---
title: stringsext - search for multi-byte encoded strings in binary data
---
[](
https://crates.io/crates/stringsext)
[](
https://docs.rs/stringsext)
[](
https://gitlab.com/getreu/stringsext)
**stringsext** is a Unicode enhancement of the *GNU strings* tool with
additional functionalities: **stringsext** recognizes Cyrillic, Arabic, CJKV
characters and other scripts in all supported multi-byte-encodings, while
*GNU strings* fails in finding any of these scripts in UTF-16 and many other
encodings.
**stringsext** prints all graphic character sequences in *FILE* or
*stdin* that are at least *MIN* bytes long.
Unlike *GNU strings* **stringsext** can be configured to search for
valid characters not only in ASCII but also in many other input
encodings, e.g.: UTF-8, UTF-16BE, UTF-16LE, BIG5-2003, EUC-JP, KOI8-R
and many others. The option **\--list-encodings** shows a list of valid
encoding names based on the WHATWG Encoding Standard. When more than one
encoding is specified, the scan is performed in different threads
simultaneously.
When searching for UTF-16 encoded strings, 96% of all possible two byte
sequences, interpreted as UTF-16 code unit, relate directly to Unicode
codepoints. As a result, the probability of encountering valid Unicode
characters in a random byte stream, interpreted as UTF-16, is also 96%.
In order to reduce this big number of false positives, **stringsext**
provides a parametrizable Unicode-block-filter. See **\--encodings**
and **\--same-unicode-block** options in the manual page for more details.
**stringsext** is mainly useful for extracting Unicode content out of
non-text files.
When invoked with `stringsext -e ascii` **stringsext** can be used
as *GNU strings* replacement.
# Screenshot
```
stringsext -tx -e utf-8 -e utf-16le -e utf-16be \
-n 10 -a None -u African /dev/disk/by-uuid/567a8410
3de2fff0+ (b UTF-16LE) ݒݓݔݕݖݗݙݪ
3de30000+ (b UTF-16LE) ݫݱݶݷݸݹݺ
<3de36528 (a UTF-8) فيأنمامعكلأورديافىهولملكاولهبسالإنهيأيقدهلثمبهلوليبلايبكشيام
>3de36528+ (a UTF-8) أمنتبيلنحبهممشوش
<3de3a708 (a UTF-8) علىإلىهذاآخرعددالىهذهصورغيركانولابينعرضذلكهنايومقالعليانالكن
>3de3a708+ (a UTF-8) حتىقبلوحةاخرفقطعبدركنإذاكمااحدإلافيهبعضكيفبح
3de3a780+ (a UTF-8) ثومنوهوأناجدالهاسلمعندليسعبرصلىمنذبهاأنهمثلكنتالاحيثمصرشرححو
3de3a7f8+ (a UTF-8) لوفياذالكلمرةانتالفأبوخاصأنتانهاليعضووقدابنخيربنتلكمشاءوهياب
3de3a870+ (a UTF-8) وقصصومارقمأحدنحنعدمرأياحةكتبدونيجبمنهتحتجهةسنةيتمكرةغزةنفسبي
3de3a8e8+ (a UTF-8) تللهلناتلكقلبلماعنهأولشيءنورأمافيكبكلذاترتببأنهمسانكبيعفقدحس
3de3a960+ (a UTF-8) نلهمشعرأهلشهرقطرطلب
3df4cca8 (c UTF-16BE) փօև։֍֏֑֛֚֓֕֗֙֜֝֞
<3df4cd20 (c UTF-16BE) ־ֿ׀ׁׂ׃ׅׄ׆ׇ
```
# Documentation
User documentation
* [Manual page (html)](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/stringsext--manpage.html)
* [Manual page (pdf)](https://blog.getreu.net/_downloads/stringsext--manpage.pdf)
* [Blogposts about Stringsext](https://blog.getreu.net/tags/stringsext/)
* [Paper about Stringsext](https://commons.erau.edu/jdfsl/vol14/iss2/4)
Developer documentation
* [API documentation](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/doc/stringsext/)
* [Forensic Tool Development with Rust](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/forensic-tool-development-with-rust)
# Source code
Repository
* [Stringsext on Gitlab](https://gitlab.com/getreu/stringsext)
* [Stringsext on Github (mirror)](https://github.com/getreu/stringsext)
# Distribution
* Binaries for Ubuntu-Linux 18.04, Windows, MacOS (see below for
Debian binaries)
1. Open: [Releases - getreu/stringsext](https://github.com/getreu/stringsext/releases)
2. Open the latest release.
3. Open *assets*.
4. Download the packed executable for your operating system.
5. Installation: see below.
* Binaries and packages (usually built from latest commit):
- Executable for Windows:
[x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/release/stringsext.exe](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/x86_64-pc-windows-gnu/release/stringsext.exe)
- Binary for Debian 10 Buster:
[x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/stringsext](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/stringsext)
[x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/stringsext](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/x86_64-unknown-linux-musl/release/stringsext)
[i686-unknown-linux-gnu/release/stringsext](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/i686-unknown-linux-gnu/release/stringsext)
[i686-unknown-linux-musl/release/stringsext](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/i686-unknown-linux-musl/release/stringsext)
- Package for Debian 10 Buster:
[x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/debian/stringsext_2.3.5_amd64.deb](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/debian/stringsext_2.3.5_amd64.deb)
[i686-unknown-linux-gnu/debian/stringsext_2.3.5_i386.deb](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/i686-unknown-linux-gnu/debian/stringsext_2.3.5_i386.deb)
- Package Raspberry Pi 32 bit:
[armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf/release/stringsext](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf/release/stringsext)
- Package Raspberry Pi 64 bit:
[aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/stringsext](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu/release/stringsext)
* Installable Unix man-page:
- [stringsext.1.gz](https://blog.getreu.net/projects/stringsext/_downloads/stringsext.1.gz)
* Zipfile with all binaries and documentation:
- [stringsext all](https://blog.getreu.net/_downloads/stringsext.zip)
# Building and installing
1. [Install Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/tools/install), e.g.
curl https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh
2. Download, compile and install:
cargo install stringsext
sudo cp ~/.cargo/bin/stringsext /usr/local/bin
This project follows [Semantic Versioning](https://semver.org/).
# About
Author
* Jens Getreu
Copyright
* Apache 2 license or MIT license
Build status
* 