strings2 - Extract strings from binary files and process memory

Strings2 is a Windows command-line tool for extracting strings from binary data. On top of the classic Sysinternals strings approach, this tool includes:

• Multi-lingual string extraction, such as Russian, Chinese, etc.
• Machine learning model filters out junk erroneous string extractions to reduce noise.
• String extractions from process memory.
• Recursive and wildcard filename matching.
• Json output option for automation integration. (Also see python module version binary2strings)

I also recommend looking at FLOSS from Mandiant a cross-platform string extraction solver with a different set of features.

Installation

Download the latest release binary.

Example Usage

Dump all strings from malware.exe to stdout:

• strings2 malware.exe

Dump all strings from all .exe files in the files folder to the file strings.txt:

• strings2 ./files/*.exe > strings.txt

Dump strings from a specific process id, including logging the module name and memory addresses of each match:

• strings2 -f -s -pid 0x1a3 > process_strings.txt

Extract strings from malware.exe to a json file:

• strings2 malware.exe -json > strings.json

Documentation

strings.exe (options) file_pattern

• file_pattern can be a folder or file. Wildcards (*) are supported in the filename parts - eg .\files\*.exe.

Option	Description
-r	Recursively process subdirectories.
-f	Prints the filename/processname for each string.
-F	Prints the full path and filename for each string.
-s	Prints the file offset or memory address span of each string.
-t	Prints the string type for each string. UTF8, or WIDE_STRING.
-wide	Prints only WIDE_STRING strings that are encoded as two bytes per character.
-utf	Prints only UTF8 encoded strings.
-a	Prints both interesting and not interesting strings. Default only prints interesting non-junk strings.
-ni	Prints only not interesting strings. Default only prints interesting non-junk strings.
-e	Escape new line characters.
-l [num_chars]	Minimum number of characters that is a valid string. Default is 4.
-b [start](:[end])	Scan only the specified byte range for strings. Optionally specify an end offset as well.
-pid [pid]	The strings from the process address space for the specified PID will be dumped. Use a '0x' prefix to specify a hex PID.
-system	Dumps strings from all accessible processes on the system. This takes awhile.
-json	Writes output as json. Many flags are ignored in this mode.

Version History

Version 2.0 (May 29, 2022)

• Complete overhaul of the tool.
• Upgrade string extraction engine from binary2strings.
• Add support for multilingual strings.
• Added ML model to filter junk erroneous string extractions.
• Add option to dump only a specified offset range.
• Add json output option.
• Add memory address and module name logging.
• Fixes to 64bit process string dumping.

Version 1.2 (Apr 21, 2013)

• Added "-a" and "-u" flags to extract only ascii or unicode strings.
• Fixed a bug when processing certain filenames.

Version 1.1 (Nov 22, 2012)

• Added "-r" recursive flag option.
• Added "-pid" and "-system" flag options to specify process input sources.
• Piped input data is now supported.
• Various fixes.

Version 1.0 (Sept 20, 2012)

• Initial release.