How to extract strings out of a binary file with ruby?

Question

i want to extract string out of a memory dump. i'm using windows xp,ruby 1.9-mingw

the dump file is generated by a tool -- HiperDrop.exe

If you just want the strings, have you considered the strings(1) tool? — sarnold
– sarnold, Commented Jun 7, 2011 at 2:50

Jeff Terrell PhD · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-07 03:42:44Z

2

This should be a good start:

str = IO.read('/path/to/file', :mode => 'rb')
printable_chars = %r{[A-Za-z0-9`~!@#%^&*()-_=+|'";:/?.>,< \t\$\{\}\[\]\\]{10,}}
str.scan(printable_chars).each do |match|
  puts match
end

Of course, change '/path/to/file' to the location of the memory dump. You can also change the 10 at the end of the 2nd line to be some other minimum string length.

answered Jun 7, 2011 at 3:42

Jeff Terrell PhD

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Jordan Running · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-07 03:07:28Z

0

I think sarnold above is right on the money. strings is a utility that's available in all *nix environments, and there are free equivalents available from Microsoft for Windows. Just call the program from Ruby and parse the output as you please.

answered Jun 7, 2011 at 3:07

Jordan Running

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