[fprog]

Loved section 1.5.1, "Bytes in color". The author wrote code to help them understand a custom binary format by coloring the bytes based on their value, making patterns in the format visually obvious. The structure of the binary becomes much more clear when visualized this way. That's a handy approach I've mentally bookmarked for the future.

[syoc]

You might be interested in https://github.com/sharkdp/hexyl

> hexyl is a simple hex viewer for the terminal. It uses a colored output to distinguish different categories of bytes (NULL bytes, printable ASCII characters, ASCII whitespace characters, other ASCII characters and non-ASCII).

[p_l]

I was in a team that, among other things, was working on integrating 3d visualisation of binary files in a hex editor with the plan of making a reverse engineering tool (mainly for security).

It's a very powerful method.

[LargoLasskhyfv]

Like CantorDust by Christopher Domas@Batelle?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bM3Gut1hIk really blew my mind when I saw it.

Btw. about 8 years later they finally delivered, by releasing it as plug-in for Ghidra! Yay!

https://github.com/Battelle/cantordust

[p_l]

I believe CantorDust was the direct inspiration for our code (I wasn't exactly involved in the editor project though, so hard to call it "our").

The moment you mentioned "CantorDust" it was like a giant lightbulb filled with memories of discussions :)

[rckoepke]

Does that have the 3D visualizations shown in Christopher's 2013-2014 talks? Both the github readme and the associated blogpost from July make it look like it only includes 2D visualizations. There are fewer "view" buttons on the right toolbar than the demo had. I should answer my own question by simply trying it out, but I'm not quite sure when I'll have a moment to get around to it.

[0]: https://inside.battelle.org/blog-details/battelle-publishes-...

[LargoLasskhyfv]

I don't know. Just discovered it because I searched for the link to the video I had in mind.

edit: Hrrmpf. "Zu früh gefreut/rejoiced too early". Scanning the git repository it doesn't look like it would.

But can't/won't install/test it atm. Maybe over the weekend :(

[rckoepke]

This is my favorite version of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bM3Gut1hIk&list=PLUyyOw61zx...

Some people have taken this concept very far. Batelle's CantorDust (was?) a pretty fully developed 3D visualization software for binary packages utilizing many different views and filters with convenient UX for selecting blocks of code graphically and zooming in on the corresponding hex, or vice-versa.

Edit: I looked very hard for this software about 6-12 months ago and couldn't find anything...it appeared to be vaporware. However, 'LargoLasskhyfv posted in this thread tree at the exact same time I did and noted that it was just released about 3 months ago as a plugin for Ghidra. I'm very excited to play around with it.