# yara-parser

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

A Go library for manipulating YARA rulesets with the ability to programatically change metadata, rule names, and more.

Checked October 2026.

## What is yara-parser?

yara-parser is a Go library for manipulating YARA rulesets. Its key feature is that it uses the same grammar and lexer files as the original libyara to ensure that lexing and parsing work exactly like YARA. The grammar and lexer files have been modified to fill Go data structures for ruleset manipulation instead of compiling rulesets for data matching. Using yara-parser, one will be able to read YARA rulesets to programatically change metadata, rule names, rule modifiers, tags, strings, and more. The ability to serialize rulesets to JSON for rule manipulation in other languages is provided with the y2j tool. Similarly, j2y provides JSON-to-YARA conversion, but do see Limitations below. Installation For the following go get commands, if you experience any issues, they are likely due to outdated versions of Go. The project uses features introduced in Go 1.10. Installation should proceed normally after an update. To install (or update) everything at once, the following command can be used: go get -u github.com/Northern-Lights/yara-parser/... y2j: YARA to JSON Use the following command to install the y2j command for converting YARA rulesets to JSON. go get -u github.com/Nor

Tags: Rule Engine, YARA

## 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: 85
- 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).

## yara-parser FAQ

### What is yara-parser?

yara-parser is a product in the Detection Engineering category. It covers Rule Engine and YARA.

### What is the pricing for yara-parser?

yara-parser is free. Download and setup instructions are at https://github.com/Northern-Lights/yara-parser/.

### What are alternatives to yara-parser?

Alternatives to yara-parser 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. [Defender Lens](https://cybersectools.com/tools/defender-lens) - Turn Any Threat into a Detection Rule (Commercial)

Compare all yara-parser alternatives at [https://cybersectools.com/alternatives/yara-parser](https://cybersectools.com/alternatives/yara-parser)

### What deployment and organization size does yara-parser fit?

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

## Compare yara-parser with similar solutions

- [yara-parser vs Google Security Operations](https://cybersectools.com/compare/google-security-operations-vs-yara-parser)
- [yara-parser vs Defender Lens](https://cybersectools.com/compare/defender-lens-vs-yara-parser)

All alternatives to yara-parser: [/alternatives/yara-parser](https://cybersectools.com/alternatives/yara-parser)

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Source: https://cybersectools.com/tools/yara-parser

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