineering enables the developer or programmer to add new features to the existing software with or without knowing the source code. Different techniques are used to incorporate new features into the existing software.
- Reverse engineering is also very beneficial in software testing, as most of the virus programmers don't leave behind instructions on how they wrote the code, what they have set out to accomplish etc. Reverse engineering helps the testers to study the virus and other malware code. The field of software testing, while very extensive, is also interesting and requires vast experience to study and analyze virus code. Learn more about software test design in this course.
- The third category where reverse engineering is widely used is in software security. Reverse engineering techniques are used to make sure that the system does not have any major vulnerabilities and security flaws. The main purpose of reverse engineering is to make the system robust so as to protect it from spywares and hackers. Infact, this can be taken a step forward to Ethical hacking, whereby you try to hack your own system to identify vulnerabilities. You can learn more about Ethical hacking with this course.
While one needs a vast amount of knowledge to become a successful reverse engineer, he or she can definitely have a lucrative career in this field by starting off with the basics. It is highly suggested that you first become familiar with assembly level language and gain significant amount of practical knowledge in the field of software designing and testing to become a successful software engineer. Learn how to kick-start your career in this interesting field by visiting our online course agile testing for reverse engineering applications.
Reverse Engineering Tools
As mentioned above, reverse engineering is the process of analyzing the software to determine its components and their relationships. The process of reverse engineering is accomplished by making use of some tools that are categorized into debuggers or disassemblers, hex editors, monitoring and decompile tools:
- Disassemblers – A disassembler is used to convert binary code into assembly code and also used to extract strings, imported and exported functions, libraries etc. The disassemblers convert the machine language into a user-friendly format. There are different dissemblers that specialize in certain things.
- Debuggers – This tool expands the functionality of a disassembler by supporting the CPU registers, the hex duping of the program, view of stack etc. Using debuggers, the programmers can set breakpoints and edit the assembly code at run time. Debuggers analyse the binary in a similar way as the disassemblers and allow the reverser to step through the code by running one line at a time to investigate the results.
- Hex Editors – These editors allow the binary to be viewed in the editor and change it as per the requirements of the software. There are different types of hex editors available that are used for different functions.
- PE and Resource Viewer – The binary code is designed to run on a windows based machine and has a very specific data which tells how to set up and initialize a program. All the programs that run on windows should have a portable executable that supports the DLLs the program needs to borrow from.
Reverse engineering has developed significantly and taken a positive approach to creating descriptive data set of the original object. Today, there are numerous legitimate applications of reverse engineering. Due to the development of numerous digitizing devices, reverse engineering software enables programmers to manipulate the data into a useful form. The kind of applications in which reverse engineering is used ranges from mechanical to digital, each with its own advantages and applications. Reverse engineering is also beneficial for business owners as they can incorporate advanced features into their software to meet the demands of the growing markets.
This article will give you an overview of some of the best Hex Editors for Kali Linux. Before discussing the best editors, let us first have a look at what the term 'Hex Editor' means.A Hex Editor is a software you can use to edit the hexadecimal values of data. In simple words, a file saved in any device can be edited, whether it is an image, video, or software. Hex Editing is the simplest form of game hacking that does not rely on cheat codes or anything of that sort. Instead, it is a single-player game hacking method. There are multiplayer hacking methods that are similar and usually involve resource editing. The only tools we need in this case are the Windows calculator and the HxD Hex Editor.
Where Hex Editor Is Used
Every piece of data is stored in the form of decimals. Parts of the data can easily be edited by using a Hex Editor. This software is mainly used by programmers or software engineers. It is used for finding out a file type that is not supported by Adobe, games and file hacking, debugging, and editing.
Below are listed some of the best Hex Editors that can be used in Kali Linux.
Xxd Hex Editor
Have you ever wanted to convert binary into the command line? Well, there is an easy way to create a Hex dump of a file using the Xxd Command in Linux. The data viewed in the form of hexadecimal is known as hex dump. You may wish to use hexadecimal when debugging a program or to reverse engineer a program. So, the Xxd command is very useful if you deal with binary content, if you want to see some binary files or to reverse engineer.
Hex Editor For Reverse Engineering Degree
HexEdit Hex Editor
Another Hex Editor used to edit binary data is the HexEdit Hex Editor. Unlike the Xxd Hex Editor, HexEdit also shows the ASCII (numerical coding) form of the file. Mostly, this editor is used for modern operating systems, including Linux and Windows.
Hexyl Hex Editor
The different categories of bytes include ASCII, non-ASCII, NULL bytes, ASCII whitespace, etc. For convenience, these categories are differentiated by means of different colors. The Hexyl Hex Editor is a tool that provides the ability to differentiate various bytes by indicating them in different colors. Hexyl also gives information about the number of bytes, plus their textual representation. The Hexyl Hex editor does come with some limitations. The installation process for the Hexyl Hex Editor varies from OS to OS. So, before going for this Hex Editor, you should first check the installation process for your OS.
GHex-GNOME Hex Editor
A Hex Decimal Editor, GHex is available for your Linux system. There are a variety of Hex Editors in programs that you can use to display the hexadecimal data. Ghex is a decent option because it automatically converts binary into a decimal, octal, or hexadecimal value. It also finds the offset you are looking for and counts it. All you need to do is to simply select the bytes, and in the end, GHex will do the conversion automatically, which can be helpful to many people.
Bless Hex Editor
The Blex Hex Editor is one of the most advanced Hex Editors and is quite similar to the previous editor listed above. You can edit large file data using the Bless Hex Editor. It is a very powerful tool that can be used to search for your selves. You can easily recover data written in PHP. Bless Hex Editor has an advanced feature of editing data and can efficiently undo-redo the instructions.
Oketta Editor
Every Hex Editor has specific features that make it unique. The Oketta Hex Editor is well known for opening multiple remote files by HTTP and FTP. It is one of the simplest Hex Editors for editing or reviewing hex data.
WxhexEditor
Another advanced Hex Editor for editing the data is WxhexEditor. This Hex Editor is best for files in larger devices. WxhexEditor can be operated on various platforms, including Windows, Linux, Mac, and BSD. One of the best advanced features of Wxhexeditor is its lower memory consumption and faster working speed. It can also fix bugs, which makes the version usable again in case of errors.
Hexcurse-Console Hex Editor
The Hexcurse-Console Hex Editor is one of the most popular Hex Editors for Kali Linux. You can easily open the files and edit the data using this tool. You can also switch between HEX and ASCII formats with Hexcurse.
Hexer Binary Editor
The Hexer Binary Hex Editor is a multi-buffer editor with amazing features, including multi-file editing and multi-level undo for binary regular expressions. The Hexer Binary Editor differs from other editors in that it is a Vi-style editor.
Hex Editor For Reverse Engineering Programs
Installing HexEdit in Kali Linux
You can install the HexEdit Hex Editor on an Ubuntu system using the terminal. First, you will need to open a browser and download the installer file of HexEdit for Linux. You may create a new dictionary into which to transfer the installer file, but his step is not mandatory, as the installer will prompt you to do so during installation.
Open the terminal and follow the steps below to install HexEdit in Kali Linux.
First, navigate to the dictionary in which you have saved the installer file.
The second step is to add another source.
The HexEdit package is ready to install.
As you have launched HexEdit for the first time, it is launched by an auto prompt given by the system. Now, you can easily use HexEdit in the Kali Linux guide.
Conclusion
The above article included a brief description of all the Hex Editors that are best to use in Kali Linux. You can choose any Hex Editor from the list above after viewing the instructions and demands of your OS.
