Hexagex

Hexagexes are regexes using hexadecimals and bits for matching binary data.

The syntax is mostly the same as in the regex crate, but the literals have been replaced:

• 0-9, a-f: 4-bits sequences interpreted as base 16 numbers
• .: 4-bit wildcard
• O, I: 1-bit value corresponding to 0 and 1
• _: 1-bit wildcard
• ^, $: these match the start and end of the text, not of the line
• \t: this is an escape to interprete the content immediately after it into a non-hexagex regular regex

A hexagex binary can be compiled with cargo build that allows one to find matches with hexagex [exp] [file].

Examples

• 01020304: match the bytes [1, 2, 3, 4]
• ([2-7].){5,}00: match bytes from 0x20 to 0x7f of length at least 5 with a null terminator
• I_I_I_I_|_O_O_O_O: match bytes that have all even bits set or odd bits unset
• [0-69CEF][6-F]|[0EF]0|[23EF]2|[0-37-F]3|[018ACDEF]4|D[67]|(.1|[78AD]I___|[0-69CEF]5|[2-79]4|[4-8A-D][02]|[78A][67]|92)..|(B[4-F]|[01]2|[1239]0|[456]3|[78D]5)....: match 8051 instructions