{"slug": "imhex", "name": "ImHex", "category": "editors", "category_name": "Editors and IDEs", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 3.061, "rising": 1.67, "first": "2025-12-27", "latest": "2026-09-03", "why": "For anyone who regularly has to look at/analyze binary files, i highly recommend ImHex [1].", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 1, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 2, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "For anyone who regularly has to look at/analyze binary files, i highly recommend ImHex [1].", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/werwolv/imhex", "official_url": "https://imhex.werwolv.net", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["ImHex"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 792716400, "item_id": 49544775, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544775", "by": "issung", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The program is so good, and has enough of a reputation that I knew to reach for it", "excerpt": "I finally dipped into using ImHex when doing some reversing of the PS2 memory card format for https://ps2iodb.com. The program is so good, and has enough of a reputation that I knew to reach for it even though I know nothing about reversing, and that was 3-4 years ago now! Also shoutout to the awesome GUI library is uses; https://github.com/ocornut/imgui", "context": "", "use_case": "reverse engineering file formats", "switched_from": "", "story": "Reverse Engineering Unknown File Formats with ImHex"}, {"id": 792710160, "item_id": 49544385, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544385", "by": "yapfrog", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used ImHex to look at the partially decrypted db file", "excerpt": "I tried to do a similar thing last year to datamine a gacha game's assets and somehow did it without knowing the existence of tools like IDA/Ghidra. They're using a custom db format that was XORed with a key. Iirc it was a bizarre format, it's actually an archive where each column is a file containing all the rows of that column. So a table is just a folder full of these files. Maybe it's a common thing idk. I got a ", "context": "", "use_case": "hex editing reverse engineering", "switched_from": "", "story": "Reverse Engineering Unknown File Formats with ImHex"}, {"id": 765987648, "item_id": 47874228, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874228", "by": "cuechan", "date": "2026-04-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For anyone who regularly has to look at/analyze binary files, i highly recommend ImHex [1].", "excerpt": "For anyone who regularly has to look at/analyze binary files, i highly recommend ImHex [1]. Its a hex editor built with imgui and has a lot of built in tools. Imo the best feature is the data structure editor. You can write a data type definition similar to C and it overlays it on the hexdump and parses it in a structured way while you type. It also has a node based editor. 1: https://github.com/WerWolv/ImHex", "context": "", "use_case": "analyzing binary files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your hex editor should color-code bytes"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["reverse engineering file formats", "hex editing reverse engineering", "analyzing binary files", "hex editing"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49508608", "title": "Reverse Engineering Unknown File Formats with ImHex", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47846688", "title": "Your hex editor should color-code bytes", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46345827", "title": "Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 2}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 792716400, "item_id": 49544775, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544775", "by": "issung", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "The program is so good, and has enough of a reputation that I knew to reach for it", "excerpt": "I finally dipped into using ImHex when doing some reversing of the PS2 memory card format for https://ps2iodb.com. The program is so good, and has enough of a reputation that I knew to reach for it even though I know nothing about reversing, and that was 3-4 years ago now! Also shoutout to the awesome GUI library is uses; https://github.com/ocornut/imgui", "context": "", "use_case": "reverse engineering file formats", "switched_from": "", "story": "Reverse Engineering Unknown File Formats with ImHex"}, {"id": 792710160, "item_id": 49544385, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49544385", "by": "yapfrog", "date": "2026-09-03", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I used ImHex to look at the partially decrypted db file", "excerpt": "I tried to do a similar thing last year to datamine a gacha game's assets and somehow did it without knowing the existence of tools like IDA/Ghidra. They're using a custom db format that was XORed with a key. Iirc it was a bizarre format, it's actually an archive where each column is a file containing all the rows of that column. So a table is just a folder full of these files. Maybe it's a common thing idk. I got a ", "context": "", "use_case": "hex editing reverse engineering", "switched_from": "", "story": "Reverse Engineering Unknown File Formats with ImHex"}, {"id": 765987648, "item_id": 47874228, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874228", "by": "cuechan", "date": "2026-04-23", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For anyone who regularly has to look at/analyze binary files, i highly recommend ImHex [1].", "excerpt": "For anyone who regularly has to look at/analyze binary files, i highly recommend ImHex [1]. Its a hex editor built with imgui and has a lot of built in tools. Imo the best feature is the data structure editor. You can write a data type definition similar to C and it overlays it on the hexdump and parses it in a structured way while you type. It also has a node based editor. 1: https://github.com/WerWolv/ImHex", "context": "", "use_case": "analyzing binary files", "switched_from": "", "story": "Your hex editor should color-code bytes"}, {"id": 742426160, "item_id": 46401635, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46401635", "by": "vodou", "date": "2025-12-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I thought ImHex should be able to do this (and still think it might)", "excerpt": "An \"explorative\" hex editor where you can do \"fuzzy\" searches, e.g., searching for a header with specific values for certain fields. (I thought ImHex should be able to do this (and still think it might), but haven't really figured out a good work flow...)", "context": "", "use_case": "hex editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What developer tool do you wish existed in 2026?"}]}