Hex editor neo linux

Top 5 Hex Editors for Linux in 2023

Using a Hex Editor, users can analyze, view, or manipulate a hexadecimal-coded file which is the standard for storing a binary file. It displays the data in the raw format, i.e., binary (0’s & 1’s) which is directly understood by the computer. A Hex Editor can have multiple windows, making it easy for developers and programmers to view or edit a hex file.

Today we bring you the top 5 Hex Editors for Linux while covering the following aspects.

We’ll now explain the above in detail, as seen in the sections below.

Hex Editor & Who Uses it?

The contents of a computer file are stored in hexadecimal notation, and a Hex Editor is required to view or edit such a file. The data displayed by them is in the form of bytes.

The developers or programmers use it to edit the hex file that often contains important information. Hex editors are used to fix corrupted or reverse old engineer files, create new mods for the gaming community, and do other game modifications.

Top 5 Hex Editors for Linux

There’s a variety of Hex editors available on the market, and a list of unranked top 5 Hex Editors in Linux includes the following.

Bless Hex Editor

The Bless is one of the most advanced Hex Editors on the market. It is written and compiled in C# programming language and is highly efficient for handling large data files. The customized data view, multiple file support, a find and replace feature, and more functionalities can be added using the plugins.

It is installed using either one of these commands (per your distro).

$ sudo apt install bless #For Debian/Ubuntu $ sudo dnf install bless #For Fedora and CentOS $ pacman -S bless #For Arch Linux

Ghex – GNOME Hex Editor

Tailored for GNOME, Ghex has many features like viewing/editing a file with either binary or ASCII format, an impressive undo and redo multi-level functionality, and the find and replace. It can easily handle large files without being stuck.

You can install it from software stores like Ubuntu software or using either one of these commands.

$ sudo apt install ghex #For Debian/Ubuntu $ sudo dnf install ghex #For Fedora $ pacman -S ghex #For Arch Linux

Hexedit Hex Editor

Hexedit is a basic command-line tool to view or edit Hex files. It shows the contents of a file in ASCII or numerical coding, and perhaps, it is the most widely used editor on both Linux and Windows. There are numerous options or commands, which can be read from here.

Although it is often pre-installed in Linux distros, you can still install it using one of these commands if it isn’t installed.

$ sudo apt install hexedit #For Debian/Ubuntu $ sudo dnf install hexedit #For Fedora $ pacman -S hexedit #For Arch Linux

Okteta Hex Editor

Okteta is one of my favorites regarding the Hex Editors because the interface is simple, user-friendly, and customizable multi-tab support. It supports almost all numerical coding, including Binary, Decimal, Hexa-Decimal, and Octal. All the 8-bit encodings are supplied by Qt and EBCDIC for character encoding.

It can be installed from the software stores like Ubuntu software or using either one of these commands.

$ sudo apt install okteta #For Debian/Ubuntu $ sudo dnf install okteta #For Fedora $ pacman -S okteta #For Arch Linux

wxHexEditor

The best Hex Editor for large files in Linux, is undoubtedly the wxHexEditor which also has customizable panel formatting and colors. It consumes a low amount of RAM and claims to use about 25MB for a file of around 8GB which is quite efficient. Users can work around it without creating a temp file, and it supports up to 2^64 bytes, equating to about 2147.5 petabytes of a single file—however, only the file of 1PB has been tested yet.

The best feature of wxHexEditor would be the low-level data recovery that allows the users to recover their data by editing the Raw Hex of their hard drive’s sectors.

To install it, use one of the following commands (based on the distro).

$ sudo apt install wxhexeditor #For Debian/Ubuntu $ sudo dnf install wxhexeditor #For Fedora $ sudo pacman -S wxhexeditor #For Arch Linux

These are the best 5 hex editors for Linux.

Conclusion

Hex Editing is done by professionals only; however, if you’re willing to learn about it, try the editors mentioned above. We recommend learning about it if you’ve reached here because playing with it will allow you to effectively examine/edit binaries in Linux.

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Top Hex Editors for Linux Systems

Hex editor lets you view/edit the binary data of a file – which is in the form of “hexadecimal” values and hence the name “Hex” editor. Let’s be frank, not everyone needs it. Only a specific group of users who have to deal with the binary data use it.

Let me give you an example if you have no idea what it is. Suppose you have the configuration files of a game; you can open them using a hex editor and change certain values to have more ammo/score, and so on. To learn more about Hex editors, you should start with the Wikipedia page.

In case you already know what’s it used for – let us take a look at the best Hex editors available for Linux.

Note: The hex editors mentioned are in no particular order of ranking.

1. Bless Hex Editor

Key Features:

• Raw disk editing
• Multilevel undo/redo operations.
• Multiple tabs
• Conversion table
• Plugin support to extend the functionality

Bless is one of the most popular Hex editor available for Linux. You can find it listed in your AppCenter or Software Center. If that is not the case, you can check out their GitHub page for the build and the instructions associated.

It can easily handle editing big files without slowing down – so it’s a fast hex editor.

2. GNOME Hex Editor

Key Features:

Yet another amazing Hex editor – specifically tailored for GNOME. Well, I personally use Elementary OS, so I find it listed in the App Center. You should find it in the Software Center as well. If not, refer to the GitHub page for the source. For Ubuntu-based distros, install it using the command below:

You can use this editor to view/edit in either hex or ASCII. The user interface is quite simple – as you can see in the image above.

3. Okteta

Key Features:

• Customizable data views
• Multiple tabs
• Character encodings: All 8-bit encodings as supplied by Qt, EBCDIC
• Decoding table listing common simple data types.

Okteta is a simple hex editor with not-so-fancy features. Although, it can handle most of the tasks. There’s a separate module of it that you can use to embed this in other programs to view/edit files.

Similar to all the above-mentioned editors, you can find this listed on your AppCenter and Software center as well. Install it on Ubuntu-based distros using the following command:

4. wxHexEditor

Key Features:

• Easily handle big files
• Has x86 disassembly support
• Sector Indication on Disk devices
• Supports customizable hex panel formatting and colors.

This is something interesting. It is primarily a Hex editor, but you can also use it as a low-level disk editor. For example, if you have a problem with your HDD, you can use this editor to edit the sectors in raw hex and fix them.

You can find it listed on your App Center and Software Center. If not, Sourceforge is the way to go.

For Ubuntu-based distros, install it using the command below:

sudo apt install wxhexeditor

5. Hexedit (Command Line)

Key Features:

If you want something to work in your terminal, you can install Hexedit. It’s my favorite Linux hex editor in the command line.

When you launch it, you will have to specify the file’s location, and it’ll open it for you.

To install it, just type in:

Wrapping Up

Hex editors could come in handy to experiment and learn. If you are experienced, you should opt for the one with more features – with a GUI. Although, it all comes down to personal preferences.

There are other tools related to hex operations. Take xxd for example, you can use it to convert hex to ASCII in the Linux command line.

What do you think about the usefulness of Hex editors? Which one do you use? Did we miss listing your favorite? Let us know in the comments!

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