# binwalk

6 Hacker News commenters recommended binwalk and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 4 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended for opening unknown files and finding hidden data inside them. One critic called it nearly useless next to an unnamed alternative.

## Why people recommend it

- Finds hidden data inside files (2 comments): "Just use file and binwalk to figure out what it is and break it open." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47897926)) "binwalk if you want to find the juice within the file" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49437155))
- Go-to for mysterious files (2 comments): "Just use file and binwalk to figure out what it is and break it open." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47897926)) "that's usually my goto for mysterious files" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46797190))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Ghidra](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ghidra.md): 80 recommend
- [GhidraMCP](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ghidra-mcp.md): 30 recommend
- [IDA Pro](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ida-pro.md): 25 recommend
- [REA Reverse-Engineer Anything](https://hackerapproved.com/p/rea-reverse-engineer-anything.md): 14 recommend
- [Binary Ninja](https://hackerapproved.com/p/binary-ninja.md): 13 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "binwalk", https://hackerapproved.com/p/binwalk/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).