binwalk
Ranked 7 of 9 reverse engineering tools by recommenders
Recommended for opening unknown files and finding hidden data inside them. One critic called it nearly useless next to an unnamed alternative.
Recommended for opening unknown files and finding hidden data inside them. One critic called it nearly useless next to an unnamed alternative.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 86%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Finds hidden data inside files
“Just use file and binwalk to figure out what it is and break it open.”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “My audio interface has SSH enabled by default” “binwalk if you want to find the juice within the file”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “Visualizing Binary Files” Go-to for mysterious files
“Just use file and binwalk to figure out what it is and break it open.”
Comment from 25 Apr 2026 in “My audio interface has SSH enabled by default” “that's usually my goto for mysterious files”
Comment from 28 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Extracting React apps from Figma Make's undocumented binary format”
Other reverse engineering tools people recommend
The four most recommended other reverse engineering tools, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghidra | 80 | 20 | 80% | 13 | — | Approved |
| GhidraMCP | 30 | 11 | 73% | 10 | — | Approved |
| IDA Pro | 25 | 7 | 78% | 9 | — | Approved |
| REA Reverse-Engineer Anything | 14 | 9 | 61% | 2 | — | — |
| binwalkThis page | 6 | 1 | 86% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“binwalk if you want to find the juice within the file”
“give it a rip, you will be surprised by how distinct the entropy graph is”
“Just use file and binwalk to figure out what it is and break it open.”
“makes binwalk almost useless in comparison”
“It would likely have identified the separate deflate and zstd chunks automatically.”
“that's usually my goto for mysterious files”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.