parse_binary

Function

ArgDescriptionType
filenameBinary file to open.OSPath (required)
accessorThe accessor to usestring
profileProfile to use (see https://github.com/Velocidex/vtypes).string
structName of the struct in the profile to instantiate.string (required)
offsetStart parsing from this offsetint64

Required Permissions: FILESYSTEM_READ

Description

Parse a binary file into a data structure using a profile.

This plugin extract binary data from strings. It works by applying a profile to the binary string and generating an object from that. Profiles are a json structure describing the binary format. For example a profile might be:

[
  ["StructName", 10, [
     ["field1", 2, "unsigned int"],
     ["field2", 6, "unsigned long long"],
   ]]]
]

The profile is compiled and overlaid on top of the offset specified, then the object is emitted with its required fields.

Please refer to Binary Parsing for a background in parsing binary data for forensic purposes and for instructions on how to construct profiles like the example above.

More detailed information about profiles and their implementation can be found in the vfilter module documentation.