CLI for Noobies: A Primer on the Linux Command Line

Chapter 48. Looking for Strings in All the Wrong Places

Have you ever been tempted to open an executable in a hex editor and see if there is anything readable there? If you have, you’re going to like the strings available at the CLI.

Strings is part of a set of tools included in binutils. It searches files you specify and prints human-readable strings found in them, whether they are binary files or not.

Using Strings

I just happened to have a copy of a firmware update for D-Link’s DCS-1000W camera on my hard drive, and I was eager to see what secrets strings might have to tell me about it.

I entered the command strings dlink.bin, and hundreds of lines of output scrolled down my console screen. With that much output, using strings wasn’t going to be ...