How to read and open hex file in Linux
Introduction
In the world of software development, Hex Files are commonly used to store firmware and other low-level programs. In order to work with these files, we need to access them and read their contents. In this blog post, we will discuss how to read and open a Hex file in Linux.
Understanding Hex Files
A Hex File is a file format that stores machine-readable data. It is commonly used to store firmware or low-level software programs that are executed by microcontrollers. In order to work with these files, we need to access them and read their contents. In Linux, we can use various programs to read and open a Hex file.
hexdump
hexdump /bin/bash
xxd
tool to make (or reverse) a hex dump
xxd /bin/bash
hexyl
Command-line hex viewer with colored output
hexyl /bin/bash
readelf
readelf is the best utility for analyzing elf(executable and linking format) files.
## show all
readelf -a /bin/bash
## show elf header
readelf -h /bin/bash
## reading all the segments of the file
readelf -l /bin/bash
## reading all the sections of the file
readelf -S /bin/sh
strings
strings /bin/bash
Conclusion
In this blog post, we discussed how to read and open a Hex file in Linux using various programs. We learned that Hex Files are commonly used to store firmware and other low-level programs and that we need to access them to work with them. We also learned about the xxd command and Hexedit, two programs that allow us to view and edit Hex files in Linux. With these tools, we can easily work with Hex files and develop low-level software programs.