ExifTool
Hacker ApprovedRanked 30 of 86 privilege escalation tools by recommenders
Command-line tool that reads and writes metadata across many file formats; people script with it and build it into other projects. Critics say it is too slow for production pipelines.
Command-line tool that reads and writes metadata across many file formats; people script with it and build it into other projects. Critics say it is too slow for production pipelines.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 92%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 12 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 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
Handles many file formats
“there is exiftool which tries to understand all those different formats”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “EXIF orientation info in PNGs isn't used for image-orientation: from-image” “It works for almost every file I throw at it.”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “EXIF orientation info in PNGs isn't used for image-orientation: from-image” “Exiftool handles pretty much all of that.”
Comment from 14 Jun 2026 in “Appreciating Exif” Works well from the command line
“exiftool is great for CLI use, but in a production pipeline a library is the way to go over shelling out”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Appreciating Exif” “I think I prefer the exiftool syntax over what's suggested in the blog”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Forget Flags and Scripts: Just Rename the File”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Too slow for production pipelines
“exiftool is great for CLI use, but in a production pipeline a library is the way to go over shelling out”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Appreciating Exif” “way too slow compared to libexif or tagging your images with in the image lib”
Comment from 13 Jun 2026 in “Appreciating Exif” Past security vulnerability, CVE-2021-22204
“it apparently had a bad vulnerability in 2024 CVE-2021-22204”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “Ransomeware mail campaign from May 2024 is active again”
Other privilege escalation tools people recommend
The four most recommended other privilege escalation 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.
See all 86 privilege escalation tools, rankedWhat people said
12 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“ask in your CLAUDE.md to run `exiftool -jumbf:all=`”
“exiftool is still best in class in its arena”
“Exiftool handles pretty much all of that.”
“exiftool is great for CLI use, but in a production pipeline a library is the way to go over shelling out”
“way too slow compared to libexif or tagging your images with in the image lib”
“I think I prefer the exiftool syntax over what's suggested in the blog”
“And there's exiftool, ffmpeg, ImageMagick, scripting languages, all in reach, wherever I go.”
“all of these projects rely on ExifTool (which people should donate to!)”
“it apparently had a bad vulnerability in 2024 CVE-2021-22204”
“exiftool supports .lnk files so you can read the full command of the lnk cleanly with that”
“there is exiftool which tries to understand all those different formats”
“It works for almost every file I throw at it.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.