Best exif Alternatives & Competitors in 2026

HexPrism

HexPrism is a fast, privacy-first hex editor built for CTFs and digital forensics.

xxd

A command-line tool for creating hex dumps, converting between binary and human-readable representations, and patching binary files.

wxHexEditor

wxHexEditor is a free cross-platform hex editor and disk editor for editing binary files, disk devices, and logical drives with data manipulation and checksum calculation features.

bstrings

A command-line string extraction utility for digital forensics that supports ASCII and Unicode string extraction from files and directories with pattern matching and filtering capabilities.

DumpItForLinux

A tool for creating compact Linux memory dumps compatible with popular debugging tools.

imagemounter

A command-line utility and Python package for mounting and unmounting various disk image formats with support for different volume systems and filesystems.

LfLe

Recover event log entries from an image by heuristically looking for record structures.

SWFTools

SWFTools is a collection of utilities for working with Adobe Flash files, including tools for converting PDFs, images, audio, and video files to SWF format.

WinHex

Universal hexadecimal editor for computer forensics, data recovery, and IT security.

Aperi'Solve

Online platform for image steganography analysis

MailXaminer MIME Header Analyzer

Email forensics tool for analyzing MIME header fields across 20+ formats.

Cyacomb

Digital forensics tools for detecting CSAM on devices and online platforms.

StegoVeritas

A versatile steganography tool with various installation options and detailed usage instructions.

Steghide

Steghide is a steganography program for hiding data in image and audio files.

iLEAPP

A forensic analysis tool that extracts and parses logs, notifications, and system information from iOS/iPadOS devices and backups.

Redline

A free endpoint security tool for host investigative capabilities to find signs of malicious activity through memory and file analysis.

libsmraw

A library to access and manipulate RAW image files.

libesedb

A library for accessing and parsing Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) Database Files used by Microsoft applications like Windows Search, Exchange, and Active Directory for forensic analysis purposes.

cabextract

Free software for extracting Microsoft cabinet files, supporting all features and formats of Microsoft cabinet files and Windows CE installation files.

c-aff4

An open source format for storing digital evidence and data, with a C/C++ library for creating, reading, and manipulating AFF4 images.

libolecf

A library for accessing and parsing OLE 2 Compound File (OLECF) format files, including Microsoft Office documents and thumbs.db files.

jpeginfo

A command-line tool that extracts detailed technical information, metadata, and checksums from JPEG image files with support for multiple output formats.

libvmdk

A library and tools to access and manipulate VMware Virtual Disk (VMDK) files.

libvslvm

A library and tools for accessing and analyzing Linux Logical Volume Manager (LVM) volume system format.

Wipedicks

A secure file and drive wiping tool that overwrites data with randomized ASCII characters to prevent data recovery.

ChromeFreak

A Cross-Platform Forensic Framework for Google Chrome that allows investigation of history, downloads, bookmarks, cookies, and provides a full report.

StegCracker

Steganography brute-force utility with performance issues, deprecated in favor of stegseek.

iPBD2 - iPhone Backup Decoder and Analyzer

Browse and analyze iPhone/iPad backups with detailed file properties and various viewers.

USN-Journal-Parser

Python script to parse the NTFS USN Change Journal.

ArtifactExtractor

A script for extracting common Windows artifacts from source images and VSCs with detailed dependencies and usage instructions.

Rifiuti2

Tool for analyzing Windows Recycle Bin INFO2 file

Truehunter

A portable forensic tool that detects encrypted containers like Truecrypt and Veracrypt by analyzing file headers, block cipher patterns, and entropy without external dependencies.

dcfldd

A modified version of GNU dd with added features like hashing and fast disk wiping.

ShadowCopy Analyzer

ShadowCopy Analyzer is a tool for cybersecurity researchers to analyze and utilize the ShadowCopy technology for file recovery and system restoration.

Chaosreader

Chaosreader is a tool for ripping files from network sniffing dumps and replaying various protocols and file transfers.

Pancake Viewer

A DFVFS backed viewer project with a WxPython GUI, aiming to enhance file extraction and viewing capabilities.

hashlookup-forensic-analyser

Analyse a forensic target to find and report files found and not found in hashlookup CIRCL public service.

Magic Rescue

A tool for recovering files by scanning block devices and extracting them based on 'magic bytes' in file contents.

OS X Auditor

A Mac OS X computer forensics tool for analyzing system artifacts, user files, and logs with reputation verification and log aggregation capabilities.

protobuf-inspector

A command-line tool that parses Google Protobuf encoded data without schema definitions and displays the content in a readable, colored format.

Dependencies

Dependencies is an open-source modern replacement for Dependency Walker that helps Windows developers analyze and troubleshoot DLL load dependency issues.

IE10Analyzer

IE10Analyzer can parse and recover records from WebCacheV01.dat, providing detailed information and conversion capabilities.

WinSearchDBAnalyzer

WinSearchDBAnalyzer can parse and recover records in Windows.edb, providing detailed insights into various data types.

Hoarder

Hoarder is a tool to collect and parse windows artifacts.

Wombat Forensics

A user-friendly and fast Forensic Analysis tool with features like tagging files and generating preview reports.

WavSteg

A C-based steganographic tool that hides files within WAV audio files using least significant bit encoding techniques.

bulk_extractor

A high-performance digital forensics exploitation tool for extracting structured information from various inputs without parsing file system structures.

Softrace

A Golang application that stores and queries NIST NSRL Reference Data Set for MD5 and SHA1 hash lookups using Bolt database technology.