# Halogen

Halogen is a Detection Engineering product. It runs on-premises. Pricing is free.

Halogen automates the creation of YARA rules based on image files embedded in malicious documents to assist in threat detection and identification.

Checked October 2026.

## What is Halogen?

Halogen is a command-line tool designed to automate the creation of YARA rules based on image files embedded within malicious documents. The tool assists cybersecurity professionals in developing detection rules for malicious threats and helps incident responders identify specific threats they are investigating.

The tool currently supports the analysis of JPG and PNG image files embedded in office documents. It provides several matching options for different image formats, including PNG IDAT chunk matching and various JPG matching strategies such as Start of Scan marker detection and SOF to SOS matching with additional data bytes.

Halogen offers flexible input options, allowing users to analyze individual files or entire directories. The tool generates custom YARA rules with user-specified names and includes options for different rule prefixes. It supports various matching strategies to accommodate different analysis requirements and can output rules compatible with ClamAV signatures.

Tags: YARA, Rule Generation

## Where it fits in your security program (NIST CSF 2.0)

- [Detect](https://cybersectools.com/guides/building-detect-program-small-team): helps you spot attacks and unusual activity.
- [Respond](https://cybersectools.com/guides/building-respond-program-small-team): helps you contain and handle incidents.

## Quick facts

- Category: [Security Operations](https://cybersectools.com/categories/security-operations) · [Detection Engineering](https://cybersectools.com/categories/detection-engineering)
- Deployment: On-Premises
- Company size fit: Startup, SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise
- Pricing model: Free
- GitHub stars: 211
- Website: github.com

## Where it ranks

No shortlist covers this product's category yet. The closest is [Best MDR Solutions for Business](https://cybersectools.com/shortlists/best-mdr-solutions).

## Halogen FAQ

### What is Halogen?

Halogen is a product in the Detection Engineering category. It covers YARA and Rule Generation.

### What is the pricing for Halogen?

Halogen is free. Download and setup instructions are at https://github.com/target/halogen/.

### What are alternatives to Halogen?

Alternatives to Halogen listed on CybersecTools:

1. [Google Security Operations](https://cybersectools.com/tools/google-security-operations) - Cloud-native SIEM, SOAR, and threat intel platform for SecOps teams (Commercial)
2. [Crimson7 Defensive Engineering](https://cybersectools.com/tools/crimson7-defensive-engineering) (Commercial)
3. [detections.ai Detections](https://cybersectools.com/tools/detectionsai-detections) - Community platform for sharing and creating detection rules with AI (Commercial)
4. [SOC Prime Uncoder AI](https://cybersectools.com/tools/soc-prime-uncoder-ai) - IDE for detection engineering with cross-platform translation for 65+ SIEM/EDR/XDR (Commercial)
5. [Defender Lens](https://cybersectools.com/tools/defender-lens) - Turn Any Threat into a Detection Rule (Commercial)

Compare all Halogen alternatives at [https://cybersectools.com/alternatives/halogen](https://cybersectools.com/alternatives/halogen)

### What deployment and organization size does Halogen fit?

Halogen is available as on-premises software. It is listed for startups, small businesses, mid-market companies and enterprises. It is free.

## Compare Halogen with similar solutions

- [Halogen vs Google Security Operations](https://cybersectools.com/compare/google-security-operations-vs-halogen)
- [Halogen vs Crimson7 Defensive Engineering](https://cybersectools.com/compare/crimson7-defensive-engineering-vs-halogen)
- [Halogen vs detections.ai Detections](https://cybersectools.com/compare/detectionsai-detections-vs-halogen)

All alternatives to Halogen: [/alternatives/halogen](https://cybersectools.com/alternatives/halogen)

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Source: https://cybersectools.com/tools/halogen

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More on Halogen: funding, momentum, hiring and news, plus the full product and company record, are available through the Mandos MCP Server (paid plans), which connects to AI assistants: https://mandos.io/mcp?utm_source=cybersectools.com&utm_medium=product-md