detect-it-easy
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The detect-it-easy analyzer identifies executable and file formats on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
diec --heuristicscan --verbose suspicious.exe
diec --heuristicscan --verbose suspicious.exe
diec --heuristicscan --verbose <target>
diec --heuristicscan --verbose suspicious.exe
die_console.exe --json <target_file>
if (isTLSPresent()) {
print("Has TLS");
}
Summary
detect-it-easy is an open-source desktop application for identifying file types, packers, and compilers inside executables, built around signature-based and heuristic analysis rather than simple magic-byte matching. It runs as a standalone GUIGUIA graphical user interface, controls such as windows, buttons and menus. It lets people use software visually rather than entering commands. on Windows, Linux, and macOS, with a separate API library for developers who want to embed its detection engine in their own tooling. Its README pitches it to malware analysts, reverse engineers, and digital forensics practitioners who need to know what they're looking at before deciding how to unpack or disassemble it. The heuristic engine goes beyond signature matches by flagging unusual instruction sequences, proxy jumps, and self-modifying stubs typical of packers and protectors, and its detection rules are written as editable scripts rather than a fixed database, so analysts can extend coverage themselves. With 65 contributors and over 1,400 commits in the past year, it is under active development.
The detect-it-easy analyzer identifies executable and file formats on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
How detect-it-easy helps
What is this file actually built with, regardless of what its extension claims?
scans the binary against its signature database and reports the real format, compiler, or packer identified inside, rather than trusting the file name or icon
Is this executable packed or obfuscated to hide its real payload?
runs signature and heuristic checks together and flags packer or protector signatures, naming the specific packer where one is matched
What is unusual about this PE file even when no signature matches it?
the heuristic engine inspects the file's structure for traits that deviate from normal, well-formed executables and reports what looks abnormal and why it merits closer review
Which detection rule identified this particular file, and can I adjust it myself?
every match is tied to a specific script in the signature set, which is plain text and can be opened, edited, or extended when it misidentifies or misses something
Does this sample use tricks meant to defeat identification tools like this one?
includes countermeasures against files crafted with false signatures, so a sample built to trick a scanner is still reported accurately
Languages
Command line
No command matches.
| option | found in | since | description |
|---|
Values are placeholders taken from each option’s declared default. Nothing is executed here — the output shown is a recording of a run that already happened.
Screenshots
From the release notes, newest first. Click one to see it full size.Score card
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Shipping velocity releases a month, last 12 months
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Documentation quality release-notes rubric, 0–100
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Breaking-change discipline how rarely a release breaks users, and notice given
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Maintenance risk quiet time against its own cadence, maintainers
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Innovation & surface new capabilities, API and MCP surface
- Community health
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Contributor trend distinct committers, this year against last
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Maintainer concentration bus factor now against a year ago
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Issue backlog trend issues closed per issue opened, 12 months
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Responsiveness median time to a maintainer’s first reply
Nine scores for detect-it-easy, each built from the releases, notes and API history this site tracks — and, on Researcher and Business, where it stands among every measured tool in its category and how that has moved.
Score cards are part of every paid plan.
See plans → Already subscribed? Sign in →Trajectory
Blank means never measured; nothing here is a filled-in zero.
Peer standings are included with Researcher and Business. See how this tool ranks against its competitors, using data we don't publish anywhere else.
See plans →Each score is 0–100 on a published rubric, derived from data this site already shows. A dimension we cannot measure says so — it is never scored 0 and never enters a rank.
How this is scored
- Shipping velocity — releases a month over the last 12 months, on a log scale where 16 a month scores 100. Needs 3 releases in the window.
- Documentation quality — the release-notes rubric published on the analytics page, unchanged.
- Breaking-change discipline — the share of releases carrying a breaking change (none scores 100, half or more scores 0). Only projects that label breaking changes are measured: a clean record cannot be told from an unlabelled one.
- Maintenance risk — quiet time measured against the tool's own release cadence (quiet longer than 90 days and three typical gaps scores 0), plus the number of active maintainers and whether contributors are growing, where known. Higher is lower risk.
- Innovation & surface — new capabilities in the feature ledger this year, API and MCP operations added, and the share of commits that are features: the mean of whichever we hold.
- Community health (open-source tools only) — each is a direction, not a size: contributors this year against last, the bus factor now against a year ago, and issues closed per issue opened, where steady scores 50, doubled 100 and halved 0; plus the median time to a maintainer's first reply (an hour scores about 100, a month or more 0). A commercial card has no repository and carries none of the four.
- Documented delivery (commercial tools) — when a vendor's documented new capabilities have slowed against its own baseline, that counts against the overall standing as heavily as two low dimensions. Steady delivery, or too little history to judge, leaves the standing alone; it is never a sixth score.
- Open-source tools are scored on repository signals; commercial tools on their published changelog. Ranks compare tools within one category and one profile and need at least five measured peers; the overall standing needs three ranked dimensions. Best-in-breed or consolidator is a shape, not a quality, and is never scored.
Release-note detail over time
See how much detail detect-it-easy puts in its release notes, quarter by quarter, and compare it with tracked tools in the same category. This history uses up to ten retained, reviewed notes per tool; sparse or blank older quarters may reflect that limit.
Checking release-note history…
Coverage
Missing something? Tell us
What detect-it-easy connects to, runs on and detects, read from its release notes and docs. So far: 25 updated detections, 12 new detections, 1 retired detection.
38 changes, tracked since Oct 4, 2026.
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Oct 112026
new TinyCC ELF signature
add TinyCC ELF signature
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Oct 112026
updated TinyCC signature reference (second reference added)
add secound reference to TinyCC signature
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Oct 112026
new ELF signatures references
add references to ELF signatures
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Oct 102026
updated GS60 protector detection
add more checks to GS60 protector
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Oct 102026
updated theArk signature x64 support
add x64 check to theArk signature
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Oct 102026
new DNGuard detection via HVMRun64.dll
Detect HVMRun64.dll as DNGuard
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Oct 102026
updated Packer64 signature checks
add more checks to Packer64 signature
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Oct 102026
updated TriProt cryptor detection
improve TriProt cryptor detection
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Oct 102026
updated PolyEngine signature detection
improve PolyEngine signature detection
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Oct 102026
updated Qihoo sandbox module name matching
Match exact managed Qihoo sandbox module names
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Oct 102026
updated Comodo sandbox module name matching
Match exact managed Comodo sandbox module names
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Oct 102026
updated Sandboxie module name recognition without extension
Recognize Sandboxie module names without an extension
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Oct 102026
updated Anti-ILSpy marker scoping to managed strings
Scope anti-ILSpy markers to managed strings
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Oct 102026
updated Anti-dnSpy marker scoping to managed strings
Scope anti-dnSpy markers to managed strings
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Oct 102026
new Embedded Portable PDB debug record detection
Detect embedded Portable PDB debug records
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Oct 102026
new CodeView PDB path classification
Read and classify bounded CodeView PDB paths
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Oct 102026
updated Relative PDB path vs embedding distinction
Distinguish relative PDB paths from embedding
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Oct 102026
updated Rewritten instruction operand detection near EP
Detect rewritten instruction operands near EP
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Oct 102026
new Detect HVMRun64.dll as DNGuard
Detect HVMRun64.dll as DNGuard #1067: d5b71f7
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Oct 102026
updated Add more checks to Packer64 signature
add more checks to Packer64 signature #2766: ee21622
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Oct 102026
updated Improve TriProt cryptor detection
improve TriProt cryptor detection #262: 031c857
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Oct 102026
updated Improve PolyEngine signature detection
improve PolyEngine signature detection #261: ed552cc
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Oct 62026
retired Obsolete PE packer detection rules removed
chore: remove obsolete PE packer detection rules
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Oct 52026
new PE64shell packer signature
add PE64shell packer signature
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Oct 52026
updated packer_longwasu signature update
With packer_longwasu.2.sg
Update packer_longwasu.2.sg
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Oct 52026
updated Entropy check bounds improvement
Keep fast entropy checks with rigorous whole-range bounds
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Oct 52026
updated packer_Origami signature update
With packer_Origami.2.sg
Update packer_Origami.2.sg
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Oct 52026
updated __GenericHeuristicAnalysis_By_DosX signature update
With __GenericHeuristicAnalysis_By_DosX.7.sg
Update __GenericHeuristicAnalysis_By_DosX.7.sg
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Oct 52026
new Ahri packer signature
add Ahri packer signature
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Oct 42026
new Ahri packer signature
add Ahri packer signature #1073: 3dd0490
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Oct 42026
new toxicmouse7 signature
add toxicmouse7 signature #1072: 8631d7c
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Oct 42026
updated Generic heuristic analysis signature update
With __GenericHeuristicAnalysis_By_DosX.7.sg
Update __GenericHeuristicAnalysis_By_DosX.7.sg #1046: 3d2e1f4
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Oct 42026
updated Origami packer signature update
With packer_Origami.2.sg
Update packer_Origami.2.sg #1047: 2cb238a
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Oct 42026
updated Longwasu packer signature update
With packer_longwasu.2.sg
Update packer_longwasu.2.sg #1077: 70cd222
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Oct 42026
new NetPacker signature
add NetPacker signature to db_extra #1069: 47df6f4
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Oct 42026
updated NetPacker signature moved to db
move NetPacker signature to db #1043: f5af0da
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Oct 42026
new Origami .NET packer signature
add Origami .NET packer signature #2734: 286ae1f
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Oct 42026
updated longwasu signature restored
restore longwasu signature #2732: c856486
Nothing first seen in this window. That doesn't mean detect-it-easy shipped nothing, only that we found no record of it.
How we count
Read from 8 of 38 release notes and docs updates we hold for detect-it-easy. "First seen" is the earliest note that names something; "last" is the latest. Our history may start partway through detect-it-easy's life, so an old integration can show a recent first-seen date.
Each change counts once: "added 40 checks" is one line, so the numbers measure how often coverage moves, not how big the catalogue is or how well it detects.
Releases
38 entries
No entries match these filters.
- October 20269
- September 20261
- August 20266
- April 20261
- November 20241
- December 20231
- July 20231
- January 20231
- June 20221
- February 20221
- November 20211
- June 20211
- November 20201
- October 20191
- November 20181
- August 20181
- February 20071
- December 20061
- August 20061
- May 20061
- April 20063
- March 20062
Project health
Issue, contributor and maintainer activity in horsicq/Detect-It-Easy, 2023-10 – 2026-09, as of 2026-09-25. Twelve-month figures first; the trend lines run the whole window.
- Contributors 17 ±0 vs prior 12 months
- Maintainers 3 +2 joined · −3 left, last 12 months
- Bus factor 2 committers behind half the commits
- Community-filed 100% of issues opened, last 12 months
- Median time to close 94 days first maintainer reply 2 hours
- Open backlog 34 of 200 issues ever filed
- Issues opened / month 5 · 0 communitymaintainers
- Open backlog 34
- Contributors / month 3
- Commits / month 399
- Stars 11,537
- bugs 45%
- questions 3%
- other 52%
Counts from the project's public repository and git history; no individuals are identified. Maintainers are the committers covering 80% of the last year's commits. how we measure this
Libraries its release ships
What its latest release locks, checked against known advisories.We can only check tools that publish GitHub releases.
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Maintain this project? The badge links readers straight to this page, so they can follow every release here.