Binary analysis, code scanning & more...

A graphics file format that I am encountering a bit more often during my work is Google's WebP file format. Even though it is fairly recent (or the history it is best to read the Wikipedia page about WebP ) it builds on some quite old foundations. One reason for Google to come up with a new graphics file format was file size: Google indexes and stores and sends many graphics files. By reducing the size of files they could significantly save on bandwidth and storage space. Shaving off some bytes here and there really starts to add up when you are doing it by the billions. Everyting counts in large amounts - Depeche Mode WebP file format The WebP format uses the Resource Interchange File Format (RIFF) as its container. This format is also used by other formats such as WAV and very easy to process automatically. A WebP file consists of a header, and then a number of chunks. The data in the header applies to the entire file, while data in the chunks only apply to the individu...

This blog is a collection of articles about analysis of binary and source code files, and anything related to scanning for license compliance, security or code provenance. I started this blog because I think that the software scanning industry (especially for binary files) is not in a good shape and I feel that it is time to change that, as we collectively deserve better. One of the observations that I made in the last few years is that people and companies are flocking to expensive tools and solutions when there is no need to because better working (and cheaper) solutions exist. The reasons are bad understanding of the problem needing to be solved, plus effective marketing. The companies then use the wrong tools to try to get things done and shoehorn these tools into their process, leading to suboptimal results, frustration, time wasted and money lost. The reason: someone paid a lot of money for the license for the tool, so they'd better make use for it! What I have also se...