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@xchwarze xchwarze released this 05 Jul 04:10
· 102 commits to master since this release
1.0.0
6cd3ea3

Magic Extractor — First Release

This is the first public release of Magic Extractor, a universal extraction tool for Windows.

Magic Extractor identifies unknown files using multiple detectors and routes them to the correct bundled extractor. It is designed to handle mainstream archive formats, modern installers, SFX packages, embedded archives, and several less common compression formats.

Highlights

  • Automatic file identification and extraction.

  • Multi-detector pipeline with early-exit detection:

    • puremagic
    • built-in signatures
    • Detect It Easy
    • binwalk
    • Magika

  • Bundled extractor support for tools such as 7z, unrar, unace, unshield, lessmsi, WiX/dark, and more.

  • Support for installer formats, PE/SFX wrappers, and uncommon archivers.

  • Recursive extraction for archives found inside extracted output.

  • Bruteforce mode to try every detected candidate handler.

  • Carving mode for extracting embedded archives from larger binary files, such as firmware images.

  • Runtime-updatable bin/, data/, and config.ini files without rebuilding the executable.

Basic Usage

Download the release, unzip it, and run:

magic-extractor.exe extract mystery.bin

The file type is detected automatically and extracted into an output folder next to the input file.

Commands

magic-extractor.exe extract  <path> [output_dir] [options]
magic-extractor.exe identify <path>
magic-extractor.exe list     <path>
magic-extractor.exe carve    <path> [output_dir] [options]

A bare file path also defaults to extraction:

magic-extractor.exe mystery.bin

Common Examples

Identify a file without extracting it:

magic-extractor.exe identify setup.exe

List archive contents:

magic-extractor.exe list backup.7z

Extract recursively:

magic-extractor.exe extract app-1.0.tar.gz --recursive

Try all detected handlers:

magic-extractor.exe extract weird-archive.dat --bruteforce

Inspect embedded fragments before carving:

magic-extractor.exe carve router-firmware.bin --list

Carve and extract known embedded archives:

magic-extractor.exe carve router-firmware.bin

Notes

This release is focused on broad format coverage, reliable detection, and practical Windows usage. The detector and handler data are kept external to the executable so they can be updated by replacing files instead of rebuilding the application.

For the full list of supported formats, see formats.md.

License

LGPL-3.0-only.

Full Changelog: https://github.com/xchwarze/magic-extractor/commits/1.0.0

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